The biggest gripe students tend to have when it comes to an academic paper is how much time it takes out of their lives to do it. Admittedly, this gripe is pretty justified: between proper formatting, blocks, citations, research, and the actual writing, it can take a lot of time and effort to craft a paper worthy of a high grade. Thankfully, we live in the marvelous age of technology, and by its merits, the process of writing a paper has become much easier; and a lot quicker.
1. Formatting
APA, MLA, Chicago Style: there are many different ways to format different papers based on what different professors want. Trying to keep them all memorized is a major hassle, especially since the differences in these formats tend to be rather minor. Each of these formats expects you to cite your sources in a certain way, use certain indentation in particular places, and organize your business paper in a certain fashion. And depending on how much of a stickler your professor is, small mistakes in any of these areas could cost you points.
Thankfully, there are dozens, if not hundreds of reliable sites around the internet that will provide you with examples of each of these formats so you can get it right yourself.
One of the most reliable sources out there is the Purdue Online Writing Lab, which we’ll provide a link to at the bottom of this section. The Purdue Online Writing Lab, or Purdue ‘OWL,’ goes into incredible detail on the proper way to format APA, MLA, Chicago, and even AMA papers. The site goes so far as to have a detailed section on how to properly cite your sources based on their point of origin, from periodicals to motion pictures. On top of that, it covers less well-known parts of formatting, such as footnotes and endnotes for all of these format styles. Purdue OWL also goes so far as to provide general tips for writing papers in general, provides sample papers for each format, and has numerous FAQs. If you’re unsure of how to format anything at all in your paper, the Purdue Online Writing Lab is the place to go.
2. The Right Blocks
When it comes to writing a business letter, plan, or another piece of writing, you’re expecting to use certain blocks. The block you’re supposed to use varies, as there are default means of doing it, just called the ‘block’ style. However, there is also a modified block, indented block, and a few others. The type of block you’ll be expected to use in your paper is mostly dependent on what your professor wants. Much like the various different formats mentioned previously, it can be a real hassle to pick out the differences in all of these block styles, as they are once again quite similar, with only a few discrepancies.
Fortunately, like everything else you could ever need to know, there are many sources online that can provide you with examples of how to successfully employ all of the block formats. As a general rule, you can trust university websites to give you the most accurate and detailed examples and guidelines, though these block styles are so common that it is unlikely any site could lead you astray by accident. Be that as it may, we’ve listed a couple of sites below with detailed examples of the different block formats for your convenience.
3. General Tips
The most tedious parts of business plans or letters are by far the aforementioned formatting and blocks, but if you require guidance on the general concept of writing either of these, you thankfully aren’t starved for choice in that respect either. There are many business oriented websites that have guides and examples of well-written business plans and letters. Seeing as how these sites are often run by businesses themselves, you can generally trust them to know what they’re talking about. At any rate, they are definitely more reliable than something general like WikiHow.
If you’re at a loss in regards to starting your business plan, making it worthwhile, or just how to go about constructing one, you can find a great deal of aid at reliable business-oriented sites like Entrepreneur.com or Forbes. Business is a somewhat different beast than the other subjects you may have to write papers on, so it is in your best interest to get the insight and advice of people that actually have experience in business: preferably people who actually run one. Forbes and Entrepreneur are the best options.
4. Valuable Student Resources
Business is an admittedly difficult subject when it comes to writing. Unlike writing a paper in any other subject, there are specific ways to go about it, and proper ways to execute them. It can be tough to get it right all the time, and even if you can, it can often be tiresome. But even though business is one of the harder writing subjects, there are still online writing services that can help students produce quality business papers. AdvancedWriters.com is one such place that provides affordable writing assistance to students, and it’s a great place to get a fresh perspective on your subject or get help writing the paper itself. If all else fails, a writing service like AdvancedWriters.com with expert business plan writers might be what you need to make your custom business plan a success.
