Academic writing

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Academic Writing Formats

An academic paper should follow a defined formatting style that is characterized by standard fonts, margin and indentation. The standardization is crucial in gaining credibility with academic audience. The common academic format styles include APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and Turabian. The following are the rules and guidelines as well as the example of each format mentioned above.

APA

1. Typed, double spaced and standard-sized paper (8.5″ x 11″) with 1″ margins on all sides.
2. 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
3. Running head (header) on top of every page (‘Running head: TITLE OF THE PAPER’ – on the 1st page, ‘TITLE OF THE PAPER’ – on the rest of pages).
4. Page numbers in the top right corner that start on the 1st page.
5. Four major sections: Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.
6. Title of the paper is not more than 12 words in length and does not contain abbreviations.
7. Author’s name in the title page is written in ‘first name, middle initial(s), last name’ order and does not contain titles (Dr.) or degrees (Ph.D).
8. Abstract (1 double-spaced paragraph, 150-250 words long) is placed on a separate page.
9. Key words are placed after ‘Abstract’ and are indented. ‘Key words’ (title of the section) is italicized.
10. All tables and figures are numbered and have to be referred to in the text.
11. Two spaces follow periods (full stops).
12. Inverted commas for quotes that are less than 40 words in length.
13. 40 and more words quotes are written in a new line, without inverted commas and indented on 0.5” from the left-side margin.
14. Author-date method of in-text citations. For example: (Jones, 2013).
15. Reference page is entitled ‘Reference’ (in case there is only 1 source used in the paper) or ‘References’ (in case there 2 and more).
16. Sources are listed alphabetically and are indented (0.5” hanging).

APA_Style
APA_Sample

MLA

1. Typed, double spaced and standard-sized paper (8.5″ x 11″) with 1″ margins on all sides.
2. 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
3. Header: Surname (in the right top corner of the page).
4. Page numbers in the top right corner starting on the 1st page.
5. No title page is required.
6. Title of the paper is not bolded or italicized, centered, capitalized.
7. Only one space after punctuation marks (unless more are specifically requested).
8. Titles of published works are italicized throughout the paper.
9. Inverted commas for quotes of no longer than 4 lines of prose and 3 lines of verse.
10. Long quotes (more than 4 lines of prose and 3 lines of verse) are written in a new line and indented 1” from the left-side margin.
11. Author-page method of in-text citations. For example: (Jones 18).
12. Table and figures are numbered.
13. Under a table/figure, source should be indicated:

Source: http://www.xxxx.com
Source: Smith, John. Anatomy of whales. New York, NY: Cengage Learning, 2013.
14. Reference page is entitled ‘Work Cited (in case there is only 1 source used in the paper) or ‘Works Cited’ (in case there 2 and more).
15. Sources are listed alphabetically and are indented (0.5” hanging).
MLA_8th_ed.
MLA_Style_8th_ed.