Graduate-level students may be required to have a higher level of writing expertise. These requirements may cause students to become frustrated. Some of my online students have not taken courses in a very long time. Many of them have not learned how to write properly in APA format. I have a surprisingly high number of students who have difficulty with sentence and paragraph structure.
I recently have taken some graduate-level courses at different online universities. I found that other professors can be very picky about writing and APA-related issues. Taking these courses taught me to raise my expectations for my own students.
It is important for graduate students to submit papers that meet the following expectations:
- APA format – APA format should be nearly flawless at this level. Papers should include a title page, headers, page numbers, double-spacing, citations, and a reference page.
- Citations and References – Citations should be paraphrased rather than directly quoted. Citations and the reference page should be in APA format. It is important that there are both citations AND references. Listing one without the other is incorrect.
- Contractions – Students should write out words like cannot. It is not appropriate to use a contraction like can’t.
- Narrative Mode – Papers should be written in third person unless it specifically states that the assignment should be written in first person. This blog is in first person. That may be appropriate for a blog, but it is not the appropriate tone for a graduate-level assignment.
- Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Sources – Support all major points and information that is not common knowledge with peer-reviewed scholarly sources. The school’s library should be the main search source and not Google.
- Structure – An essay should include an introduction, body and conclusion. Paragraphs should contain between four and eight sentences. APA allows for as few as three sentences. Students should not write in giant paragraphs or in run-on sentences.
I have had some students who get annoyed when I take off points for these issues. I post my requirements on the first day of class, so that there are no excuses for not following my guidelines. However, there will always be some students who feel it is their right to write incorrectly. They may not truly understand the narrative mode issue or how to cite in APA format.
At the graduate level, it is up to students to learn these things. It is important to write in a scholarly tone. I think students should write as if their paper could be printed in a journal. It is important that students do not write in an informal tone. Some students like to insert personal anecdotes or other information that is not appropriate for the assignment or this level of work. Unless the instructor specifically states that papers may be written informally or in some other format, graduate-level students should stick to a scholarly third-person tone that is supported consistently throughout with peer-reviewed research.
