Formatting counts.

Academic writing follows standards for formatting title pages, font, spacing, and how you give credit to other people's writing and ideas.

Vanguard and IBOLT follow the APA 6th Edition guidelines with a few adaptations to the title page for submission.  You can download this template and use it when writing assignments. 

font and spacing. 

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  • The font is limited to Times or Times New Roman (12-point font) or Helvetica or Verdana (11-point font).  Your professor may specify their preference in their syllabus for assignments.
  • Your essay should be double spaced.
  • Margins. Leave uniform margins of 1 in. (2.54 cm) at the top, bottom, left and right of every page.
  • Line length and alignment. Do not justify lines meaning do not use the word-processing feature that makes all lines the same length. Use the flush-left style, leaving the right margin uneven, and do not hyphenate words at the end of the line; leave the space and type the full word on the next line.
  • Students do not need to include Running Heads in their papers; page numbers alone will suffice. Page numbers must be at the upper right corner of each page (including the title page). 

title page format.

Wonder how to format your title page?  Follow this template and you'll be set.
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in text citations.

Do you know how to cite (that means give credit) something that someone else said or wrote?

The quote used here is from Warburton's book, The Basics of Essay Writing. The first two examples are direct quotes and the last example is a paraphrase.  It is important to remember that the Vanguard College guidelines require the page number even if you are paraphrasing (example 3).

Example 1:
You will know that your essay writing is clear when you “check that the first sentence of each paragraph is informative and provides directions to the reader about the function and content of that paragraph” (Warburton, 2007, p. 49). 

Example 2:
Warburton (2007) emphasizes the importance of reading over your writing, recommending that you “check that the first sentence of each paragraph is informative and provides directions to the reader about the function and content of that paragraph” (p. 49).

Example 3:
Warburton (2007) emphasizes the revision process and recommends that you read the first sentence of each paragraph to see if it clearly outlines its purpose (p. 49).

paraphrase?

Need a refresh on what paraphrase means?

To paraphrase is to put someone else's ideas in your own words. Just remember, you have to credit that source, if you do not it is considered plagiarism and has severe academic consequences. 


This is a list of all of the articles, books, websites and other sources that you used in your essay.  This is the last page of your essay.  The reference list should be a separate page, after the last written page in your essay.  The reference page is numbered.  Here is an example:
 
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References:
Photos and Images: Colourbox.com.
Warburton, N. (2007). The basics of essay writing. New York: Routledge.