2 1 Title of Paper Student Name Laramie County Community College Course

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Title of Paper

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Laramie County Community College

Course Code: Course Name

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Title of Paper

Academic essays should begin with an introduction, but do not begin your paper with an “Introduction” heading. The introduction will provide readers with the context necessary for understanding your argument and the body of your paper. When composing the introduction, think about what context or background information the reader would benefit from knowing. Once your context is established, transition from that context into your thesis statement. The thesis statement generally comes at the end of your introduction and usually consists of a few sentences that sum up the argument for your paper overall. Thesis statements should also provide a roadmap for the reader so that they can navigate through the ideas present in the rest of your paper.

Level 1 Header

Headers are useful for organizing your paper. Level 1 headers are used with broad or general topics in your paper. Depending on the topic, length, and genre of your assignment, you might use only Level 1 headers. Level 1 headers should be bolded and centered. The longer and more complex your argument is, the more you might benefit from using Level 2 and Level 3 headers. If you choose to use headers in your paper, you should have at least two sections for each level of header. For more information on how to use headings in your paper, see the APA Style website.

Level 2 Header

Body paragraphs should follow the MEAL structure. This structure will help your ideas build on one another in order to support your thesis statement and to develop your argument over the course of your essay. Each body paragraph should consist of a claim, which also functions as the topic sentence or the main idea of a paragraph. The claim should then be followed by evidence. Evidence is typically source material that you either paraphrase or quote directly. Remember, APA style guidelines prefer paraphrasing to directly quoting a source. Evidence should provide support for your main idea in the form of examples, statistics, facts, anecdotes, etc. Next, your paragraph should include analysis. Finally, each body paragraph should end with a sentence that functions as a conclusion for the paragraph. This sentence can rephrase the claim for the paragraph, tie back to the thesis statement, or transition to the idea you present in the next paragraph.

Level 2 Header

Whenever you use a source, it must be cited both in text and in the references. Both your in-text citations and references should follow APA style. In academic writing that follows APA style, it is important to paraphrase source material whenever possible, as opposed to quoting the source directly. When paraphrasing source material, you can use page numbers to point the reader to a specific portion of the source, but this is optional. When paraphrasing, you should follow the paraphrased material with an in-text citation that contains the author’s last name and the source’s year of publication (Author, Year) or use a signal phrase to introduce the paraphrased material with the author and year (ex: “According to Eriksson (2015)…”). When quoting source material directly, a page number (p. ) or page range (pp. ) is always required.

Conclusion

The last section or paragraph of your paper should be the conclusion. If you are using headers in your paper, use a “Conclusion” heading. A conclusion should reiterate the major points of your argument. To do this, think about developing your thesis by adding more detail or by retracing the steps of your argument. You can recap major sections for the reader. You can also summarize the primary supporting points or evidence you discussed in the paper. The conclusion should not introduce any new information in order to avoid confusing the reader. To end the paper, think about what you want your reader to do with all the information you just presented. Explain what logical next steps might be taken in order to learn more about this topic. Use the conclusion to establish the significance and importance of your work, motivate others to build on what you have done in this paper, and encourage the reader to explore new ideas or reach other conclusions.

References

(below are examples of how references should look)

Darlin, D. (2014, August 5). How to talk about America’s newest arrivals. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/upshot/how-to-talk-about-americas-newest-arrivals.html

Devereaux, A. (2015). Pandemic influenza: An evolutionary concept analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(8), 1787–1796. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12654

Kinderman, P. (2019). A manifesto for mental health: Why we need a revolution in mental health care. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24386-9

Lundgren, B., & Holmberg, M. (2017). Pandemic flus and vaccination policies in Sweden. In C. Holmberg, S. Blume, & P. Greenough (Eds.), The politics of vaccination: A global history (pp. 260–287). Manchester University Press.

Wu, J., Cai, W., Watkins, D., & Glanz, J. (2020, March 22). How the virus got out [Interactive infographic]. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/22/world/coronavirus-spread.html