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This is “Formatting a Research Paper”, section 13.1 from the book Successful Writing (v. 1.0). For details on it (including licensing), click 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 styleThe documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. This style is commonly used in the sciences, including social sciences., the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA styleModern Language Association style, or MLA, is often used in the liberal arts and humanities. It provides a uniform framework for the manuscript and parenthetical citations, or in-
•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-
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-
•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-
1.Title page
2.Abstract
3.
Body, which includes the following:
◦Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
◦In-
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-
Abstract
The next page of your paper provides an abstractA concise (one hundred to one hundred fifty words) summary of research findings that appears at the beginning of an APA-
In Chapter 12 "Writing a Research Paper", you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-
Exercise 1
Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-
Tip
Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.
Margins, Pagination, and Headings
APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.
Use these general guidelines to format the paper:
1.Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
2.Use double-
3.Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10-
4.Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
5.Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.
Exercise 2
Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:
•Your title page
•The abstract you created in Note 13.8 "Exercise 1"
•Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract
Headings
APA style uses section headingsHeadings used to organize information within an APA-
The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:
1.Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
2.Subsection headings use left-
3.The third level uses left-
4.The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
5.The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.
Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 "Section Headings".
Table 13.1 Section Headings
Level of Information
Text Example
Level 1 Heart Disease
Level 2 Lifestyle Factors That Reduce Heart Disease Risk
Level 3 Exercising regularly.
Level 4 Aerobic exercise.
Level 5 Country line dancing.
A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 "Section Headings", but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-
Exercise 3
Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 "Exercise 2", begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.
Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:
Level of Information
Text Example
Level 1 Purported Benefits of Low-
Level 1 Research on Low-
Level 1 Other Long-
Level 1 Conclusion
Citation Guidelines
In-
Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 "Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?", the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-
In-
This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.
Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).
Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.
Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).
Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.
As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”
Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.
David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).
Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.
Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 "APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting", Section 13.2 "Citing and Referencing Techniques" and Section 13.3 "Creating a References Section" provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.
Writing at Work
APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:
•MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
•Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
•Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.
References List
The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-
The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:
•The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
•The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
•The full title of the source
•For books, the city of publication
•For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
•For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
•For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located
The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. (Chapter 13 "APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting", Section 13.3 "Creating a References Section" provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)
Tip
In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.
Key Takeaways
•Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
•Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
•APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
•APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
•In APA papers, in-
•In-
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