Writing Guidelines and Resources

The Title Page

The first page of your essay is very easy!
Place the following information at the very center of the page.

1. Essay Title

2. Your Name

3. Course Name

It should end up looking something like this:

Let's move on to Part 2: The Essay! Click here to hide Part 1.

Part 2: The Essay

Now that your cover page is completed, break to a new page to start the written part of your essay! The following is a general outline of an academic paper. Use it to help you structure your essay!

Required Components Throughout All Paragraphs

• Use the font "Times New Roman".

• Font size should be 12.

• The lines should be double spaced.

Introduction Paragraph (3 to 4 sentences)

Discuss: What is this essay about? What are the main points of the essay?

Requirements:

• Introduce the topic using a "hook" that grabs the attention of the reader. Look to the right to see ideas of common attention grabbers.

• Up to 3 sentences that introduce the topic, outline the major points that will be discussed, and present a clear thesis (main idea) for the entire essay.

Body Paragraph #1 (4 to 5 sentences)

Discuss: The first main point of your essay.

Requirements:

• Topic sentence that introduces the main idea of the paragraph.

• 3 to 5 sentences that include details supporting that main idea.

• At least 1 in-text citation to reference the source of your details. (More on this later in Part 3: References & In-Text Citations)

Body Paragraph #2 (4 to 5 sentences)

Discuss: The second main point of your essay.

Requirements:

• Topic sentence that introduces the main idea of the paragraph.

• 3 to 5 sentences that include details supporting that main idea.

• At least 1 in-text citation to reference the source of your details. (More on this later in Part 3: References & In-Text Citations)

Body Paragraph #3 (4 to 5 sentences)

Discuss: The third main point of your essay.

Requirements:

• Topic sentence that introduces the main idea of the paragraph.

• 3 to 5 sentences that include details supporting that main idea.

• At least 1 in-text citation to reference the source of your details. (More on this later in Part 3: References & In-Text Citations)

Conclusion Paragraph (3 to 4 sentences)

Discuss: What does the information you've presented reveal?

Requirements:

• Summarize the key points you’ve made in the paper.

• Finish with a sentence or two that gives the reader a sense of closure.

Great job! Now let's move on to Part 3: References & In-Text Citations! Click here to hide Part 2.

Part 3: References & In-Text Citations

This part will firstly focus on creating a references page with sources structured in APA format. Secondly, we will learn how to use the information on your references page to create in-text citations, which can be added to the body paragraphs of your essay.

Source Requirements:

• Always include the course textbook on your references page. Note that it does not count as one of your two online sources.

• Include at least 2 additional sources retrieved from public websites (please do not use websites that require usernames/passwords).

• All sources that you use or cite must be listed on the references page.

• Wikipedia cannot be one of your listed sources.

The References Page

As an example, let's use this website as a source:

Once you have the source URL, use the following Citation Generator from Scribbr to help you structure your sources into APA format. Click on the following link to be directed to the citation generator:

When you go to the link, it should look like this:

Since you are citing a public website, click on the Website button on the left.

Then, on the following page, you should paste the URL of the source you want to cite and click search.

The program will then fill in the information from your source, and you then should scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Cite Source button. It will generate a citation for you.

Copy that onto your own resources page.

Do the same with all of your sources and then put them in alphabetical order.

Congrats! You just created your references page!

In-Text Citations

In an academic essay, in-text citations are used to link the information in your paper to the sources on your references page. When you add in-text citations, you are pointing specifically to evidence that backs up what you say. This is a necessary part of supporting the content of your paper.

Creating In-Text Citations

In-text citations are formatted in the body of your essay as follows:

(Author, Date).

If no author is provided in your source, follow this format:

(Title, Date).

If there is no publication year you can find, include "n.d." to signify that no date was available. For example: (Nguyen, n.d.)

Using the sources on our new references page, we will now make in-text citations that would be added to the body paragraphs of the essay.

Source #1:

This source has no author mentioned, so we will use the title and year to create the following in-text citation: (Life Skills, 2020)

Source #2:

Since this source does have an author, we will use just the last name and year in the in-text citation: (Sinco, 2020)

Source #3:

For this source we will use the title and year again, due to there being no author mentioned: (Software Developer Job Description, 2021)

Using In-Text Citations

Each of the body paragraphs in your essay should have at least one in-text citation. In addition, you use in-text citations when quoting or paraphrasing information from one of your sources.

Here are two examples of how to correctly cite direct quotes with in-text citations:

Here is an example of the same information paraphrased and cited:

Lastly, let's continue on to Part 4: The Finished Product! Click here to hide Part 3.

Part 4: The Finished Product

When all is said and done, your essay should look something like this:

Click here to hide Part 4.