Formatting Your Research Paper

Writing for the Academic World

When writing a research paper for your class you will need to know:• How the title page is formatted.• How an introduction is composed.• The proper format for the manuscript.• The proper style for citations.• How to avoid plagiarism.

Why cite the sources you use for your papers?

Your professors expect you to read the research of others and to bring together their ideas in such a way that makes sense to you and will make sense to your readers.

Let’s talk about the reasons for doing so.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

All academic research is built upon verifiable evidence. As a student your research paper must be built upon the work of scholars.

Properly citing your resources acknowledges that your opinion is based upon the verifiable research conducted by those who are experts in their field.

Warning!In college you must give credit to those who have done the original research and written the article or book. Remember that writing books and research articles is hard work. When you use information from someone’s research you should give him or her credit for his or her work.

There are penalties for not giving credit to the resources you use.

We’ll talk about this more in the final lesson.

Professor’s ExpectationsCiting your sources demonstrates that you've completed the assignment.

Citations (along with the references cited or bibliography) show that you have consulted a variety of resources as the assignment required.

Citations allow the your readers (professors) to look at the cited works to see if you properly understood the materials.

FormatIn the academic world there are expectations for the presentation of research papers.

University courses use different style guides to cite resources in your paper.

The different guides represent the scholarly needs of that academic discipline.

StylesExamples of the style guides used in various academic disciplines at Eastern University include:• MLA (Modern Language Association)

style for the arts and humanities• APA (American Psychological Association)

styles for education, the social sciences, and the sciences

• Chicago/Turabian style is generally used for business and the fine arts

• SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) for Biblical, religious and theological studies.

APA Style• The Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA) is recognized as the standard for papers written in the sciences.

• The manual is found in the library.

• It can be found in the campus bookstore and through most book retailers.

MLA Style• The publication manual of the Modern

Language Association (MLA) is recognized as the standard for papers written in the arts, humanities and language.

• The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is found in the library.

• It can be found in the campus bookstore and through most book retailers.

SBL Style• The publication manual of the

SBL(Society of Biblical Literature ) is recognized as the standard for papers written in the religion, theology and Biblical studies.

• The SBL Handbook of Style is found in your college library.

• It can be found in the campus bookstore and through many book retailers.

The Chicago Manual of Style• The Chicago Manual of Style is

recognized as the standard for papers written in many academic disciplines including business, law and the fine arts.

• The Chicago Manual of Style is found in your college library.

• It can be found in the campus bookstore and through most book retailers.

Need Help?

We can’t review all the styles that you will encounter in college.

However there is assistance for you in the library.

Eastern University students can access the Citation Guides site at http://libguides.eastern.edu/citationguides

Tools to Assist You

Eastern University students also have access citation management tools.

There is a website dedicated to instructing you how to use RefWorks. This can be found at http://libguides.eastern.edu/refworks

Great Online Help!

Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a great resource that can help you format your paper.

The site offers sample papers using the major format style that will help you step-by-step as you write.

Check out the site at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

In our last lesson we discuss importance of academic honesty.

Do the student activity for this lesson. After that proceed to the next lesson.

Revised Thursday, February 5, 15.