Essay Guidelines The essay that you are going to write is an expository essay. This is a genre of essay that requires the student to investigate an idea, evaluate evidence, expound on the idea, and set forth an argument concerning that idea in a clear and concise manner. The structure of the expository essay should consist of the following. Introduction The introduction should be a clear, concise, and defined thesis statement. It is essential that this thesis statement be appropriately narrowed to clearly define the subject of your assignment.   Body paragraphs that include evidential support. Each paragraph should be limited to the exposition of one general idea. This will allow for clarity and direction throughout the essay. It is important to note that each paragraph in the body of the essay must have some logical connection to the thesis statement in the opening paragraph. Also make sure that you provide some kind of connection between the introduction, the main body of the essay and the conclusion. List all the material that you can find in your literature search, whether to support or disprove your thesis. Conclusion Your conclusion should not only restate the thesis, but readdresses it in light of the evidence provided. It must be effective and logical. Do not introduce any new information into the conclusion; rather, synthesize and come to a conclusion concerning the information presented in the body of the essay. Literature Cited Websites are inappropriate as primary sources. You may nevertheless find outside sources, and you should cite any articles that you find for yourself. List all literature cited in your paper, in alphabetical order, by first author, year of publication, and title. Be cautious about using web sites as references - anyone can put just about anything on a web site, and you have no sure way of knowing if it is truth or fiction. If you are citing an on line journal, use the journal citation (name, volume, year, page numbers). General style To make a paper readable Print or type using a 12 point standard font, such as Times, Geneva, Bookman, Helvetica, etc. Text should be double spaced on 8 1/2" x 11" paper with 1 inch margins, single sided Number pages consecutively Essay should have a minimum of 5 pages and a maximum of 10. If you use a front page, and a Literature Cited page, these pages do not count for the total Some important points Use normal prose including articles ("a", "the," etc.) Stay focused on the subject of the paper Use paragraphs to separate each important point (except for the abstract) Indent the first line of each paragraph Present your points in logical order Use present tense to report well accepted facts - for example, 'the grass is green' Use past tense to describe specific results - for example, 'When weed killer was applied, the grass was brown' Avoid informal wording, don't address the reader directly, and don't use jargon, slang terms, or superlatives Read your paper several times. Make sure that it reads fluidly, with no jumps between different points. Mistakes to avoid Placing a heading at the bottom of a page with the following text on the next page (insert a page break!) Dividing a table or figure - confine each figure/table to a single page Submitting a paper with pages out of order Check your spelling! Do not trust your spell-checker. If you write “their” instead of “there”, your spell checker will not catch the error.