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).
- 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.)
In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper”, you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.
Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings”.
Exercise 3
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:
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.
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.
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.
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This part explains the research methodology. In particular, you’re to write how you collected data and what methods you used.
In this part, you are to present facts and premises in support of your thesis statement. Within one paragraph, it’s better to stick to one major fact. As for the character count, it should include at least three sentences, but no more than 200 words. Don’t forget to add the transition sentence at the end. Overall, you can include as many paragraphs as necessary, but don’t wander from the main subject.
This part of an essay is one of the most difficult to write. It is supposed to take only 10% of the general word count, but that’s also where you need to shortly outline the topic and provide the necessary background information, as well as identify a strong thesis statement or a key argument. The key thing is to make the reader interested in the rest of your work and clearly state your main idea.
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Before you start writing, make sure you’ve defined the subject. You are to present something new and interesting to your audience, but still, you’d better not select too complicated subjects. After this, you will need to brainstorm the existing literature, as well as pick up sources you are going to refer to when writing. Imagine your thesis is an endpoint, while the paragraphs in your paper are the steps you’re to make to reach it.
As stated in most research paper guidelines, the main sections are:
State the thesis statement and explain why the issue is important.
(It may be a professor or the people your instructor asked you to report to.)
The first and second steps will direct the procedure of investigation. It might be necessary to research report topics that are similar to yours in order to get as much information as possible. Do not forget to have correct reference details for absolutely all sources you can use in the paper later. The research will take a lot of your time, approximately as much as the writing part. However, if done properly, it will make the writing process a lot easier and faster.
It is quite necessary to familiarize yourself with course information to assure that you have all chances to cope with different types of research report. Typically, it consists of three main parts: 1) preliminary/background material
- The preliminary material may comprise the title, table of contents (if required), and synopsis or abstract.
- The body includes an introduction or introductory paragraph, literature review, methodology, discussion, concluding part, and tips.
- Additional material may consist of bibliography or the list of references and appendices (if any).
Research report structure
- Be sure that the title indicates exactly what you are working on.
- Table of Contents. List all appendices, graphs/tables, subheadings, and sections and provide page numbers for each.
- Synopsis/Abstract. This section provides a very short paper’s overview in a condensed form.
(A topic may be given by an instructor, or you can make your own choice.)
- Research report introduction. An introductory part is a right place for a thesis statement and the background info. Additional information can contain a short literature review available on the topic
Regardless of the nature of your research, if you are writing a paper an outline will help you to not only organize your thoughts, but also serve as the template for your entire paper. An outline for a research paper is a visual reminder to include all of the pertinent details of your research into your essay or paper. It is essentially a skeletal version of the true paper, and will guide you through the entire process.
Follow the same capitalization rules for acronyms as you normally would in writing a text of the essay, e.g. FBI would be all in capitals as it is the acronym for Federal Bureau of Investigations. When using an acronym, especially an uncommon one, you must indicate what the letters stand for at the first occurrence in your essay. Example: The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is nearly finished converting from using standard desktop PCs to blade PCs.
Your separate title page should appear as follows:
Gun Control: Pros and Cons
NRW-3A1-01
Ms. K. Smith
Tracy Jones
16 January 2006A title page is not essential for a research paper unless specifically requested by your teacher. The MLA Handbook provides a general guideline on writing a research paper and documenting sources. In case of conflict, you should always follow guidelines set down by your teacher.
How do you create an outline for your paper?
There are a number of sources you can turn to for research paper examples and, depending on your field of study, a plethora of potential high quality topics to pull your subject matter from.
You will also want to consider using a literature overview. This is achieved by documenting the literary sources used to support your theories and hypothesis. The topic of your paper and the selected literature should be adjacent.
The Body is the heartiest part of the essay, it includes many fact-rich paragraphs or subsections and will allow you to build upon your thesis statement by providing facts to support your argument. This section should not only elaborate on your opening statement, but also provide insight into the methods used to conduct your research and include investigative points or answers to questions pondered.
Relatively straightforward, right? However, the part to remember is that each part serves a specific purpose and how you arrange information in your outline will drive how your paper reads upon completion.
There are a number of sources you can turn to for research paper examples and, depending on your field of study, a plethora of potential high quality topics to pull your subject matter from.
As you will learn from looking through any good research paper example, writing a great paper involves so much more than simply throwing a bunch of text and citations into a word processor and hoping for the best.
A passing grade means not only thoroughly researching your topic and ensuring that all of your sources are accurately cited, but also ensuring that your research essay is properly formatted. The following guideline will help you to create finished paper that not only reads like it was professionally written – but also looks like it!
How do you create an outline for your paper?
Example:
Jones 1
Tracy Jones
Ms. K. Smith
NRW-3A1-01
16 January 2006
Gun Control: Pros and Cons
Do not type your title all in capital letters. Do not put quotations marks before and after the title. Do not underline the title, or put a period at the end of the title. Proper names of people and places as well as important words should be capitalized in the title, but prepositions and conjunctions are normally shown in lower case letters, e.g. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The same rule applies to headings and subheadings as well.The Introduction is one of the most important elements of any great research paper, and interestingly enough, often written LAST. This is because the purpose of the introduction is to grab the attention of the reader, this is done by presenting the reader with the topic, and using the thesis statement as an opportunity to ‘hook’ the attention of the reader.
If you don’t have a title page, you may begin 1″ from the top of the first page of your essay and start typing your name flushed against the left margin. Then under your name, on separate lines, double-spaced, and flushed against the left margin, type your teacher’s name, your course code, and the date.
Using quotation marks to signify the citation source. If you paraphrase, you do not use the same terms.
If you do not know logical errors, take some time to look at the most common errors. The easiest way to organize a document is to objectively evaluate the style you select to ensure that it is relevant.
The subject you are writing about is critical, but you do not have to like it. Use the purpose of this study and writing to learn and discover something unique.
The corresponding measures will help you in writing a theoretical article. The procedures are as follows:
Check Grammatical Mistakes
It might be helpful to bookmark tools in your browser or to create a digital reference list to access your observations. Consider how you arrange your analysis if you are creating something just for yourself.
In the long term, it would be easier for you to write about a subject which suits your job.
Do not ignore the facts and the information. Just when you see an article that says something is real, it does not mean that something is proven.
Learn to gain knowledge of the subject from multiple points of view and classes. You may read a variety of posts, read a book, or read an article with a glimpse of the matter.