Running Head: The Pointlessness of Unplugging 1

WP1 Summary and Response:

The Pointlessness of Unplugging

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My Purpose Statement OR Cover Letter

On all first drafts, your purpose statement (analyzing audience, time, place, and purpose)

goes here. See the Writing Project assignment sheet for more specifics on the content and the

word count (varies by Writing Project assignment) and where to look in your textbook for help.

Check “First Draft Specifics” on your assignment sheet for guidance.

Remember that your purpose statement should analyze YOUR audience and purpose for

YOUR draft (not the audience and purpose of the core reading itself!). For example, what do you

know about YOUR classmates and instructor? How would you characterize them, as a group,

based on your observations and best guesses? What would you expect them to already know

about your topic? What biases or concerns would you think they might have? What do you think

they hope to get out of reading YOUR draft?

On all final drafts, the cover letter will go here. When preparing your revisions for the

final draft, remove your purpose statement and add the cover letter in this spot. In general, your

cover letter will be a letter addressed to your instructor that will outline the specific changes you

made to your draft, based on the feedback you received on your first draft (whether from peers,

your instructor, tutors, etc.). The cover letter should also explain why you think these changes

improve your draft.

Style guides (including our textbook) may suggest placing an “abstract” on this page.

You DO NOT need an abstract. Your purpose statement or cover letter replaces the abstract.

Again, check your specific Writing Project assignment sheet under “Final Draft

Specifics” for more guidance on the length and content of the cover letter.
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The Title of the Paper Goes Here

In APA format, all papers are typed, double-spaced, using twelve-point Times New

Roman font and one-inch margins.

We recommend viewing the video in the APA Format and Citation folder for step-by-

step visual instructions on how to reset your font and your spacing for Word documents into

APA style. The video also shows how to set up the header on your title page and the other pages

of your document.

Note that all your papers for this class will have a “cover page.” For the first draft, page 1

will be a title page and page 2 will be a “Purpose Statement.” For the final draft, page 1 will be a

title page and page 2 will be a “Cover Letter” addressed to your instructor and describing the

changes you made to your draft based on peer feedback. Style guides (including our textbook)

may suggest placing an “abstract” on this page. You DO NOT need an abstract. Your purpose

statement or cover letter replaces the abstract.

Your actual draft (first draft or final draft) will start at the top of the third page after your

purpose statement or the cover letter.

For an APA style title page, center the text and provide the title of your essay, your full

name, the name of the course, your instructor’s title and last name, and the submission date of

the assignment. Each of these goes on a separate line and should be doublespaced.

All formal papers should have a title; please don’t use “Paper 1” or “Summary and

Response” as the title, either. (Coming up with a good title that picks up on the theme, main

point, or unique angle of your finished paper is part of the process!) Note that on this page and

for the title that goes just before your essay draft, major title words should be capitalized, with

the exception of articles (and, the, etc.) and prepositions (of, with, for, etc.). So for example,
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“The Title of Your Paper Goes Here” capitalizes the first letter of all major title words except

“of” (a preposition). “The” gets capitalized because it is the first word in the title overall. (In

APA, titles are represented in different ways depending on the situation. In the header, your title

should be in ALL CAPS. When providing the title of a source you are using or referring to, you

should only capitalize the first letter and any proper nouns.) Don’t underline or bold your title.

Don’t put it your title in quotation marks. Don’t use a bigger or different font.

Note that the course section number on this handout is a “dummy” section number (just

like the student name is a “dummy” student name). Check your Blackboard site or your syllabus

to see the actual section number for this course.

At in the header (or top margin) of your title page, a separate header that includes the

phrase “Running Head:” followed by your essay’s title in ALL CAPS on the left and a page

number the right. To do this, double-click on the header on your title page. Then go to the

Header & Footer Tools tab above. Check the box for “Different First Page.” Next, insert a page

number on the right by select Insert / Page Number. After this, move the cursor to the left side of

the header and type in Running Head: followed by your title in ALL CAPS.

After this, go to your second page and double-click on the header. Repeat the process

above, only this time, DO NOT include the phrase “Running Head:” (just include your essay title

in ALL CAPS).

(Instructions on all sorts of Word features can be found in the Resources area of our

class, in the APA Format and Citation folder. This is also covered in the set-up video.)

After your purpose statement or cover letter page, center the text and include your title

again. Hit Enter, then indent and begin your first paragraph. There is no extra white space in

between paragraphs; just one double-space is all you need. You can find instructions for resetting
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the Word defaults on your computer to the correct font and line spacing in the Resources area of

our class, in the APA Format and Citations folder.

The last page of this document contains an example of an APA References page with

correct formatting and margins. Note that for your first paper, you will need only ONE citation

on your References page—your selected core reading. If you use additional sources (permitted

but not required for the first paper), note that your citations should be arranged alphabetically by

author last name. In the example, L (Lockhart) comes before R (Rogers). Consult Chapter 25 in

your textbook for more details on constructing a Works Cited list.

Be sure to start your References page at the top of a new page using a hard page break

(Control + Enter). Center the title of the page (References) on the title line, double-space once,

and begin.

Note that References pages are always formatted with hanging indents (the first line of

each citation is flush with the left margin, and subsequent lines are indented one tab). Again, you

can find links on how to set hanging indents in the APA Format and Citation folder in the

Resources area of the class.

More information on APA style and formatting can be found in your textbook and in that

super helpful APA Format and Citation folder in the Resources area of our course site in

Blackboard!
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References

Acaroglu, L. (2015, August 27). Paper beats plastic? How to rethink environmental folklore.

TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/leyla_acaroglu_paper_beats_plastic_

how_to_rethink_environmental_folklore?language=en

Rogers, H. (2008, March 1). Slash and burn. The investigative fund. Retrieved from

http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/envirohealth/1192/slash_and_burn/