Research Paper Outline

1 inch margins on all sides, all pages

ALL text should be double spaced.

Indent paragraphs and block quotes ½

inch

Font should be 12-pt Times New

Roman

The words Running head are only found on the title page of the document.

The running head title is a short

version of the full title

The cover page is page 1

Title is concise in 12 words or less

Title, author info are about 8-9 spaces from the top of the page

Abstract heading is NOT bold;

centered at the top of page 2.No indent

The abstract is usually between 150-200 words. It should be an accurate, concise, objective and specific summary

about the whole paper.

The words Running head are removed

The title of the paper is repeated for the

introduction, it should be centered & uppercase – not

bold

Level 1 Headings are centered, bold and uppercase

each first letter

Indent ½ inch

One space after a period

Lead in citation or signal phrase

et al. is appropriate to use for a first citation only when there are five or

more authors. You may use et al. when you are citing three or more authors in second or subsequent

citations

Quotes must include a page (p.) or paragraph (para.)

number

Paraphrases must include a citation

(lead in or closing)

In any citation you must place a comma after every author and a

comma after the last author, before the year

Closing citation option

You do not need to cite the same author multiple times in text, UNLESS you introduce a new

author(s), in which case you would need to recite the original author if

you paraphrase or quote them

When citing two different authors

separate them with a semi colon (;)

Notice the quote citation and then a new author citation and then the writer recites the first

cited author

There are no quotations in a

block quote

The period comes before the citation

There is NO period after the citation

The entire quote is 1/5

inch from the margin on the left site only.

The right side is regular and not

justified

A block quote is used for quotes with 40 or more words and should be used sparingly.

The word References is at the top,

centered, not bold title case

The journal title is in italics and all major

words are capitalized

Volume number in italics

The title of the article has only the first word and proper nouns

capitalized

Page numbers of article

Always include the doi when the article is found within a library

database.

References are listed

alphabetically by the first authors

last name use the ampersand (&) for

multiple authors

The volume of the work should be in

italics

Journal articles that are found on the web (outside of the library databases) must include a retrieved from address and the words Retrieved from, do not include the date

NO hyperlinks

BOOK

Website

Web-based article

Use the date provided on the website – the last updated date or the date you

accessed the website

Book edition

Publisher location

Publisher

Title of the webpage when

no author is provided