I am not overly educated on paper sizes---is my paper choice, 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch paper near the measurements of A4 paper?

Yes, it is. The usual "let's ignore the international standards and adhere to traditional ones for no good reason" of the U.S. And you can get educated (or at least informed) pretty easily: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html :)