Your Research Paper's Format

[Sample Title Page]

Recommendations here are based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. It is important to note, however, that individual instructors and institutions or departments may vary from these recommendatons somewhat and that it is always wise to consult with your teacher before formatting and submitting your work.

Paper:

Use white, twenty-pound, 81/2- by 11-inch paper. Erasable paper tends to smudge and should be avoided for a final draft. If you prefer to use erasable paper in the preparation of your paper, submit a good photocopy to your instructor.

Margins:

Except for page numbers (see below), leave one-inch margins all around the text of your paper -- left side, right side, and top and bottom. Paragraphs should be indented half an inch; set-off quotations should be indented an inch from the left margin (five spaces and ten spaces, respectively, on standard typewriters).

Spacing:

The MLA Guide says that "the research paper must be double-spaced," including quotations, notes, and the list of works cited.

Heading and Title:

Your research paper does not need a title page. At the top of the first page, at the left-hand margin, type your name, your instructor's name, the course name and number, and the date -- all on separate, double-spaced lines. Then double-space again and center the title above your text. (If your title requires more than one line, double-space between the lines.) Double-space again before beginning your text. The title should be neither underlined nor written in all capital letters. Capitalize only the first, last, and principal words of the title. Titles might end with a question mark or an exclamation mark if that is appropriate, but not in a period. Titles written in other languages are capitalized and punctuated according to different rules, and writers should consult the MLA Guide or their instructors.

Page Numbers:

To add page numbers follow these directions: Open a word document/ click on View/ Click on header-footer/ A dotted box will appear. Click on left justify/ now, type your last name, space (no comma) click on the little number symbol.

Number your pages consecutively throughout the manuscript (including the first page) in the upper right-hand corner of each page, one-half inch from the top. Type your last name before the page number. Most word processing programs provide for a "running head," which you can set up as you create the format for the paper, at the same time you are establishing things like the one-inch margins and the double-spacing. This feature makes the appearance and consistency of the page numbering a great convenience. Make sure the page-number is always an inch from the right-hand edge of the paper (flush with the right-hand margin of your text) and that there is a double-space between the page number and the top line of text. Do not use the abbreviation p. or any other mark before the page number.

[Sample Title Page]

Tables and Figures:

Tables should be labeled "Table," given an arabic numeral, and captioned (with those words flush to the left-hand margin). Other material such as photographs, images, charts, and line-drawings should be labeled "Figure" and be properly numbered and captioned.

Binders:

Generally, the simpler the better. Why spend money on gimmicky, unwieldy, slippery binders, when instructors prefer nice, flat stacks of papers they can stuff into their briefcases and backpacks? A simple staple in the upper left-hand corner of your paper should suffice, although the MLA Guide suggests that a paper clip can be removed and this facilitates reading (which suggests to us that it's been a long time since the people at MLA have had to deal with stacks of student papers). Your instructors or their departments may have their own rules about binders, and you should consult with them about this matter.

A Statement on Plagiarism

Using someone else's ideas or phrasing and representing those ideas or phrasing as our own, either on purpose or through carelessness, is a serious offense known as plagiarism. "Ideas or phrasing" includes written or spoken material, of course — from whole papers and paragraphs to sentences, and, indeed, phrases — but it also includes statistics, lab results, art work, etc. "Someone else" can mean a professional source, such as a published writer or critic in a book, magazine, encyclopedia, or journal; an electronic resource such as material we discover on the World Wide Web; another student at our school or anywhere else; a paper-writing "service" (online or otherwise) which offers to sell written papers for a fee.

Let us suppose, for example, that we're doing a paper for Music Appreciation on the child prodigy years of the composer and pianist Franz Liszt and that we've read about the development of the young artist in several sources. In Alan Walker's book Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years (Ithaca: 1983), we read that Liszt's father encouraged him, at age six, to play the piano from memory, to sight-read music and, above all, to improvise. We can report in our paper (and in our own words) that Liszt was probably the most gifted of the child prodigies making their mark in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century — because that is the kind of information we could have gotten from a number of sources; it has become what we call common knowledge.

However, if we report on the boy's father's role in the prodigy's development, we should give proper credit to Alan Walker. We could write, for instance, the following: Franz Liszt's father encouraged him, as early as age six, to practice skills which later served him as an internationally recognized prodigy (Walker 59). Or, we could write something like this: Alan Walker notes that, under the tutelage of his father, Franz Liszt began work in earnest on his piano playing at the age of six (59). Not to give Walker credit for this important information is plagiarism.

Some More Examples

Here is our original text from Elaine Tyler May's "Myths and Realities of the American Family":

Here are some possible uses of this text. As you read through each version, try to decide if it is a legitimate use of May's text or a plagiarism.

Version A:

Since women's wages often continue to reflect the mistaken notion that men are the main wage earners in the family, single mothers rarely make enough to support themselves and their children very well. Also, because work is still based on the assumption that mothers stay home with children, facilities for child care remain woefully inadequate in the United States.

Version B:

As Elaine Tyler May points out, "women's wages often continue to reflect the fiction that men earn the family wage" (588). Thus many single mothers cannot support themselves and their children adequately. Furthermore, since work is based on the assumption that mothers stay home with children, facilities for day care in this country are still "woefully inadequate." (May 589).

