Style Guide for Management Project Report

The first page of the report is the title page. It should include the title of the report (typed in all capital letters), the author’s name (all capitals), course title and number, date, home and office phone numbers, E-mail address, and disclaimer statement at the bottom of the page. All of the above should be centered. The next page should be the Table of Contents as specified in the Syllabus. An example of a disclaimer statement is:

“The information presented in this report was gathered by XXXX, management majors at The University of Akron’s College of Business Administration, for the purpose of a field-based research project. The content or conclusions should not be relied on solely to initiate management actions, policies, legal positions, structure/process changes, etc. The report was prepared only for the reader’s general information. The opinions and conclusions of the report have been formed from students’ evaluation of the issue in question, information provided by the participating firm, and a review of the literature, and should be viewed accordingly.”

The body of the report begins with the Introduction and page numbering should begin here with page 1. Page numbering should continue through all pages, including those with references, appendixes, tables, and figures. Group these, in the order just given, on separate pages at the end of the report.

If you are using Microsoft WORD, review the use of styles and headings. Marking each heading as such will allow for easy generation of the Table of Contents and consistency throughout the report.Main headings should be used to designate the major sections of the report. Main headings should be centered on the page and typed in all capitals. Example:

INTRODUCTION

Secondary headings should be typed flush with the left margin, in small letters, with major words beginning with capitals, and underlined. Example:

Third level or paragraph headings should begin with a standard paragraph indention and be typed in small letters, with only the initial word capitalized, underlined, and followed by a period. The text should follow on the same line. Example:

Useful tables and figures do not duplicate the text; they supplement and clarify it. All tables and figures should be referenced at least once in the body of your report.

Type each table, double-spaced, on a separate page. Group tables after appendixes. If there is no appendix, tables follow the references. Each table should have the word TABLE (typed in all caps) and its number (Arabic numerals) centered at the top. The table’s title should be in capital and small letters and centered on the page directly under the table number. Example:

TABLE 2

Results of Survey

Number tables consecutively from the beginning to the end of the report. Indicate each table’s position in the text as follows:

Figures are illustrations, not tables. Figures should be numbered and titled like tables (see above) and grouped after the tables in manuscript. Indicate each figure’s position in the report in the same way as each table’s position.

Giving proper credit to sources of original ideas and previous work is an important aspect of good scholarship. Inappropriate or inaccurate citations do not do justice to the authors cited and can be misleading to readers. Not providing a citation for others’ ideas and for quotations is considered plagiarism, a form of dishonesty.

Citations are made within the text by providing the name(s) of the author(s) and the date of publication of the article; the page number is given for exact quotes and when specific arguments or findings of authors are paraphrased or summarized.

At the beginning of a paraphrase or a quotation, provide an introduction to the author(s). For example:

Smith (1999) conducted a study that supported her claim that companies have increased their investment in training. Adams (1974) has said that writing a book is “a long and arduous task” (p. 3). Several studies (Adams, 1974; Brown & Hales, 1975, 1980; Collins, Jones & Waterford, 1976a, 1976b) support this conclusion.

Please note above the use of alphabetical order for multiple citations that support one point, and the use ampersands for two or three authors. Also note that two or more works by the same author, or by an identical group of authors, published in the same year are distinguished by “a,” “b,” etc. added after the year, both in the citation and in the reference list. Never change the order that the authors’ names appear in the original article.

If a work has two authors, give both names every time the work is cited in the text. If a work has more than two authors, give all authors the first time it is cited in subsequent citations, include only the names of the first author, “et al.,” and the year. Example:

However, for works with six or more authors, use only the name of the first author and “et al.” whenever the work is cited. Also, use all the authors if using “et al.” would lead to confusion with another work in your reference list. Put yourself in the position of the reader who is trying to follow your chain of reasoning back to the original sources.

An alphabetically ordered list of works cited in the text, the references, should be included at the end of the report. References should begin on a separate page headed REFERENCES. Continue the pagination.

Entries in the list of references should be alphabetized by the last name of the author (Jones, Smith), the name of the organization (U.S. Census Bureau) or periodical name (Wall Street Journal) if there is no indication of individual authors or editors. Several references by an identical author (or group of authors) are ordered by year of publication, with the earliest listed first. If the year of publication is also the same (and all the authors are identical, in the same order), differentiate references by adding small letters (“a,” “b,” etc.) after the year. Authors’ names are repeated for each entry in the reference list.

Book entries in the list of references follow this form: Authors’ or Editors’ Last Names, Initials, Year. Title of book. (Book titles are italicized and typed in lower case letters except for the first letter of the first word and the first word after a colon.) City Where Published, State or Country (add only if needed to identify the city and use U.S. Postal Services abbreviations for states): Name of Publisher. Please note and follow the punctuation used in these and subsequent examples:

Kahn, R. L., & Boulding, E. (Eds.). 1964. Power and conflict in organizations. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

Katz, D., & Kahn, R. L. 1978. The social psychology of organizations (2^nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

Macrop, P., Jamron, F., & Acer, P. 1999. Internet business models. San Jose, CA: Free Press.

U.S. Department of Labor Statics. 1976-83. Employment and earnings. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Journal article entries follow this form: Authors’ Last Names, Initials. Year. Titles of the article or paper (in lower case letters except for the first letter of the first word and first word after a colon). Name of Periodical, volume number (issue number): page numbers. Examples:

Fry, L. W., & Slocum, J. W., Jr. 1984. Technology, structures, and workgroup effectiveness: A test of a contingency model. Academy of Management Journal, 27: 221-246.

Goggin, W. C. 1974. How the multidimensional structure works at Dow Corning. Harvard Business Review, 55(1): 54-65.

