The main guidelines for formatting a paper in APA Style are as follows: Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman or 11 pt Arial. Set 1 inch page margins. Apply double line spacing.

The major parts of a research paper are abstract,Introduction,review of literature,research methods,findings and analysis,discussion,limitations,future scope and references.

The Big Three: APA, MLA, and CMS There are three main “Schools of Style” used to properly format an academic paper, referred to as APA, MLA, or CMS.

Formatting a Page Consistency helps authors organize their arguments or research efficiently. From the information on the title page to the headers that divide information in the discussion, each section has a predetermined format.

Academic journals utilize specific formatting in order to maintain consistency throughout their publications. This helps avoid confusion between articles. For example, one article may have pretest, another pre-test, and a third Pretest.

APA Style provides clarity to papers on often complex topics. It makes papers easier to read and understand. When sources are cited the same way each time and the paper is written in a uniform format, it gives it better flow and helps keep the focus on the content of the paper.

Who Should Use MLA? MLA Style is typically reserved for writers and students preparing manuscripts in various humanities disciplines such as: English Studies – Language and Literature. Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Citing or documenting the sources used in your research serves three purposes: It gives proper credit to the authors of the words or ideas that you incorporated into your paper. It allows those who are reading your work to locate your sources, in order to learn more about the ideas that you include in your paper.

Begin the list of sources on a separate numbered page at the end of the document. Provide a title at the top of the page, “References” for APA or “Works Cited” for MLA, with no special formatting: bolding, underlining, quotation marks, larger font size, etc. List all sources used in the document in alphabetical order.

When we have ideas about what we read, we need to cite Explicit Textual Evidence to support our ideas. When we read, we often are asked to answer questions or express our ideas about the text.

You may incorporate textual evidence right into the sentence with the use of quotation marks, but your quote from the text must make sense in the context of the sentence. For example: April is so wildly confused that she actually “…hated Caroline because it was all her fault” (page 118).

Use a direct quotation only if the exact phrasing of the original material is crucial to your point. If you can paraphrase the idea in your own words, do so. Use quotation marks around the words you are borrowing directly from another source. For longer passages, use block quotations.