Emerson C.

Prado
ARC 415 – Research Methods in Architecture

RSW NO. 1 DIFFERENT KINDS OF FORMAT IN RESEARCH WRITING

What is Research Paper?

“Research paper.” What image comes into mind as you hear those words: working with stacks of
articles and books, hunting the “treasure” of others’ thoughts? Whatever image you create, it’s a
sure bet that you’re envisioning sources of information—articles, books, people, artworks. Yet a
research paper is more than the sum of your sources, more than a collection of different pieces of
information about a topic, and more than a review of the literature in a field. A research paper
analyzes a perspective argues a point. Regardless of the type of research paper you are writing,
your finished research paper should present your own thinking backed up by others’ ideas and
information.
A research paper Is an expanded essay that presents your own interpretation or evaluation or
argument. When you write an essay, you use everything that you personally know and have
thought about a subject. When you write a research paper you build upon what you know about
the subject and make a deliberate attempt to find out what experts know. A research paper
involves surveying a field of knowledge in order to find the best possible information in that
field. And that survey can be orderly and focused, if you know how to approach it. Don’t worry
—you won’t get lost in a sea of sources.
In fact, this guide is designed to help you navigate the research voyage, through developing a
research question and thesis, doing the research, writing the paper, and correctly documenting
your sources.
A research paper is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and
argument based on in-depth independent research.

The purpose of Research Writing

When you perform research, you are essentially trying to solve a mystery—you want to know
how something works or why something happened. In other words, you want to answer a
question that you (and other people) have about the world. This is one of the most basic reasons
for performing research.
But the research process does not end when you have solved your mystery. Imagine what would
happen if a detective collected enough evidence to solve a criminal case, but she never shared
her solution with the authorities. Presenting what you have learned from research can be just as
important as performing the research. Research results can be presented in a variety of ways, but
one of the most popular—and effective—presentation forms is the research paper.
Different kinds of format in research writing
1. APA STYLE ( AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION)
Using a particular writing style can simplify the editors’ work because every author
adheres to the same format, as well as it makes it easier for the audience to follow the
author’s ideas because they are organized according to a familiar structure.
Demonstrating that you know and follow the style requirements of your field will also
make your work more credible and trusted.

APA Style is often used for citation and formatting in social sciences (Psychology,
Sociology, Linguistics, Economics, Criminology, as well as the areas of Business and
Nursing). It also deals with the overall writing style, content organization and preparation
of a paper for publication, if needed.

Thus, we recommend having a look at their manual as well as other online sources.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association – Get a quick

orientation to APA, Create APA parenthetical citations, Create an APA reference list,
Format a paper using APA guidelines, Format APA headings for a paper, Review APA
usage and style guidelines, and Locate other APA resources on the Web.

APA Style Guide 6th Edition – USM Libraries, University of Southern Mississippi,
Hattiesburg, MS. Examples of APA citations for books, journals, other media, and
electronic information.

The Basics of APA Style – From APA Online, American Psychological Association,
Washington, DC. A useful tutorial following the 6th Edition of APA’s Publication
Manual, 2009. There are also some useful FAQs.

Formatting an APA paper

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.
 If submitting for publication, insert a running head on every page.
 Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.

Title page
 The image below shows how to format an APA Style title page for a student paper.

Running head
If you are submitting a paper for publication, APA requires you to include a
running head on each page. The image below shows you how this should be
formatted.

For student papers, no running head is required unless you have been instructed to
include one.

Headings
 Apa provides guidelines for formatting up to five levels of heading within your
paper. Level 1 headings are the most general, level 5 the most specific.

Reference page
APA Style citation requires (author-date) APA in-text citations throughout the text
and a reference page at the end. The image below shows how the reference page should
be formatted.

Example of APA style

2. MLA STYLE ( MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION)
MLA Style of citation and formatting is widely used in the field of Art, Liberal Arts, and
Humanities.
Its approach is to give a writer a universal formatting tool which can be applied to various
kinds of sources (citing different kinds of sources, like research papers, articles, essays,
government publications, newspapers, manuscripts, maps, charts, spoken interviews,
sound recordings, web sites, films and illustrations and more). With the development of
the Internet, texts may be found online in any format, and new designs and presentation
forms are invented. That is why MLA offers a writer a number of general principles
finding them more important than a rigid set of rules for every particular source.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 8th Edition – The Modern Language
Association, the authority on research and writing, takes a fresh look at documenting
sources.

Citing Film and Video in a slightly adapted version of MLA style with examples.

Citing TV and Radio – with examples by Gary Handman, Media Resources Center,
Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA.

Citing Web Sources MLA Style - Vanguard University of Southern California. 1998
MLA Web citation style. In-text Citation, Works Cited, Examples of Typical Web Sites,
and Citing from Website Databases.

We have also prepared a number of articles on particular subjects available on

AResearchGuide website for your convenience.

Guidelines on How to Write a Bibliography in MLA Style

 Works Cited, References, Bibliography – What’s the Difference?
 How to Write a Bibliography – Examples in MLA Style
 How to Write Footnotes and Endnotes in MLA Style
 First Footnotes and Endnotes – Examples in MLA Style
 Parenthetical References – Examples in MLA Style
 Footnotes in MLA Style – Sample Page
 Endnotes in MLA Style – Sample Page
 Parenthetical References in MLA Style – Sample Page
 Works Cited in MLA Style – Sample Page
 Quoting Passages Using MLA Style
MLA Online – University of Houston Libraries Examples show the correct format for
citing online sources in Modern Language Association (MLA) style.

MLA Parenthetical Documentation – LEO: Literacy Education Online, St. Cloud State
University, St. Cloud, MN. How to correctly document different types of sources using
MLA Parenthetical Documentation: Author(s) name, Multivolume works, Classic literary
works, Special cases.

Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format The Purdue University Online
Writing Lab, West Lafayette, IN. Using APA format, Formatting in Sociology, Handling
quotations in text, Works Cited list, Footnotes, and Endnotes, Paper format.

Formatting an MLA paper

The main guidelines for writing an MLA style paper are as follows:

 Use an easily readable font like 12 pt Times New Roman.

 Set 1 inch page margins.
 Apply double line spacing.
 Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.
 Use title case capitalization for headings.

First page
On the first page of an MLA paper, a heading appears above your title, featuring some
key information:

 Your full name

 Your instructor’s or supervisor’s name
 The course name or number
 The due date of the assignment
Page header
A header appears at the top of each page in your paper, including your surname and the
page number.

Works Cited page

MLA in-text citations appear wherever you refer to a source in your text. The Works
Cited page appears at the end of your text, listing all the sources used. It is formatted as
shown below.

Example of MLA style

3. CHICAGO STYLE OR TURABIAN STYLE
Chicago Style and Turabian Style are also similar. They are designed to be used first of
all in history and economics. Turabian Style is basically a modification of the Chicago
Style for the needs of students. It is used in history, literature, and arts. There is also a
style used in the scientific field, in natural and social sciences. Turabian Style guide
includes the notes and bibliography style and the author-date style.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. This edition has been prepared with an eye
toward how we find, create, and cite information that readers are as likely to access from
their pockets as from a bookshelf. It offers updated guidelines on electronic workflows
and publication formats, tools for PDF annotation and citation management, web
accessibility standards, and effective use of metadata, abstracts, and keywords.

Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide From the Chicago Manual of Style Online.
Provides examples on writing footnotes, in-text citations, reference list entries and
bibliographical citations for both print and electronic sources using Chicago Style.

Chicago/Turabian Documentation – Writing Center, University of Wisconsin-

Madison, Madison, WI. Get a quick orientation to note systems, Create Chicago/Turabian
first references, Create Chicago/Turabian subsequent references, and Create a
Chicago/Turabian Works Cited page

The two different types of Chicago style

 The Notes-Bibliography (NB) system which uses a bibliography and either
footnotes or endnotes
Commonly used for humanities, including history, literature, and art
 The Author-Date system which uses a bibliography and parenthetical citations
within the text
Commonly used for science and social sciences

The main guidelines for writing a paper in Chicago style (also known as Turabian style)
are:

 Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman.

 Use 1 inch margins or larger.
 Apply double line spacing.
 Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.
 Place page numbers in the top right or bottom center.
Bibliography or reference list
Chicago offers two citation styles: author-date citations plus a reference list, or footnote
citations plus a bibliography. Choose one style or the other and use it consistently.

The reference list or bibliography appears at the end of the paper. Both styles present this
page similarly in terms of formatting, as shown below.

How to site sources in Chicago style

In using Chicago citation, you should know the following information for each of your
sources:

 Author
 Title of book/article
 Title of newspaper/journal
 Publisher
 Publication year
  Publication month and date
 City of publication
 Date of access
 Page numbers
 URL or name of the database

Once you have these details, you’ll need to choose between the two referencing styles:
Notes and Bibliography (NB) or Author-date. In the next section, give you specific
instructions on how to apply each one.

4. CITING SOURCES – GENERAL

As a writer of academic papers, every student must document any source of information
which they use in their research papers, articles, presentations and any kind of scientific
project. If you properly document the original works of other authors that you base your
ideas on, it allows the readers to easily see and consult the resources used. Accurate and
proper quoting will help avoid plagiarism, which is considered a serious breach of
academic conduct. So if you want to create an original writing and need to use Turnitin
for this, you can read how to beat Turnitin.

There are 3 methods of including other writer’s work into your paper. They are called
citing or quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.

Citation. The purpose of the citing/quoting is that it should repeat the original text word-
for-word and include a reference to the original writer of the source document. When you
have to incorporate another author’s ideas into your text, you should first decide which
approach to use. You should use direct quotation when the exact wording of a passage is
important so that you can be sure you have reproduced the original accurately. You might
also use citations if the original statement is very well formulated and you feel it will
enrich your writing.

Paraphrasing is basically a retelling of a passage of the original text using your own
words and sentence structures. The author of the original must also be referenced.
Paraphrasing is widely used in research papers and argumentative essays, showing your
supervisors you understand a source text well and may reformulate it and find and
emphasize its main points. It also helps change the stylistic characteristics of your source,
adapting it to the readers (for example, if you use it for a presentation of some scientific
topic before your class) and omitting unnecessary details.

Summarizing means reproducing only the most important ideas and main points of the
source in your own words. It usually summarizes a larger statement in the form of a
shorter explanation. However, the original source must be referenced, too. The purpose of
a summary is a bit similar to that of a paraphrasing, but it helps to make a long text
shorter, explaining a lengthy chapter, article or a book in a brief essay or even in a single
paragraph.

List of Useful Resources on Citation and Writing:

Documentation Style Handouts in PDF – Writing Center at Armstrong Atlantic State
University (AASU), Savannah, GA Annotated Bibliography, APA, Chicago-Turabian,
and MLA Documentation, plus Grammar-Mechanics Handouts and Exercises, Regents’
Handouts, Writing Process Handouts, all available in PDF.

KnightCite: A Project of the Hekman Library – Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

Free Citation Generator for MLA, APA and Chicago styles. Site created by Justin Searls,
Student Intern, Teaching & Learning Digital Studio, Calvin Information Technology.

Slate: Citation Machine - An online tool that creates MLA and APA citations instantly.
This web tool was created by David Warlick of The Landmark Project on October 29,
2000, and is part of the Landmarks for Schools website for teachers.