Policy Research
Good morning. My name is Dr. Fred Galletti and I am an adjunct professor teaching in the Nursing program at OU. I was just wondering if OU has a "paper writing policy" of any kind. I am doing some research project on policies in an attempt to gain insight into policies on writing papers and the relationship to student understanding. Thanks so much.
Best regards,
Fred Galletti
Fred L. Galletti, DNS, RN
Doctor of Nursing Science
Associate Professor of Nursing
St. Joseph’s College of Nursing
206 Prospect Street
Syracuse, New York 13203
Phone: 315-448-5591
Fax: 315-448-5745
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Answer
Hello Fred
Thanks for your question about writing styles at OU. We don't have a written paper writing policy at OU, but for years there has been an agreed upon unspoken "policy" in place that encourages students who take classes at OU at a distance to use APA style for writing their papers.
Please be aware that this policy does not hold in many of the departments here on the Main campus when working with undergraduate students, because the English and the History Department prefers MLA and Chicago Style while other departments like Psychology and Business use APA style for their student papers because this is the style of their discipline; and the Sciences has often been known to use a specific Scientific Style chosen by a faculty member relating to discipline, rather than another style type. I know this is confusing and conflicting but overall APA is the "preferred style" at OU. I do hope this helps. This is also why if you go to http://ottawa.libguides.com you will find that we have libguides that cover apa, mla and chicago styles available to students. (You might not believe this, but years ago there used to be an Ottawa style that existed. I am so glad that is dead in the water.) If you went to an OU Handbook, you would not find any guidance on writing style because nothing has been formally written up in this regard, but it is "accepted" that APA has won in most situations at OU even though that style might not fit the discipline that has chosen to adopt it.
Best regards
Gloria Creed-Dikeogu, Ph.D
Director of Library Services