Business Basics: Writing styles for business

Brief introduction to library resources for general business questions.

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About writing styles for business

Writers in the fields of business generally use APA (American Psychological Association), or AMA (American Management Association). This page provides links to a few resources for them.

APA:

Excelsior OWL - APA Style
Open the + menus in the left margin to find guidance and examples for different source types.
Business sources in APA 7th ed. citation style
Really nice examples of cites to business sources. Not from the "official" APA, but created by a group of business librarians to follow APA 7 guidelines as closely as possible with non-standard, non-academic business sources.
Use the left-margin menu to look for sources in an A-Z list (e.g. Ad$pender, e-Statement Studies, MarketLine, Mergent, SRDS, etc.)
Citing Business Databases & Government Data in APA Format, Steve Cramer (UNC-Greensboro))
Good explanations and examples. See his Research Guide for links directly to specific resource examples.
APA Formatting and Style Guide (The OWL at Purdue)
One of many excellent sources from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University.
How to Cite Financial Documents in APA Format
Nicely spelled out ...
How to cite ChatGPT?
A blogpost from the APA itself about how to cite ChatGPT. It discusses "situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript."

AMA:

AMA - Business Writing Solutions
Although this online content really will not replace the books on AMA style, there are some general tips on writing here. There are also more general tips on communication.

AMA guides

AMA Handbook of Business Writing by Kevin Wilson; Jennifer Wauson
Call Number: HF 5726 .W55 2010
Location: Memorial level 4 upper
Publication Date: 2010
Available in both print and online (unlimited users).
Check Marqcat record for print copy availability.
AMA Handbook of Business Documents by Kevin Wilson; Jennifer Wauson
Call Number: HF 5726 .W53 2011
Location: Memorial level 4 upper
Publication Date: 2011
Available in both print and online (single user license).
Check Marqcat record for print copy availability.
Style Guide for Business Writing by Thomsett, Michael C.
Call Number: Online only
Publication Date: 2018
Unlimited users.
2nd edition of the AMA Style Guide to Business Writing.
How to Write Fast under Pressure by Philip Vassallo
Call Number: HF5718.3 .V368 2010 -- Location: Memorial level 4 upper
Publication Date: 2010
For O'Reilly ebook, click on "Institution not listed" and enter your email address. Unlimited user license for ebook. Check MARQCAT record for print availability.

APA guides

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by American Psychological Association
The official APA manual for formatting papers and citing sources.
See MARQCAT record for details on editions, locations and copies available.
APA 7 published in 2019; APA 6 published in 2010.
APA Style Guide to Electronic References
The 2012 edition of how to cite electronic sources; supersedes citation style guidelines in the Publication Manual. Marquette students, faculty and staff may download a PDF copy from this link.

How to cite ChatGPT?
A blogpost from the APA itself about how to cite ChatGPT. It discusses "situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript."