Research Papers Examples

The two most commonly used styles of documentation are the Modern Language Association and the American Psychological Association which are commonly known as APA and MLA respectively. The style of MLA is used in the humanities such as English and Literature whereas APA is used in the social sciences such as Psychology.

Here, both styles are going to be covered; therefore, follow these guidelines and you will be in a position to signal to your readers just how serious you are to the academic or professional field. First of all, we will begin with the MLA.

Research Paper Example MLA Formatting Style

The style known as Modern Language Association is commonly used in documentation of literary research papers. When one uses it to format manuscripts, a specific set of rules are followed. It can as well be considered together with APA style. Usually, it is a standard reference in college. MLA as compared with APA style, deals with citation of literary work, anthologies, books, multimedia and related work requiring more details. Below are some of the general guidelines used when coming up with a research paper using the MLA format:

• MLA uses the present tense of verb most commonly, unlike APA style. Other features include List of bibliographic cited works.

• A bibliographic list by the author following alphabetical order, then work in alphabetical order.

• Titles are centered an inch below the tops of the page.

• Names organized in the bibliographic order/referenced authors such that, last name first, followed by the first name and then middle initial.

• It usually centered an inch below the tops of the page.

• The last name of the author and page number is included in the in-text citation.

• No breaks lines in each citation but only the double-spaced lines.

• Superscripted footnotes to give attention to non- relevant information.

Principles of Using MLA Style

1. Paper choice

Many professors prefer that students make electronic submissions of their college research paper assignments, though there are some who insist on hard copies. In this section we are mainly focusing on the type of paper that must be used for the submitting of a research paper.

2. The instructions for the heading

There are only two options available when it comes to the creating of an MLA header for your project.

• You can place a heading at the top of the first page to give meaning to your work.

• A title page can be used to give your work a sense of grace. And to have this, you must write in standard lettering include the italics only if your title is of another source.

3. Running headings and page numbers

A running page is a heading that is briefly placed at the top right corner of every page in a research paper. A running head should consist of the name of the writer followed by the number of the page. Here are some of the tips that you need to be mindful about:

• In the upper right-hand corner, about a half an inch flush with the right margin.

• Do not put anything, before the page number.

• To be on the safe side, ask your instructor his or her preference because most instructors don't want any page number that is on the first page.

Going through a research paper example MLA will give you more insight.

Now that we are done with MLA, let us now embark on the elaboration of the APA format.

Using APA for Your Research Paper Example

The American Psychological Association (APA) is used by authors to submit papers for publications in APA journals. Established in 1929, researchers apply those rules to guide them achieve: construction of correct established language, appropriate citations that are correct, to avoid plagiarism, minimum distraction, proper headers and achieve maximum precision.

To begin with, here are some of the principles in the writing of an APA style college research paper:

1. Primary APA Guidelines

To avoid mistakes in your research paper or essay writing, the following can be observed:

• The margins, from top to bottom, right, left should leave a gap in all sides.

• 12pt should be the size of the font.

• Double spaced paragraphs, but no single space should be used; this is to avoid the work being cramped and squeezed. It should look presentable. Thesis outline can be a good example.

• Your name, professor/guide/instructor/study area title, should be outlined in the first page. Script outline can also guide in this matter.

• A page header should be included at the top of every page. Insert numbers flush right to create page headers. A title of the individual paper should be typed in the header flush using capital letters. The page header is a shortened form of the main paper title and should not exceed 50 characters inclusive of spacing and punctuations.

• Applications like King soft and Microsoft have tools which can be employed to assist in arranging your essay or research paper. When checking on basic APA outline, examples and format guidelines, the following should be noted.

2. Examples of Research Papers that Use APA

Most teachers or college students taking social sciences as their main subject in research work, examples being papers in sociology, psychology, History, Linguistics mostly use APA guidelines for writing down assignments and research papers in their study area. APA is also used in other fields like Business, Nursing, and Economics.

APA covers the introductory part of the citation page. It principally gives the basic style and outline and thereby making it easy for the writer to write the paper correctly.

