How to Properly Write a University Essay: Examples

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2 years ago

Late start to read.cash today, as I awakened at a little past 4 a.m. with two academic papers to write before noon. I won't show you what I wrote, but I will show you examples of what I previously wrote during my university career. Hopefully this post will encourage you and moreover provide you with the knowledge and the impetus to write more effectively and scholarly.

Format types

The most common format in academic writing is the American Psychological Association (APA) style. APA style is used in psychology, sociology, nursing, anthropology, some historical, business, communications, engineering, and other related fields.

The second most used style in use is the Modern Language Association (MLA). This style is typically used in the arts and humanities, such as, well, an art class, history class, literature class, etc.

Equal to the MLA style in popularity is that of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), often referred to as Turabian. This requires superscripts and footnotes at the bottom of each page. Political and history papers fall under this style.

There is also the Harvard style and other oddballs that you won't likely encounter until you reach the doctorate level.

Word versus PDF

At any rate, unless you are writing an essay by hand, you will be asked to use Microsoft Word. Some professors then ask you to save and turn it in as a PDF version in case a vengeful student submits a virus-laden paper. Don't laugh - it happens.

Examples

APA

APA was the most common style I used in university as I completed my earlier degrees. I use it now for seminary classes when applicable.

Look at this essay on consumerism. Notice the font style. We always use Times New Roman 12 pt. font unless otherwise directed by the professor. Always use double space unless your professor states otherwise. You do this by going to Insert (top left corner), page, top, #3. This will place your page number on the top right of the paper all throughout the essay.

Note the in-text citation differences. When quoting or paraphrasing a(n) author(s), you must cite them or be guilty of plagiarism. Observe the differences in (Millennials, 2016) and Curtis (2012). It's a simple formality.

In this image (a discussion board post), observe a citation that has no date, marked as (n.d.). Also, since it is a personal reflection, the use of the first person is permissible. As a general rule, however, APA should not be used for personal pronouns. Also note the transition words: furthermore, inasmuch and even an author's name. Transition words are important for alerting your reader to the fact you're moving to another topic or paragraph.

Finally, note the citation in the text above. I had already mentioned the full names of the authors on a previous page, so thereafter I used (Williams et al, 2009). Nowadays one doesn't need to use the full names at the beginning of a new citation as in the Wilton citation (it's long). It sucks in a way because it can eat up some page count.

Math

Oftentimes, math essays will not have references unless asked for.

Notice it is written in the first person: "I needed to critically think...." Basically, this paper was just how I accomplished something. Total waste of time as far as I was concerned, but hey, that's life and university prof's.

MLA

Peep the MLA art paper. Most of the time you will just cite in text like in APA, though somewhat differently. For example: (Jones 12). That gives the reader the author and page number. Notice there is no comma. On your page of references you list at the top of the page: Works Cited. In APA it is References, in Chicago it is Bibliography (not underlined on the page, of course).

Notice the difference in this MLA paper. The professor was hard core on MLA, which at times uses footnotes. It's a pain in the neck just like Chicago style, but at least it eats up some page count. Woohoo!

Also, an added benefit with MLA is the ability to use Arial 12 pt. font. This eats up more space, but if you have to write a certain number of words as opposed to pages, it is no benefit.

Business plans

I still write business plans for U.S. clients and they pay very well. Banks insist on them, though rarely if ever get further than the executive summary and the financials.

Here you can see the different fonts for the headings and the content. Also notice the writing is single spaced rather than double spaced. This provides a lender with a terse summary of what your business name is and what it plans to do.

Now look. We have to have a table of contents (TOC) for the prospective lender.

Finally, the financials are the most difficult part to compute and write about, but these are typically what a lender wants to see. If you fudge them, they will know something isn't on the up and up.

The End?

Don't freak out when you are asked to write an academic paper With practice and quick thinking, I can knock out a 10-page paper in a day and make $170 minimum.

Use an outline to go by until you're able to formulate them in your head like I and others do.

Proper spelling and grammar is a must. When you graduate, do not think your writing days are over by any means. Business reports, memos, press releases, writing new resumes, manuals, and other things will eventually arise, so hone your craft while at your university. Good luck!

ALL images are mine except for the graduation picture.

