In today’s internet-age information is so readily available, causing an increase in instances of plagiarism – especially accidental or ‘responsible’ plagiarism.

The webinar Citation: Using APA & the Bluebook Together helped attendees identify instances where citation is necessary and what reference materials to use and how to properly cite information.

Presented by Brandy Kreisler , Online Instructor at Bryant & Stratton College Online, the webinar specifically covered different field-appropriate citation styles as well as the importance of citation.

Additionally, the webinar highlighted:

If you live your life by the old saying, “those that fail to plan, plan to fail,” there’s an emerging career you may want to check out – Project Management.

What exactly is project management? The Project Management Institute, a globally recognized professional organization, defines it as “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.” That’s a good start, but let’s use an example to bring this definition to life.

Let’s say you are looking to make some home improvements. Whether you want to renovate the kitchen, put on a new roof, or re-carpet the living space, you have to weigh all the alternatives against the timeframe, available budget, and other limiting factors. Once you’ve decided on what you want to improve, you’ll need to plan. Your plan will need to include all the steps to complete the project, a schedule of the work to be completed, evaluating and hiring contractors, getting building permits, and determining a final budget. The next stage is executing the plans. Plan execution can be an exciting time as you are coordinating all the activities and resources as well as monitoring the progress and making adjustments for the changes that are bound to happen. When the project is complete you can enjoy your improved home and revisit your plan to see what went right and what you might change for next time.

From this simple example, you can see that project management involves initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure of an effort with a defined set of goals. To do this successfully, you have to use your knowledge of the problem, skills in planning, tools for estimation, and techniques for supervision.

Is a project management degree right for you? There are several personality tests available to you today that may help you evaluate whether you want to go into project management. The most famous is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI) test, developed during World War II by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers to help women entering the workforce identify jobs where they would be most comfortable and effective.

You can find more information on the MBTI here, or use one of these free alternatives:

However, don’t rely solely on personality tests to determine if project management is for you.  These types of tests can provide some general direction, but a variety of personality types have found success in project management. A true assessment should include both a personality test as well as talking to people who are already in project management to find out if it would be a good fit.

What does it take to be a project management professional? If you are still interested in project management certification, you may be wondering how you can acquire the knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques you need to be successful. Earning a degree with a specialization in project management is the best place to start and this is where Bryant & Stratton College can help.

The curriculum for the General Management BBA Program includes a Specialization in Project Management. Students enrolled in the General Management BBA program have the option to specialize in Project Management. The curriculum combines the majority of the courses from the General Management BBA program coupled with the following Project Management courses:

If you’re interested in learning more, check out this link to request information, get a brochure, or apply today!

As a paralegal student, or as a student who needs to cite a case or a statute in a paper, you may be wondering how to get started.  It may seem overwhelming to have both the Bryant & Stratton College APA Style Guide and the Bluebook sitting in front of you when you do not know which one is applicable to your paper. The first thing you need to know is that the Bryant & Stratton College APA Style Guide controls the vast majority of your paper.  It will assist you in setting up your margins, spacing your paper, and in creating the basic in-text citations and references you will need, among other things. 

The only time you need the Bluebook is to cite primary legal materials.What are primary legal materials? 

 These include cases, statutes, and administrative rules and regulations.  For everything else, use the Bryant & Stratton College APA Style Guide. How to Cite a Case in the References page:  The Bluebook will show you how to cite a case.  Rule 10 in the Bluebook teaches us that the basic triad of a case citation is the volume number, the reporter abbreviation, and the page number.  You need these three components to cite a case even when you locate the case online, such as through WESTLAW or via a webpage.  A case citation triad looks like this:  544 U.S. 1, where “544” is the volume number and “1” is the page number.  (Yes, we do mean the 544th volume on the shelf! )  

“U.S.” is the reporter abbreviation.  You may find reporter abbreviations in Table 1 of the Bluebook. The next piece you need in a case citation is the parenthetical.  The parenthetical tells the reader the year and may also share the court and jurisdiction of the case.  A parenthetical can look like this:  (S.D.N.Y. 2000) or like this: (2012).

Finally, you will need to lead off with the party names, such as Tenet v. Doe.  Italicize the names; do not underline them.  Use “v.” but never “vs.” or “V.”   Rule 10.2 of the Bluebook goes into great detail as to how you should shorten the party names down from something like “George J. TENET, Individually, Porter J. Goss, Director of Central Intelligence and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and United States, Petitioners, v. John DOE, et ux.” When you put these components together, a case citation looks like this: Tenet v. Doe, 544 U.S. 1 (2005). Once you have your case citation, it should go into the references page along with all of your other references.

When you are discussing your case in your paper, you will need an in-text citation for it, the same as you would for any other source.  For the in-text citation, simply use the party names and the date. Examples:  Tenet v. Doe (2005) has held that spies cannot sue the CIA to enforce espionage contracts. ~or~ In Tenet v. Doe (2005), the court wrote, “We think the Court of Appeals was quite wrong in holding that Totten does not require dismissal of respondents’ claims” (p. 8). In later blog posts, we will go through how to cite statutes and how to cite administrative rules and regulations.  I hope that this first part will help you to understand the role the Bluebook plays in your papers.  Far from being a competing guide, it is a vital supplement that will allow you to cite legal materials in your papers in a standard, professional manner. If you have any questions about this post, or about citing legal materials in general, please contact me at on.kreisler.brandy@mail.bryantstratton.edu . Happy Bluebooking!