Version C:

By and large, our economy still operates on the mistaken notion that men are the main breadwinners in the family. Thus, women continue to earn lower wages than men. This means, in effect, that many single mothers cannot earn a decent living. Furthermore, adequate day care is not available in the United States because of the mistaken assumption that mothers remain at home with their children.

Version D:

Women today still earn less than men — so much less that many single mothers and their children live near or below the poverty line. Elaine Tyler May argues that this situation stems in part from "the fiction that men earn the family wage" (588). May further suggests that the American workplace still operates on the assumption that mothers with children stay home to care for them (589).

This assumption, in my opinion, does not have the force it once did. More and more businesses offer in-house day-care facilities. . . .

Penalty for Plagiarism

The penalty for plagiarism is usually determined by the instructor teaching the course involved. In many schools and colleges, it could involve failure for the paper and it could mean failure for the entire course and even expulsion from school. Ignorance of the rules about plagiarism is no excuse, and carelessness is just as bad as purposeful violation. At the very least, however, students who plagiarize have cheated themselves out of the experience of being responsible members of the academic community and have cheated their classmates by pretending to contribute something original which is, in fact, a cheap copy. Within schools and colleges that have a diverse student body, instructors should be aware that some international students from other cultures may have ideas about using outside resources that differ from the institution's policies regarding plagiarism; opportunities should be provided for all students to become familiar with institutional policies regarding plagiarism.

Students who do not thoroughly understand the concept of plagiarism and methods of proper documentation should request assistance from their teacher and from librarians.

Working with Quotations

Quotations that constitute fewer than five lines in your paper should be set off with quotation marks [ “ ” ] and be incorporated within the normal flow of your text. For material exceeding that length, omit the quotation marks and indent the quoted language one inch from your left-hand margin. If an indented quotation is taken entirely from one paragraph, the first line should be even with all the other lines in that quotation; however, if an indented quotation comes from two or more paragraphs, indent the first line of each paragraph an additional one-quarter inch.

If quotation marks appear within the text of a quotation that already has the usual double-quote marks [ “ ” ] around it (a quote-within-a-quote), set off that inner quotation with single-quote marks [ ‘ ’ ] . Such a quote-within-a-quote within an indented quotation is marked with double-quote marks.

In the United States, the usual practice is to place periods and commas inside quotation marks, regardless of logic. Other punctuation marks — question marks, exclamation marks, semicolons, and colons — go where logic would dictate. Thus, we might see the following sentences in a paper about Robert Frost:

(Note, also, the slash mark / (with a space on either side) to denote the poem's line-break.) But observe the placement of this semicolon:

Pay close attention to the placement of commas and periods in the use of citations.

The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of electronic source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter four. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.

If no author is given for a web page or electronic source, start with and alphabetize by the title of the piece and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.

A web site

It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available at one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Also, note the use of angled brackets around the electronic address; MLA requires them for clarity.

Web site examples

An article on a web site

Article on a web site

An article in an online journal or magazine

Some electronic journals and magazines provide paragraph or page numbers; include them if available. This format is also appropriate to online magazines; as with a print version, you should provide a complete publication date rather than volume and issue number.

Online journal article

An Online Image or Series of Images

E-mail (or other personal communications)

This same format may be used for personal interviews or personal letters. These do not have titles, and the description should be appropriate. Instead of "Email to John Smith," you would have "Personal interview."

E-mail to you

Email communication between two parties, not including the author

A listserv posting

Online Posting

An article or publication retrieved from an electronic database

If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database that your library subscribes to, you should provide enough information so that the reader can locate the article either in its original print form or retrieve it from the online database (if they have access).

Article in a reference database on CD-ROM

Article from a periodically published database on CD-ROM

Other Types of Sources

The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of other source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter four. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.

Government publication

Pamphlet

Interview that you conducted

A lecture or a speech

To cite a lecture or a speech, "give the speaker's name, the title of the lecture or speech (if known) in quotation marks, the meeting and the sponsoring organization (if applicable), the location [including place and city, if available], and the date. If there is no title, use an appropriate descriptive label (e.g., Lecture, Address, Keynote speech), neither underlined nor enclosed in quotation marks" (MLA Handbook, 206).

Television or radio program

Sound recording

Film

TV Advertisement

Taking Notes

As you examine each source, make a separate note of each fact or quotation you might want to use in your paper. Unless you are really good at manipulating text with your computer or laptop, it might be wise to use index cards when preparing notes. Be sure to identify the source of the information on the listing (include the author's name and page number on which the information appears). Try to summarize the information in your own words (paraphrasing); use quotation marks if you copy the information exactly. (This rule should apply whether you are copying a great deal of material or only a phrase.) Give each listing a simple descriptive heading.

Your listings — whether they appear on index cards or within some format on your computer — will now provide the authoritative basis for your paper's content and documentation. By arranging and rearranging the listings and using your descriptive headings, you may well discover a certain order or different categories which will help you prepare an outline. You may find that you need additional information, or that some of the listings may not be appropriate and should be set aside or discarded.

Books

Book with one author

Two books by the same author

Book with more than one author

Book with a corporate author

Book or article with no author named

Anthology or collection

A part of a book (such as an essay in a collection)

Essay in a collection

Article from a reference book

An article in a periodical (such as a newspaper or magazine)

Magazine or newspaper article

An article in a scholarly journal

Essay in a journal with continuous pagination

Essay in a journal that pages each issue separately

The Bible (specific editions)

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