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MAOL Writing Guidelines

Every written work communicates. Good writing presents information that is readily understood by the appropriate audience. Ask God for help before you begin. Each submission will follow these guidelines unless instructed otherwise. Contact your professor promptly if you have a question.

Communicating

All work should show detailed use of the program concepts and professionally apply related ideas. This includes thorough discussion of appropriate insights to support "how" and "why" questions. Offered content should add insight to context, structure and levels of analysis processed by the student and the professor for both to gain understanding of presented ideas. Every submission must be written well. This includes, as appropriate:

  • A clear beginning that sets up the main theme and structure of the document and convinces the audience to engage it.
  • A coherent body structured to guide the audience through the author's reasoning and understanding or position.
  • Biblical concepts drawn accurately from their surrounding scriptural context, applied aptly in the presented text, and used discretely to support what is written.
  • Accurate grammar, spelling, punctuation, fluency and flow of phrases, transitions, appropriate citations, and other stylistic needs.
  • An persuasive ending that calls for action based on acceptance of the document's premise.
  • Professional use of word processing and other software to manage formatting.

APA Writing Style: Each paper must conform to APA writing style guidelines unless instructed otherwise. Below are several resources that should help you get started and see how it's done:

Letter of Transmittal. A letter of transmittal informs the recipient of the intended purpose for what is being sent and why it should receive consideration. Examples include cover letters accompanying reports and resumes. If you submit coursework via email, use the email message as your letter of transmittal. For submissions via a drop box, use the comment area. In a file exchange area, you might include a phrase with the name. The transmittal acts as a cover letter. Typically a transmittal letter states what the attached material is for plus any related necessary information. Your letter shorter than one page in length unless you specifically need additional space for required guidelines. Reports always go to key decision makers, so write transmittal letters specifically to them. Establish the tone for how your work will be received. If necessary, you might wish to use the opportunity to note important benefits, findings or repair problem issues. An example might be a brief statement of how your research or interview skills improved while working on the project.

Audience. Each assessment requires that you address the appropriate audience, and convince them to accept your stance on specific issues. If a submission is to vary from the anticipated audience, it will be identified in the instructions. It is important to maintain consistent focus on writing to a specific audience. So much so, that successful authors sometimes write to as if they are communicating to a specific person and later alter the phrasing if necessary.

Case Studies provide simulated opportunities to develop solutions that resolve the kinds of problems that accompany organizational leadership. A case analysis allows people to act as decision makers to develop solutions to real world scenarios in compressed time without possible negative consequences. Here are directions for how to prepare a case study of an organizational scenario.

Professional Consulting Reports clarify or substantiate what decision makers find obscure or not believed within their organizations. The consultant uses available gifts, skills, and abilities to perceive what is occurring, then collects and interprets available data, and presents specific, viable, problem-solving instruction in the form of reported choices to decision makers. Here are directions for how to prepare a consulting report.

Movie Assessments. Movies provide scenarios. They can organize relationships into useful frameworks, engage belief patterns and help people understand how leadership engages organizations. Particular benefits to assessing movies include providing repeatable situations, removing the time and expense of field study, and facilitating appreciation of external ideas to expand understandings of real world situations. Here are directions for how to assess a movie.

Visual and Audio media can expand text presentations to convey understanding, emotion and purpose across organizational time and distance boundaries with widely available tools and methods. Multimedia presentations have become sufficiently common that some practice of how to accomplish them well is a necessary organizational leadership skill to master. Here are directions for how to prepare a presentation.

Popular Press Articles target the "populace." Magazine articles should be written to the magazine editor and focused on the magazine's audience. A popular press book should be written to the publisher's audience.
Select one magazine (or book publisher), and locate their author's manuscript submission guidelines. Read the author's guidelines, and compose your writing according to those guidelines. These might not be Turabian. If you cannot locate the author's guidelines, then review the feature articles (or books) to determine the required writing style for acceptable submissions. Always follow the author guidelines of the publisher when attempting to compose documents to meet their criteria. Be prepared to furnish proof of doing so to the grading professor. The professor will use the author's guidelines to evaluate the writing style you use. Be certain to include an appropriate letter of transmittal with your submission. Clearly indicate (a) the selected magazine or book publisher, (b) the URL of the magazine author's manuscript submission guidelines or a copy of the actual guidelines, and (c) an acknowledgement that the article you are submitting fits those guidelines. If you could not locate the author's guidelines, then include support for your understanding of the author guidelines.

Research Reports provide you with opportunities to address actual organizational issues, and develop purposeful counsel for their leadership. Experience writing these reports facilitates moving beyond ethereal exercises and promotes substantial professional practice. Here are directions for how to prepare a research report.