APA COURSE MANUAL

FOR
MM, MBA, EMBA, MME STUDENTS AND ALL MSM’S OUTREACH STUDENTS

Prepared by Dr. Terry Kakeeto

Assistant Professor in Marketing
Maastricht School of Management (MSM)

September 2019

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3
2.0 Session 1 - APA Writing Workshop......................................................................................... 3
2.1 Objective ............................................................................................................................. 3
2.2 Content ................................................................................................................................ 3
2.2.1 Plagiarism ...................................................................................................................... 3
2.2.2 Correct citing and referencing .................................................................................. 3
2.2.3 Academic Writing ........................................................................................................ 4
2.3 Quizzes .............................................................................................................................. 4
3.0 Session 2 - Searching for Articles on the Internet ............................................................... 5
3.1 Objective ............................................................................................................................. 5
3.2 Content ................................................................................................................................ 5
3.2.1 Creating awareness about MSM’s databases ........................................................ 5
3.2.2 Searching for relevant articles in the databases .................................................... 5
3.2.3 Exercise .......................................................................................................................... 5
4.0 Session 3 - The Literature Review Table and Methods Review Table .............................. 6
4.1 Objective ............................................................................................................................. 6
4.2 Content ................................................................................................................................ 6
4.2.1 Literature review table ................................................................................................ 6
4.2.2 Methods Review Table ................................................................................................ 6
5.0 Course Materials ..................................................................................................................... 7
6.0 References .............................................................................................................................. 7

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1.0 Introduction
This course manual has been developed for the purpose of training all MM, MBA, EMBA,
MME students and all MSM’s outreach students on the principles of good academic
writing. The course content is designed in a manner that can enable students to
progressively improve their learning both during and after the APA writing workshop. The
manual can be used by all MSM’s instructors, both fulltime and adjunct faculty, to train
our students.

The course manual consists of three sessions as follows: Session 1, Session 2 and Session
3. Students should progress steadily from one session of the course to the next. Thus,
each session should act as a building block for the next session in the sequence. We
assume that each session will be covered in half a day. Below, we describe the
objective and content of each of session.

2.0 Session 1 - APA Writing Workshop

2.1 Objective
To impart awareness, knowledge and skills about APA writing in order to avoid being a
victim of plagiarism.

2.2 Content
The content of this session is as follows:

2.2.1 Plagiarism
- What is plagiarism?
- What do we consider plagiarism?
- Types of plagiarism
- MSM Education and examination regulations regarding plagiarism (Article
3.14[2])
- Causes of plagiarism
o Exercise 1: 5 plagiarism examples – spot the plagiarism in each example.
- How to avoid plagiarism
o Exercise 2 - Test yourself on paraphrasing

2.2.2 Correct citing and referencing

- What does citing mean?
- Options for correct citing
- What is referencing?
- Importance of correct referencing
- Using APA style to reference your work
o Referencing a journal article

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 o Referencing a journal article obtained electronically
o Referencing a book
o Referencing a book chapter
o Referencing an online report
o Referencing a website publication without a clear publication date
o Referencing a website publication without the author’s name
o Referencing an article from a newspaper or magazine
o Referencing an article from a newspaper or magazine without the
author’s name
o Referencing a video clip
- The citing and referencing tool in Word
o Self-Help online websites
Note:
See Handout on the Word Reference Tool. Show students how they can use the word
referencing tool to create in-text citations and a reference list. Thereafter, ask them to
practice on their own.

2.2.3 Academic Writing

- What is academic writing?
- How does academic writing differ from personal writing?
- Characteristics of academic writing
- Recommendations for further reading

2.3 Quizzes
APA Quiz 1 – 11 questions that relate to APA in a general nature

Website link: https://libguides.ru.nl/apaEN/apa-quiz

APA Quiz 2 – 10 questions that relate to APA in a general nature

Website Link: https://www.niu.edu/writingtutorial/style/quizzes/APA.htm

APA Quiz 3 – 10 questions on citations

Website Link: http://royalroads.libwizard.com/citations

APA Quiz 4 – 8 questions on references in general

Website Link: http://royalroads.libwizard.com/reference

APA Quiz 5 – 9 questions on referencing journal articles

Website Link: http://royalroads.libwizard.com/whats_wrong_journal_article

APA Quiz 6 – 9 questions on referencing books

Website Link: http://royalroads.libwizard.com/whats_wrong_reference_edited_book

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APA Quiz 7 – 10 questions on formatting figures

Website Link: http://royalroads.libwizard.com/formatting_figures

APA Quiz 8 – 10 questions on formatting tables

Website Link: http://royalroads.libwizard.com/formatting_tables

3.0 Session 2 - Searching for Articles on the Internet

3.1 Objective
To equip students with basic skills in searching for relevant articles on the internet using
MSM’s databases.

3.2 Content
The content of this session is as follows:
3.2.1 Creating awareness about MSM’s databases
o V-smart Air (Information Center catalogue)
o Business Source Ultimate (EBSCO)
o Regional Business News (EBSCO)
o eBook Business Collection (EBSCO)
o ScienceDirect (Business, management and accounting package)
o Emerald Management Extra 120
o EBSCO Discovery Service
o Company info (accessible at MSM premises only)

3.2.2 Searching for relevant articles in the databases

o Searching with keywords
o Searching within key journals
o Searching with keywords and refining results with available limiters (e.g.,
“publication”)
o Searching through cross-referencing (backward and forward cross-referencing)
o Searching in Google Scholar
Note:
Use the Handout on Literature Search Practicum to take students through each
of the different searching techniques listed above.

3.2.3 Exercise
o Divide students into groups of 4 to 5.
o Ask each group to come up with a topic of interest.
o Each group should search for five articles on a selected topic using EBSCO

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 o Ask each group to summarise the main ideas in each article in a quarter of a
page and to explain the techniques they used to locate the different articles.

4.0 Session 3 - The Literature Review Table and Methods Review Table
4.1 Objective
To create awareness about the importance of using the literature review table and
methods review table as tools for keeping tracking of the articles a student has read
and the similarities or differences among these articles in terms of theoretical concepts
studied, models applied in the study, research setting, data collection methods used,
etc. This will be very helpful when it comes to writing the literature review and
methodology chapters of MSM’s research project.

4.2 Content
The content of this phase is as follows:

4.2.1 Literature review table

o Importance of a literature review table
o Contents of a literature review table
o Example of a literature review table

Exercise

o Each student should search for 5 articles related to the topic he/she is interested
in.
o Ask each student to come up with a literature review table based on these five
articles.

4.2.2 Methods Review Table

o Importance of a methods review table
o Contents of a methods review table
o Example of a methods review table

Exercise

Ask each student to use the five articles above to come up with a methods review
table.

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5.0 Course Materials
o Slides on APA writing
o Handout – Word Reference Tool
o Handout – Literature Search Practicum

6.0 References
o Course slides prepared by Dr. Terry Kakeeto-Aelen
o Handout on Word Reference Tool - prepared by Dr. Jakomijn van Wijk and Ms. Iris
Weijenberg
o Handout on Literature Search Practicum - prepared by Dr. Jakomijn van Wijk and
Ms. Iris Weijenberg
o Website links from Massey University, University of Melbourne, Radbourd
University, Northern Illinois University and Royal Roads University.