Part 1
My previous experience with APA writing is very limited, although I do require writing a number of business documents in my current employment. I would describe myself as an amateur with lots to learn.
The importance of learning the APA scholarly style of writing in the context of my leadership in an indigenous business include:
- It’s important that former knowledge be respected and acknowledged by giving credit to the author or research contributor/participant. This knowledge in an indigenous setting can have impacts on indigenous rights and title. For example when putting together traditional knowledge, references that include former academic publications is often used as evidence.
- Using the APA style encourages one to take an objective approach to any given topic. As a leader in my organization decisions can impact employees and community. These decisions can be detrimental if not carefully thought through.
- APA serves as a good reminder that the answers to some questions require time and thorough investigation. By presenting a clear and precise analysis, often the right decision or direction will reveal itself.
- In a leadership role one will be subjected to judgement based on their writing skills. Learning to keep to the point and be concise in writing is essential.
- A leader can be required to write extensive reports, tenders or other documents. These documents can be shared with employees or with shareholders and again instills a level of confidence if properly formatted.
- Often leaders are responsible for company liability and do not want to find themselves or the company they are working for in a plagiarism legal problem. By following APA guidelines this can be avoided.
- My organization has been working with scholarly people in putting a traditional knowledge document together which is intended to be published in the near future. I look forward to now to going back to this document and determine if APA formatting was followed.
Part 2
Areas of weaknesses in my writing is knowing the correct APA formatting style intuitively. I believe this will come with time, however to be accurate I will utilize the tools available to ensure it is correctly formatted. Tools such as online resources, textbooks and APA example papers. Another area I would like to learn more about is in conducting research. This is not an area that is a requirement of my current position and so throughout this course I’m looking forward to increasing skills and competency of APA style research.
APA style writing is extensive and covers many professions where research can get quite complex. An example of this I would believe to be in a clinic trial setting in monitoring human behavior. While interesting, it is not an area I can see will benefit me, in my current career path. Are there any books that are specific to APA style writing for business that can be recommended and or utilized as a quick reference document?
