Delaware State University Paper Format & Writing Requirements

Delaware State University at a glance

Delaware's 1890 land-grant HBCU, famous for its agriculture and aviation programs, the only optometry pipeline at an HBCU and a Capitol-adjacent Dover campus that feeds state government internships.

The campus sits in Dover, Delaware, operates as a public institution, and enrolls about 6,200 students — a scale that directly shapes how writing support works. Founded in 1891 with an acceptance rate around 60%, DSU pairs selective admissions with the large-course writing loads typical of its category.

Citation styles Delaware State University actually requires

DSU courses predominantly require APA 7 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
• 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

ENGL 101 and ENGL 102 (English Composition I and II) are required of every graduate, and upper courses add discipline documentation; the Writing Center in the William C. Jason Library tutors both stages and summer-bridge essays.

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 Delaware State University papers that surprise new students

• Delaware State is an 1890 land-grant university with its own Cooperative Extension service, and ag-science papers report trials from the campus's working research farm.
• The optometry program, a partnership with the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, is the only such track at an HBCU and pairs four DSU years with four clinical ones.
• Flight students train at the Delaware Air Park in Cheswold with a university fleet, and every cross-country flight ends in a graded navigation log.

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 Delaware State University students face most

• Essay — most frequently assigned across DSU's programs
• Research Paper — most frequently assigned across DSU's programs
• Coursework — most frequently assigned across DSU's programs
• Lab Report — most frequently assigned across DSU's programs

Popular programs at DSU include agriculture, aviation science, optometry (4+4) — each pairs the assignment list above with its own capstone or practicum expectations, detailed on our subject pages.