Due Date

Faculty Name

Title of Paper

Triple click your mouse anywhere in this paragraph to replace this text with your introduction. Often the most important paragraph in the entire essay, the introduction grabs the reader's attention—sometimes a difficult task for academic writing. When writing an introduction, some approaches are best avoided. Avoid starting sentences with “The purpose of this essay is . . .” or “In this essay I will . . .” or any similar flat announcement of your intention or topic. Read more at the UMGC Writing Center.

Level One Heading

Replace the level one heading with the words for your heading. The heading must be in bold font. Headings are a necessary part of helping your audience track the sub-topics discussed in the body of the essay or report.

Be sure to indent the first line of each paragraph between five and seven spaces by pressing the Tab key one time on the keyboard. In addition, remember to double space the entire paper using the double space functionality in Word. This template is already formatted for double spacing. Read more: UIU Center for Writing Excellence>Tutorials and Guides>Software Tutorials and Guides>Formatting Tutorial for APA.

In addition, keep in mind an academic essay should contain at least five paragraphs, which includes the introduction (introductory paragraph), the body (which is generally at least 3 paragraphs), and the conclusion (generally one paragraph). Most well-developed paragraphs contain at least 3-5 sentences, one of which is the topic sentence. Limit each body paragraph to one sub-topic.

Level Two Heading (if using)

Replace the level two heading with the words for your heading. The heading must be in bold font. Read more about APA headings on the APA Style Blog.

Conclusion

The closing paragraph is designed to bring the reader to your way of thinking if you are writing a persuasive essay, to understand relationships if you are writing a comparison/contrast essay, or simply to value the information you provide in an informational essay. The closing paragraph summarizes the key points from the supporting paragraphs without introducing any new information.

References

This is a hanging indent. To keep the hanging indent format, triple click your mouse on this line of text and replace the information with your reference entry. You can use the Reference and Citation Examples from the Online Writing Center, Online Guide to Writing and Research, APA Style, to help format your source information into a reference entry.

The reference page always begins on the top of the next page after the conclusion.