Duquesne University Paper Format & Writing Requirements

Duquesne University at a glance

A Spiritan Catholic university on a bluff above Pittsburgh's Monongahela River, known for nursing, pharmacy and business programs, its founding by the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, and Dukes teams in the Atlantic 10.

The campus sits in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, operates as a private (catholic) institution, and enrolls about 8,000 students — a scale that directly shapes how writing support works. Founded in 1878 with an acceptance rate around 80%, Duquesne University pairs selective admissions with the large-course writing loads typical of its category.

Citation styles Duquesne University actually requires

Duquesne University 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

The core requires Thinking and Writing across the Disciplines plus writing-intensive upper-division courses, and nursing, pharmacy and business majors add care plans, patient case reports and market analyses; the Writing Center tutors in Gumberg Library.

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 Duquesne University papers that surprise new students

• Founded in 1878 by the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, the Spiritan order, Duquesne opened as the Pittsburgh Catholic College with just six volunteers and 40 students in rented rooms.
• The campus climbs the Bluff above the Monongahela River, giving it one of the steepest settings of any urban university in Pennsylvania, with downtown Pittsburgh visible across the water.
• The Tamburitzans, one of America's longest-running folk dance and music ensembles, draws student performers from Croatian, Ukrainian, Polish and other Eastern European traditions.

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 Duquesne University students face most

• Essay — most frequently assigned across Duquesne University's programs
• Research Paper — most frequently assigned across Duquesne University's programs
• Case Study — most frequently assigned across Duquesne University's programs
• Coursework — most frequently assigned across Duquesne University's programs

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