3. An Outline of Writing a Research Paper Using APA Format

Having a good guideline gives the researcher an appropriate chance to present a well-documented essay or a research paper. This requires an individual to create a skeleton on what to be displayed on the written work. For you to make your paper credible, this is the right grammatical format to follow. If your grammar is not proper, your paper is usually less impressive.

With this in mind, below are some of the tips that you can use to come up with a top-notch college research paper.

1. Use of Parallelism

One can use verbs in a consecutive, and orderly manner that agrees with the structures. In grammar, this is what is referred to as parallelism.

In a college research paper, it refers to the titles and sub-titles that have been used. The rules are that if you begin a heading with a verb, the subsequent sub-headings must use a verb. If an entry starts with a noun, then the sub-headings have to also start with nouns.

Headings like, "Prepare a Resume" and "Choose markets." The first words, "Prepare" and "choose" are verbs. Therefore, the sub-headings to these main titles must bear verbs as their first words. The sub-headings could turn out to be, "visiting markets'' or "Evaluating markets." Consistent use of verbs in title and subtitles is what is called parallelism

If these are your titles, "Choose Companies" and "Prepare Resume," the words "choose" and "prepare" are both action words. Ensure that your other title and subtitles have action words in them. The subtitles should be something like, "visit and assess offices" or "Visit and evaluate companies' websites."

The use of agreeing verbs for that matter is parallelism.

2. Co-Ordination Between Vital Headings

Titles must be treated with the same seriousness because they are of equal significance. The same case goes with subtitles although they may not carry the same weight. Here are some examples:

• Evaluate the offices of markets.

• Evaluate websites of possible markets

• Check positions, salaries, and benefits.

• Audit important reviews for salespeople from job sites.

3. Making Use Of Secondary Status

The similarity in headings and sub-headings is called subordination. General information can be in the titles, whereas sub-headings should provide more specific information. The more the sub-titles, the clearer the data becomes. Examples are given in the program outline.

Suitable Titles

1) A description of a good man

2) A great musician.

3) Acquaintance

It can be noted that the Title "A description of a good man" is general whereas "Acquaintance" and "A great musician" are quite precise.

4. To Create an Outline by Use of Division

Two to three divisions are required for each heading. Where the divisions are too many, more headings or sub-headings should be applied.

5. Main Titles should be written in Roman Numbers

Research paper example: When typing a research paper on Mugs Foundation, your heading can appear this way:

"i) The Mugs Foundation." Always remember to use Roman Numerals to indicate the major titles. Your titles come first and quite basic APA formatting outline.

6. Sub-Heading Comes Next

The sub-heading should follow the main titles. Capital letters of the alphabets are used when listing. Let us take an example of the above given heading "Research Paper on Mugs foundation." If we can assume the sub-heading to be "History of the mugs," Then the listing should take the alphabets which start with capital A and ends with Z.

APA research paper example:

1. The plastic cups history

Therefore, your titles and subtitles could read:

1. Research Paper on Mugs foundation.

1. Plastic cups history

7. Adding Other Subheadings

In case you would wish to add other sub-headings to the main heading, you can do so by employing the use of the next letter the alphabets. This has been illustrated below.

B) Functions and achievement of the mug's market.

Titles and subtitles should appear:

1. Research Paper on Mugs foundation.

A) Plastic cups history
B) Designs and Functions of Mugs to the market

You should incorporate the number commonly used to enumerate. Use (1,2,3 and so on). If you want to add another subheading "Beautification" under heading B, you may write it like this:

1. Beautification.

Therefore, your research paper would now look something like this:

1. Research Paper on Mugs foundation.

A) Plastic cups history
B) Designs and Functions of Mugs to the market

1) Beautification"

Lastly, if there are still more subtitles you want to add under your last subheading, the use of lower-case letters is necessary. If there are even subtitles you want to add under the previous caption, use Arab numerals in parenthesis. Below is an example of research paper subheadings that you can use for future reference.

1. Research Paper on Mugs foundation.

A) Plastic cups history
B) Designs and Functions of Mugs to the market

1) Beautification.

2) Embossing Printing

i) Methods of embossing Printing

Conclusion

Dependent on one's discipline, the research papers they should come up with require specialized methods for documenting especially because they borrow from texts outside. Featuring the two common methods used in documentation, we sure hope that we have been of great assistance in your striving to become a competent writer.