APA Writing Exercise

The Liberty University School of Business wants to ensure that students entering and progressing through the DSL program have a proper understanding of the process and expectations of APA writing, formatting, and style.  The School of Business adheres to APA formatting in all its Assignments.  The purpose of this assignment is to assess and enhance your understanding of APA formatting.

Strategic leadership is not a term that everyone understands.  In this exercise, you are required to discover, document, and compare and contrast three (3) definitions of strategic leadership from three (3) unique scholarly sources.  Using the online Jerry Falwell Library (JFL), draw one definition each from a source found in the following databases:  Business Source Complete, ERIC, and a database of your choosing (not connected to the other two).  Limit your search to the last five (5) years and select only from sources that are full-text – PDF.

Write a 750-1000 word double-spaced paper in APA format that evaluates the definitions found in these articles.  Where are they similar?  Where do they differ?  Would you select one as more correct than the others or would you draw pieces from two or more of them to write your own definition?  How would you explain your chosen definition to others?  How would you apply this definition in a work setting?

As part of this project, prepare an annotated bibliography.  The bibliography will be structured as follows: APA formatted reference (minimum 250 words per reference) followed by summary of key points, evaluation of the quality of the publication, evaluation of the quality of the author(s), where this fits into the assignment, and the library database in which you found the article (due Thursday of the assigned week).  The traditional APA reference page will be turned in with the associated paper.

APA Writing Exercise Grading Rubric

Criteria

Levels of Achievement

Advanced

Proficient

Developing

Not Present

Scholarly Source Retrieval

9 to 10 points

Includes three (3) unique sources from three (3) unique databases within proper time frame

1 to 8 points

Does not include three (3) unique sources from three (3) unique databases within proper time frame

0 points

Did not submit

Length of Paper

5 points

Paper meets or exceeds assignment length requirements

4 points

Paper meets 85% of assignment length requirement

1 to 3 points

Word count is less than 85% of requirement.

0 points

Did not submit

Content of Paper -

24 to 25 points

Paper contains all of the required content and analyses

20 to 23 points

Paper mostly contains all of the required content and analyses

1 to 19 points

Paper contains little of the required content and analyses

0 points

Did not submit

Annotated Bibliography

14 to 15 points

Each entry contains all of the required elements

11 to 13 points

Each entry contains most of the required elements

1 to 10 points

Each entry contains less than most of the required elements or some entries are complete while others are not

0 points

Did not submit

Quality of Writing; APA Format

9 to 10 points

No notable spelling and/or  grammar errors; format is easy to follow; proper APA format

7 to 8 points

Minimal spelling and/or grammar errors; format is generally easy to follow; generally proper APA format

1 to 6 points

Significant spelling and/or grammar errors; format is not easy to follow; proper APA format not used

0 points

Did not submit