Include an issue number only if a periodical’s pages are not numbered consecutively throughout a volume -- that is, if each issue begins with a page numbered “1.”

If a periodical article has no author, treat the name of the periodical like a corporate author, in both citations and references. Example:

There is fear that Social Security rates may rise (Wall Street Journal, 1984).

Wall Street Journal. 1984. Inflation rate may cause Social Security increase. September 24: 14.

Chapters in books follow this form: Authors’ Last Names, Initials. Year. Title chapter (in lowercase letters except for the first letter of the first word and the first word after the colon). In Editors’ Initials and Last Names (Eds.), Title of book: page numbers. City Where Published, State or Country (only if necessary to identify the city): Name of Publisher. Examples:

Berg, N. A. 1973. Corporate role in diversified companies. In B. Taylor & I. MacMillan (Eds.), Business Policy: Teaching and research: 298-347. New York: Wiley.

Roberts, F. S. 1976. Strategy for the energy crises: The case of commuter transportation policy. In R. Axelrod (Ed.), Structure of decision: 142-179. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

As with any published reference, the goals of electronic references are to credit the author and to enable the reader to find the material. The researcher has immediate access to a wealth of information but must consider the reader’s access to that material: Will the information be available to the reader even if the reader follows a given retrieval path, or the will material soon be difficult to obtain? Is the information widely accessible only via a campus’s local network? If print forms and electronic forms of the material are the same, a reference for the print form currently is preferred. If electronic and print versions are not the same, and you researched the electronic form, then reference what you used. When you retrieve something from OhioLink, you are retrieving an image of the print form. You need not indicate that the source was OhioLink, but may just reference it as the printed journal. What follows are some models for formatting the main elements of on-line resources. The University of Akron Library maintains links to pages that specify how to do this. See: http://www.uakron.edu/library/instruction/citesource.htm

Electronic correspondence, such as E-mail messages and conversation via bulletin boards and electronic discussion groups, is cited as personal communication in the text.

Author, I., Author, I., & Author, I. (date). Title of Web Page (on-line). Available: Specify path. (Current on: Specify date retrieved.)

· FOLLOW References section for format of the author, date, and title elements.

· The date element should indicate the year of publication or, if the source undergoes regular revision, the most recent update; if a date cannot be determined, provide an exact date of your search.

· An available statement replaces the location and name of the publisher typically provided for text references. Provide information sufficient to retrieve the material. Do not just give the URL of the whole site (such as www.ibm.com). Give the specific URL where you located this page in such a way that typing it into the browser will take the reader directly there.

University of Akron Library. (2001). How to cite sources. Available: http://www.uakron.edu/library/instruction/citesource.htm (Current on: Jan. 10, 2001)

Central Vein Occlusion Study Group. (1993, October 2) . Central vein occlusion study of photo coagulation: Manual of operations. On-line Journal of Current Clinical Trials [on-line serial]. Available: Doc. No. 92

· Because paths are available only for subscribers, provide a document number or accession number retrieval.

VanDorn, C. (1999). Internet survey research: a tutorial. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 3. Available: http:/www.jcmc.com/vol3/vandorn.html (Current: Jan. 10, 2001).

· Follow References section for format of the author, date, and title elements.

· After the title of the work, insert in brackets as part of the title elements (i.e., before the period) the type of medium for the material (current examples include CD-ROM, electronic data tape, cartridge tape, and computer program).

· Include the location and name of the producer and the distributor if citing an entire bibliographic database.

National Health Interview Survey--Current Health topics: 1991--Longitudinal study of aging (Version 4) [Electronic data tape]. (1992). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics [Producer and Distributor].

· Give as the authors the primary contributors (e.g., the designers of the survey or study).

· Give as the data of the publication the year copies of the data file or database were first made generally available.

· Give the title, and, in brackets immediately after the title, identify the source as an electronic data file or database. Do not use a period between the title and the bracketed material. (If the work has no title, in brackets provide a complete description of content, including the year the data were collected).

· Give the location and name of the producer (the person or organization that encoded the data) and the location and name of the distributor (the person or the organization from which the copies of the file can be obtained). In parentheses immediately after the names, write Producer and Distributor, respectively.

Author, I. (date). Title of article [CD-ROM]. Title of Journal, xx, xxx-xxx. Abstract from: Source and retrieval number

Meyer, A. S., & Bock, K. (1992). The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: Blocking or partial activation? Abstract? [CD-ROM]. Memory & Cognition, 20, 715-726. Abstract from: Silverplatter File: PsycLIT Item: 80-16351

Bower, D. L. (1993). Employee assistant programs supervisory referrals; Characteristics of referring and nonreferring supervisors [CD-ROM]. Abstract from: ProQuest File: Dissertation Abstracts Item: 9315947

Bender report [Computer software]. (1993). Melbourne, FL: Pyschometric software.

Breckler, S. J., & Pratkanis, A. R. (1985). Experiment Command and Interpreter for the IBM personal computer [Computer Programming Language]. Baltimore: Authors.

Miller, M .E. (1993). The Interactive Tester (Version 4.0) [Computer software]. Westminster, CA: Psytek Services

Present lengthy but essential methodological details, such as explanations of the calculation of measures, in an appendix or appendixes. The material should be in as condensed a form as possible but not in a table format. Entitle a single appendix APPENDIX, typed in all caps; multiple appendixes are titled and ordered alphabetically: APPENDIX A, APPENDIX B, etc. A content title should also be given: APPENDIX A, Turnover for 1999.

STYLE GUIDE FOR MANAGEMENT PROJECT REPORT

Title Page, Table of Contents, Page Numbering

Title Page, Table of Contents, Page Numbering

INTRODUCTION

Results of Survey