assignment

Title of Your Essay

Start the first paragraph here. It should introduce your reader to the subject you are writing about, as well as your particular position or claim. Before you can create your first paragraph, consider these “pre-writing” tips. You can use this template to help you format your paper.

The writing process

Spend time planning your paper. A good practice is to brainstorm ideas and decide how to express the main idea or thesis. Once you have a rough idea of what you want to say or argue, create an outline or list to help you organize the evidence you plan to present. The thesis statement is the most important part of your paper. It states the purpose and main idea of your essay to your audience. Your thesis statement conveys your position on a topic and provides focus for your essay. The form of your thesis statement will vary depending on the style of your writing. However, for most academic writing, your thesis should identify your subject and detail your position on that subject. A strong thesis statement will direct the structure of the essay. The thesis should be explicitly stated somewhere in the opening paragraphs of your paper, most often as the last sentence of the introduction. Often a thesis will be one sentence, but for complex subjects, you may find it more effective to break the thesis into two sentences.

Writing the body paragraphs

Each paragraph of your assignment should be clear and easy to follow.

Using citations correctly

In addition to being well-written, each paragraph should include an in-text citation to all ideas, references, or quotations that are from outside sources and research.

References

The following are commonly used references.

References are listed in alphabetical order.

Ashford Textbook (Online edition): *

Author, A. (Year published). Title of book: Subtitle of book (edition, if other than the first) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from from URL

Example:

Witt, G. A., & Mossler, R. A. (2010). Adult development and life assessment [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/4

Online Journal Article (such as from the Ashford Library):**

Author, A. (Year Published). Article title. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), page range. doi:# or Retrieved from journal’s homepage URL

**When including a URL for an online journal, you must search for the journal’s home page and include this in your reference entry. You may not include the URL found through your university library, as readers will not have access to this library.

Examples:

Churchill, S. D., & Mruk, C. J. (2014). Practicing what we preach in humanistic and positive psychology. American Psychologist, 69(1), 90-92. doi:10.1037/a0034868

Santovec, M. (2008). Easing the transition improves grad retention at Trinity U. Women in Higher Education, 17(10), 32. Retrieved from http://www.trinitydc.edu/education/files/2010/09/Women_in_higher_
Ed_Trinity_Transistions_10_08.pdf

Online Magazine:*

Author, A. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Magazine Title. Retrieved from URL

Example:

Walk, V. (2013, April 29). Can this woman fix Europe? Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,213969.html

YouTube Video:*

Author, A. [Screen name]. (Year, Month, Day). Title of video [Video file]. Retrieved from URL

Example:

Apsolon, M. [markapsolon]. (2011, September 9). Real ghost girl caught on video tape 14

[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nyGCbxD848

Web Page:*

Author, A. (Year, Month, Date Published). Article title. Retrieved from URL

Example—Corporate web page:

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2008). Police and detectives. Retrieved from http://bls.gov/oco/pdf/ocos160.pdf

Example—Article or section within web page with no author:

Presentation tools. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://web2014.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools-presentation.cfm