APA – Why Learn it?

So we all need to raise money and a properly written grant improves the chances of getting one. APA requires you to organize your thoughts, document your facts as your go, and keep a record that is easy to navigate of where you got your information.

That is exactly what you need to do to get a grant- a thesis statement of why they should give you money, have supporting evidence from reliable sources that your facts are correct and support your position, a thoroughly developed idea, and a strong conclusion.  Your grants won’t be written in the APA format but if you answer all of their questions or organize your thoughts using the APA format first you will find grant writing a whole lot easier.

So lets start with the thesis statement – what is it?

The Purdue website http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/1 is a great place to start.

Before you write your thesis statement you need to decide what kind of paper your writing. Yes that holds true for grants too.

Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement

1.Determine what kind of paper you are writing:

• An analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.
• An expository (explanatory) paper explains something to the audience.
• An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with specific evidence. The claim could be an opinion, a policy proposal, an evaluation, a cause-and-effect statement, or an interpretation. The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided.

If you are writing a text which does not fall under these three categories (ex. a narrative), a thesis statement somewhere in the first paragraph could still be helpful to your reader.

2. Your thesis statement should be specific—it should cover only what you will discuss in your paper and should be supported with specific evidence.

3. The thesis statement usually appears at the end of the first paragraph of a paper.

4. Your topic may change as you write, so you may need to revise your thesis statement to reflect exactly what you have discussed in the paper.

For examples please visit the Purdue page http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/1

So for those of you who are in Advanced Placement classes you may have experienced APA formatting, for those who aren’t don’t worry you will when you get to college. Personally I hate APA format but it is the standard for all scientific papers and journals so you might as well learn it. a really good site is the Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide They will walk you through it. For those who like to read or for a quick reference this is the site to go to. For those who like to see a video, or want to see a video before they try reading the first site go to ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV3fD9QkyiA&feature=related and watch “ APA Sixth Edition – How to Format Your Documents at AIU ” Be warned – THIS IS DRY MATERIAL – but it is crucial to know so hang in there and follow the directions. Don’t know when you’d ever use APA? Did you look at the example of a business plan posted by Skunk Works? Business_Plan_2.0_(Website_FINAL) Check them out and there will be another one next week. Let us know if there is a subject you’d like us to address. We’d also appreciate hearing what you think about this article too.

                    Thanks from Team 1432