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13.1 Formatting A Research Paper: Learning Objectives

This document discusses the formatting guidelines for research papers using APA and MLA styles. It identifies the major components of an APA-style paper as the title page, abstract, body with headings and in-text citations, and references page. The body should be organized with headings and may include subheadings to structure the content. In-text citations are used to cite research sources.

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17 views

13.1 Formatting A Research Paper: Learning Objectives

This document discusses the formatting guidelines for research papers using APA and MLA styles. It identifies the major components of an APA-style paper as the title page, abstract, body with headings and in-text citations, and references page. The body should be organized with headings and may include subheadings to structure the content. In-text citations are used to cite research sources.

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Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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13.

1 Formatting a Research Paper


 
Learning Objectives

1. Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association
(APA) style.
2. Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style, the documentation and formatting style
followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style, from the Modern
Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including
AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

 AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
 APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
 Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
 MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
 Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and
disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter
we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies:
APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are
not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge.
Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more
task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your
readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic
or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview.
Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it.
Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your
topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it


requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these
broad guidelines in mind:
 Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I
Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will
save time later on.
 Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to
correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
 Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you
may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online
Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu, which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines


This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting
conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA.
Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and
education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA
style are listed in the following box.
These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

1. Title page
2. Abstract
3. Body, which includes the following:
o Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
o In-text citations of research sources
4. References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

Title Page
The title page of your paper includes the following information:

 Title of the paper


 Author’s name
 Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
 Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page
number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about
one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers
tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the
left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like
the following example.

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