Azusa Pacific University Paper Format & Writing Requirements

Azusa Pacific University at a glance

A Christian university that began as a 1899 Bible training school in Whittier and moved to Azusa in 1949, known for its large School of Nursing and Division II PacWest athletics.

The campus sits in Azusa, California, operates as a private (christian) institution, and enrolls about 6,300 students — a scale that directly shapes how writing support works. Founded in 1899 with an acceptance rate around 76%, APU pairs selective admissions with the large-course writing loads typical of its category.

Citation styles Azusa Pacific University actually requires

APU courses predominantly require APA 7 or Turabian 9 or MLA 9. That is not a trivial preference: it decides your title page, heading levels, in-text punctuation and reference format on every graded document.

• APA 7: used across social science, nursing and business courses
• Turabian 9: used across the university's signature programs
• MLA 9: used across humanities and writing-sequence courses

Verify against the specific course syllabus anyway — instructors can override departmental defaults, and the first paper is where they enforce it.

The writing requirement, decoded

The first-year writing requirement rides inside core courses, nursing majors produce APA care studies, ministry students write Turabian exegesis papers, and the Writing, Speaking, and Tutoring Center in Marshburn Library tutors drafts across all schools.

Plan the sequence early: composition requirements compound, and students who defer them discover the advanced seminars — where the writing-intensity lives — conflict with major courses later. The registrar's degree audit shows exactly which flags remain; check it each semester.

Three things about Azusa Pacific University papers that surprise new students

• Azusa Pacific began in 1899 as a Bible training school in Whittier, moved to its Azusa campus in 1949 and reached university status in 1981.
• The modern university took shape through mergers with Los Angeles Pacific College in 1965 and Arlington College in 1968, producing the Azusa Pacific College name.
• The Cougars compete in NCAA Division II's PacWest Conference, and the university announced the end of its football program in December 2020.

None of these appear in the course description. All of them appear in the rubric. Students who learn them in week one report smoother first-semesters than students who meet them at the deadline.

Assignments Azusa Pacific University students face most

• Essay — most frequently assigned across APU's programs
• Research Paper — most frequently assigned across APU's programs
• Coursework — most frequently assigned across APU's programs
• Literature Review — most frequently assigned across APU's programs
• Term Paper — most frequently assigned across APU's programs

Popular programs at APU include nursing, business administration, psychology — each pairs the assignment list above with its own capstone or practicum expectations, detailed on our subject pages.