How to Format a Research Paper?

Research papers have become an essential need for a student who is pursuing his/her masters at the university. This academic aspect requires special attention in terms of scoring well for academics, based on which students are evaluated for their semester grades. Research paper writing demands extensive research on the subject or topic that goes beyond the bounds of discussions and debates in the classroom. A little bit of mistake or a faulty representation of your topic might hamper the evaluation of your overall grade for academics. This is something that you need to address quite seriously. In that case, you can take help from renowned academic writing services available online, in case you find any difficulty with your assignments or projects.

As a college student, you will be required to write at least one research paper before you graduate. And after reading this blog, you’ll get a clear idea of how to format a research paper for your academic writing. This will help you create an impactful research paper for academics, with the powers of impressing your teachers and professors with its content and organisation.

Before you move onto the final drafting stage of your research paper, do not forget to take a look at the tips mentioned below by the instructor for students. Proper formatting is the basic need and requirement of a research paper and is a necessary aspect for creating a good impact on the minds of your readers. Here are a few common formatting rules for a research paper–

Margins

While formatting your paper, make sure that you leave a one-inch margin gap on both sides of the sheet – at the top and bottom of the text, leaving the running head. Make space for page numbers as well that need to be placed at the top upper-right hand corner.

Title/Cover page

You only need to make a cover page when asked for. In case you are not asked to make a cover page for your research paper, you need to write down your name against the left margin of your first page of the essay. Following the name goes the name of your teacher, course code and then date.

When you are told to make a cover page of your paper, make sure that you write the topic in bold letters. For long titles, you can add the double space between the lines of your title.

Table of contents

When you are just told to write a short research essay for your analysis, there’s no need to include any table of contents on that basis. But for the lengthy ones, it is necessary for a student to add a separate page for the table of contents information, which will show the page number according to the subjects and sub-headings chosen for it.

Quality of paper

If you are told to present your paper in print rather than a written one, make sure that you choose the length and quality of your paper appropriately. For instance, the common criterion requires the use of 8*11 clean and white-good quality paper. For printouts, always use only the single side of your sheet.

Numbering sheets and writing paragraphs

The page numbers of your sheets need to be written down consecutively one after the other, in the upper right-hand corner of the sheet. Use Arabic numerical font for writing the page numbers. Do not decorate your page numbers in any form.

Paragraphs and the references included in your text must be labelled properly at the end of each sheet. Do not mix the paragraph number or the reference one, creating chaos for the reader to examine the right source of your content.

Indentation

Always remember that when you’re told to submit a handwritten research paper for your academics, you double-space all the lines for clear presentation and good impression. You need to start each line with an indentation of 1” from the left margin. You can also your thumb to measure the width of your sheet.

On the other hand, if you are told to submit a soft copy of your research paper, make sure that you use an indent of 5 spaces. Also, the use of indent in your research paper is often instructed by your respective teachers. So do seek help from them first before including any indentation in your content.

So, these were some effective points of formatting that will help you structure your research paper for academics. Apart from this, if you require any kind of research paper help for your projects or assignments, feel free to contact our online research paper writing services for professional help and guidance.