How to Format a Research Paper

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Laura Turner and I'm going to talk to you today about formatting a research paper. So, first of all, figure out what kind of paper you need to write. If you're writing a really intense paper that contains end notes, and illustrations and stuff like that, you'll need to add those in. What I'm going to show you today is what I know about writing and formating an English research paper. So a sort of a standard academic paper. First of all, it's most important for you to actually have written the entire paper before you go back to format it. So leave your formating for the end of the process. Don't sort of go through your paper and format as you go. But if you are very proficient and you can do that, then ore points to you. My most important advice considers things that people usually take for granted. Title your paper. Give it, especially with an English research paper it's good to give it a double title. Sort of a title with a colon and then a secondary idea. So a broad title and then narrowing it down. Underline and italicize where appropriate. If your professor wants you to underline the works that you're citing, do that for them. If they want it to be italicized, make sure that you're italicizing everything you need to italicize. Use foot notes and citations correctly. If your professor wants you to use foot notes, you're going to actually have to format it in a much different way as opposed to doing in line citations, which are within the end of the sentence within the period the parenthesis. Footnotes are more complicated and contain these ending numbers which will then be connected down to the bottom of the page and require much more depth, research. But always double space your paper, and make sure the margins are correct. Be sure to number the pages of your paper in the upper right hand corner with your last name before the number of the page. And if it's an actual research paper that needs a title page, find out how your professor wants you to create this title page. Usually the title page will have, it'll be a certain sort of spacing with your double title and then your name and the professor's name and the date, stuff like that. Just an extra step that they might want you to take. Really, formating a research paper depends on what kind of paper you're going to write. And so, hopefully you can get most of the information from your professor, but maybe this helped you to start off on the right foot."