Good afternoon Scott.
My name is Julius. I am a recently-enrolled student at Kaplan online. I am desperately seeking knowledge, information, or to be pointed in the right direction in regards to acquiring some useful study guides or references in completing this business degree. While I have many strengths and currently am an employee of the Federal Government (FEMA), one of my weak areas is distance learning as it relates to researching and composing papers online.
This may not have been a setback for some and even not a big issue for you. But I would definitely appreciate any "books", study guides, reference tools or resources that might help me in being able to format, compose properly and learn the rules when writing a college paper for a business classes. Thank you so very much.
This is a great question. When people get into a DL program, they are not always familiar with the tools and skills needed to be successful. I hope this guide can help you and others.
First, Kaplan (and many other online schools I’ve heard about) wants the students to write papers in APA format. This is a common format. Formatting a paper to be 100% compliant with APA format can be difficult and time consuming if you are doing it manually. Even if you read a book (which I suggest you do anyway), it can be a bit confusing.
I suggest you get one or more of the APA template wizards for MS Word 2003. Some of them cost money, some of them are free. I have both. It’s money well spent. These templates format your paper for you and allow you to put the required information in them with little hassle. Furthermore, there are online citation tools such as Son of Citation Machine. This will help out tremendously.
Second, Kaplan and other institutions are still using Microsoft Word 2003. This is the standard across the board. The reason this is the case is because Microsoft Word 2007 saves the documents in a format that is NOT readable by Word 2003. You can do a “Save As” to save it in Word 2003 format, but some people (including myself) have overlooked that a time or two.
Google and Amazon.com are going to be your best resources for this. I have provided some links below that will get you started with APA format.
The next suggestion I have is that when you know what class you are going to be enrolling in, go to the library or Half Price Books (if you have one in your area) and get some additional reading material on the subject you are taking. I have found that not only does this provide me with additional sources in my school work (you will have to list many external sources in your work at Kaplan), but it will also help you gain a better understanding of the topic. Go above and beyond what is required. You will be better off for it.
I hope this helps you out.
Links:
APA Format on Google
Son of Citation Machine
APA Software on Google
FREE Templates for APA