The first part of developing a strategic marketing plan is analyzing the forces that affect the business’s marketing efforts. Access the Strategic Marketing Plan Template and complete Wk 2 - Part
APA FORMATTING BASICS
Margins: Page set-up should reflect 1” margins on all sides.
Font: Use a serif font, preferably Times New Roman, with size set at 12-point. Use a sans serif font (e.g., Arial or Helvetica) at 12-point for all wording in figures.
Indentation & Alignment: The first line of each paragraph should be indented five spaces (use tab key). Exceptions to this include abstracts and block quotes. Left align all text except for particular heading titles. Do not right and left justify or hyphenate words.
Spacing: The entire paper should be double-spaced including the reference list, figures, tables, quotations, titles, and headings. Do not add an extra line after a paragraph or before new headings.
Etcetera: Avoid using the term. It is the written equivalent of blah, blah, blah.
Contractions: Avoid using contractions (e.g., can’t, won’t, doesn’t) in formal writing.
Avoid using run-on expressions in academic writing. Run on expressions include phrases such as 'and so forth', 'and so on' or 'etc'. Try to complete the sentence properly; do not use these if you can avoid them.
Avoid writing the whole information in a single paragraph.
Paragraph Length: As a general rule, paragraphs should be a minimum of three sentences long. No paragraph should be only one sentence. On the flip side of this, be aware of run-on paragraphs. Paragraphs should generally not fill entire pages. Divide up the information into organized sub-sections.
Use headings (level one and two) for a better flow and understanding of the information.
Reference Page: The reference page always begins on the top of the next page after the conclusion to assist readers in identifying and retrieving sources. Only include references for material cited in your paper. The word References is upper and lower case, centered, bolded, at the top of the page.
Items in your reference list should be listed alphabetically by the first author’s surname. The list is double spaced and formatted using a hanging indent (i.e., the second line of each item is indented five spaces). There are five core elements to each listing:
Element One = author (s)
Element Two = year
Element Three = title of article/ chapter (not Italics)
Element Four = name of journal/ book (Italics)
Element Five = publisher name
Sources are never cited or referenced by the URL
Capitalization: Note that only the first word of a book or article title is capitalized. If the title has a colon, then the first word after the colon is capitalized as well. Each word in the title of a journal is capitalized. Proper nouns are always capitalized.
Italics: Use italics for titles of books, periodicals, and reports (not articles).
Front page information (APA, 7th edition):
Title of the Paper (bolded)
(blank space)
Student Name
Course/Number
Institution Name
Due Date
Faculty Name
Front page: Use upper and lower case letters, centered between the left and right margins, and positioned on the upper half of the page. Use black, 12point Times New Roman font throughout. Arial and Courier font types are acceptable.
Increased flexibility regarding fonts: options include Calibri 11, Arial 11, Lucida Sans Unicode 10, Times New Roman 12, and Georgia 11.
Headings
APA Headings
All APA formatted documents use headings that show your readers how your paper is organized by labeling the parts and by indicating which parts are equally important and which are subordinate to others.
For a complete treatment of the politics of headings, take a look at the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, sixth edition (2010), pages 62-63. Reference: APA Headings
Headings give structure to your writing. They not only tell the reader what content to expect but also speak to its relative position within a hierarchy. The APA Publication Manual (section 3.03, pp. 62–63; see also the sample papers) gives guidelines for up to five levels of heading in a paper, although most papers will need only two, three, or four.
A heading should be spaced closer to the text that follows (and that it describes) than the preceding section to avoid confusion for the reader.
After the initial heading, using a level two heading for each parameter would help the reader to better understand the arguments presented.