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2 years ago

Comments

It is an inspiring and useful useful post thanks for sharing

$ 0.01
2 years ago

You're most welcome.

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Smartypants. lol Good for you.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

HaHa. Nah, I'm not that intelligent but thank you.

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Omg this took me way back before 15 years when I used to write articles and essays in Word... the word "Times New Roman" is so much implanted in my brain that time I thought I would accidentally name my child with that lol

$ 0.01
2 years ago

Yeah, unless you're writing for a blog or newspaper, Times New Roman is the standard for academic essays. Works for me.

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Oh no! Turning back the time. Great read, really reminds me of before. During those time, this was a piece of sheet(its not mispelled). Now... Well, income wise, it's good for those who knows how.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

People on here could use this if they were wise and increase their BCH earnings.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

Yes, which reminds me of an article you wrote about BCH earning but kinda busy right now. Will revisit. Who would have thought developing this skill can actually be an income one day... Didn't really thought about this before, not even thought of exploring.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

I make a handsome living from it.

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Now I'm envious! I should get myself reconnected with the academe! lolz... Thank u for the insights! God bless!

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Plenty of work out there!

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Now you are making me regret for not charging my classmates for making their essays and research!

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Free? Oh, my! Never. I get at least $15 a double spaced page for mine, more if under 48 or 24 hours ($17.50 and $20).

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Now, u really wanna make cry!

$ 0.00
2 years ago

We have been using the APA style of citation in every projects or thesis we do. I am glad that I was able to stumble upon this article of yours because I was reminded again about where should I really use the MLA style.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

Glad it helped you.

$ 0.00
2 years ago

I actually applied most ot these things mentioned above to my project write-up, something on the design and construction of an automatic transfer switch, and didn't know anything about the APA referencing style until my project supervisor asked me to make use of it, which made me do a little bit of research on it because I was previously using the Chicago reference format which wasn't generally acceptable.

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2 years ago

I like the Chicago style because it is similar to APA and because you can kind of cheat the page count.

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2 years ago

The only difference is the positioning of the year of publication of the referenced journal. For instance; APA format is author name. (Year). Title and so on while Chicago puts the year of publication after the title of the journal....

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2 years ago

You got it!

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2 years ago

Thank you for this informative and useful article as I can emplo yit once we have made our quantitative research. Maybe I should need to read more broadly related to this article hehe

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2 years ago

This is very swift and quite thinakable of you my dear friend for helping make us realize the real issue that is in existence here. I was taught This while in my university days here in Nigeria and that was especially the APA style of citation incase you are citing someone else's books and i really enjoyed cos i had an A in that course back then. We call it GSP111-the use of library.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

One of my professors was a man from Nigeria. Dr O we called him. I had a lot of respect for him. He came to the US with $20 to his name and worked at Burger King until he earned his doctorate in US Government and History.

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2 years ago

Oh wow! That's fantastic and very good to hear you say That as well. At least that makes me a prouder Nigerian isn't it? Hahahahaha... welldome dear friend.

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2 years ago

Turubian angers me at times. It can be difficult to cite the footnotes and get them all to properly align.

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2 years ago

It can get on one's nerves if you don't write down your sources and number them properly or when you get to footnotes longer than one numeral.

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2 years ago

Right? Most of my clients are APA with some MLA clients here and there. MLA is dying unless they are lit professors.

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2 years ago

It's easy but finding page numbers can be hard if you are looking foe specific quotes.

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2 years ago

I think this processes goes a long way so you just have to sit for like 3-4 hours writing this and keep references of what you have written without no mistakes

$ 0.01
2 years ago

Depends. I wrote the 1-page assignment in 15 minutes and made 800 pesos. The 3-page paper paid 1,800 pesos and took me 90 minutes.

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Oh... that's a good pay for you,try to make sure you put in some efforts in it so you won't make mistakes of any kind.

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2 years ago

Oh Wow... Isn't this process a stressful one but it'll surely pay off as it has a lot of advantages

$ 0.01
2 years ago

It's only stressful if the professor's instruction are vague or if there is a lot of noise, like dogs barking, babies crying, and neighbors interrupting. ther than that, 4 pages today took me 2 hours - with interruptions.

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2 years ago