About the Author Brandy Kreisler has taught online for more than six years, and is passionate about legal research and writing. Ms. Kreisler holds a law degree from Texas Tech School of Law and a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Washington, where she specialized in legal research.

As a Math major, I spent eight years of training at a University where I learned all the intricacies of how Mathematics works. Throughout that time, I had the same question many of you currently have i.e., how does math fit into my career?

Two weeks after I graduated, I started working for a large insurance company just north of San Francisco, California. I spent almost 17 years working for that same company.  Six of those years were in a field called Management Information Systems, and I spent almost 11 years in business management and business development for the same company. During those years, I spent considerable time using all the math skills I built up in my university training. What I found is that there are three specific areas that you will continue to use the math skills you learn in college:

When you think about the skills that you learn in your math classes i.e., Analysis, Problem Solving and Logic, each of those are easily applied to investments, financing, business, the medical industry and any field that requires these skill sets. So, the next time you’re in a math class at Bryant & Stratton College, remember, you’re not just working on skills to get you through a class, but rather you are building skills to make you successful in your career.

Think of a good elevator pitch for job seekers as a 30-second explanation to a complete stranger of what you do (or what you would do amazingly well if given the opportunity) in language that’s clear, concise, and conversational. It’s an essential part of your professional brand, and yet often it’s one of the toughest things to come up with.How Long is an Elevator Pitch?

Based on the idea that you’re in an elevator with someone who asks you what you do and you’ve got the length of the elevator ride to dazzle them (or at least pique their interest), the best elevator pitch should focus not so much on what you do, but on the benefits of what you do for your employer, customers, patients, or perhaps clients.

As noted, you want your elevator speech to explain not just what you do, but also the benefits those skills provide. So, for example, your elevator pitch outline may start out with a statement similar to one of these:

Notice how each of these statements “positions” you to your fellow elevator rider:  you’ve expressed enthusiasm for what you do, you’ve indicated that you’re an engaged professional, and you’ve demonstrated that you’re sufficiently confident to be able to talk to a stranger.

In addition, each one of these elevator speech examples for college students gives your companion an opening to ask you more about what you do. It’s almost as if you’re providing the opening line of an interesting story. If you’ve expressed enthusiasm for your work (or potential work), people are likely to want to hear more, which gives you an opportunity to talk a bit more about your career and/or career aspirations (with the goal of demonstrating your value and contribution). If asked, you can give an example of something your skills enabled you to do that you’re really proud of, or think especially interesting.

This is the element of an elevator speech that people often fail to mention: always reciprocate! With genuine interest, ask them to tell you about their work or career.

This provides you with two benefits: 1) you don’t come across as a self-absorbed, boring jerk, and 2) it tells you whether this conversation might develop into a valuable professional connection for one or both of you.

And just in case you’re wondering if working on a killer elevator speech is really worth the effort, keep in mind the other really important benefit you get from this: your folks/spouse/in-laws/kids will now have something they can tell people when asked what you’re up to!

For more information about programs designed to help you advance your career, contact the Admissions office at Bryant & Stratton College.

You probably already know that two of your most effective techniques for exploring career options are informational interviews and job-shadowing. Both put you in positions where you can ask questions, discuss alternative career paths, get insights from insiders on job and industry pros and cons, and in general figure out if this is a career path of potential interest to you.

And you know that you never, ever use an informational interview or job shadowing as a sneaky, sideways approach to landing a job interview (basically, that’s the fastest way to get bounced out the door….).

But there are some informational interview questions you can ask during your job shadow as well as other cool benefits from your informational interview or day(s) spent job-shadowing.

Build your professional reputation  Both informational interviewing and job shadowing give you an opportunity to impress someone with your professional, mature demeanor. So be prepared with thoughtful questions that showcase your knowledge of the job be on time if not a few minutes early to your meetings, dress professionally, take notes when your contact provides you with advice and counsel, listen way more than you talk, and always follow up with a thank-you note.

Build your professional network Every time you come into contact with someone in your profession (or the profession you’re working towards), you want to capture that connection. That’s how you start building the professional network that will sustain you over a multitude of career changes, and potentially open up a similar number of career opportunities. So after you’ve impressed your contact with how professional you are (and sent your thank-you note), follow up shortly with a request to connect on LinkedIn so you can stay in touch.

Learn how the company hires One of the most important questions to ask in an informational interview or job shadow is “how did you get your job?” If you’re potentially interested in working for the employer in question, this will give you an indication of how they hire (for example, through a recruiter, based on resumes submitted online, via internal referrals, etc.) for future reference.

Get a sense of the company culture  When you ask people what they like most/least about their job, their answers may have more to do with their employer than the actual work they do. Try to distinguish between the two, so you can understand what responses indicate a positive or toxic organizational culture if you’re potentially interested in this employer. (However, keep in mind that in large companies the “corporate culture” can vary by department and by boss.)

Get a broader sense of the industry – and additional employers/job opportunities One of the questions you can ask during an informational interview or job shadow is who your contact sees as his or her employer’s main competition. Although you would never disclose any information about the company that your contact shared with you, that doesn’t mean that you can’t use what you’ve learned to understand what type of job or career you might want to pursue with a different company in the same industry.

Ready to start exploring your career options? Now’s a great time to start lining up some informational interviews and job-shadowing opportunities! Need help? Check out Career LifePrep for advice and assistance