APA format and How to Write a Research Paper
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This document gives a break down of the process of writing a research paper in APA format. It goes through Research, outlining, body, intro, conclusion, intext citations, direct and nondirect quotations, and formatting of the references page.
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APA Format
Steps to a GREAT APA paper:
Research
After you choose a topic, you need to research the topic and find enough sources and information to complete the research paper.
Places to search:
EBSCO - Subscription database that Hamilton has access to.
Go to: search.epnet.com (website)
ID = s7742903
Password = password
You will be given many choices of different databases and you will want to pick the one(s) that apply to your topic.
Use the search feature to search for your topic
You can find many peer reviewed sources with this database
www.askjeeves.com
Online search engine
You can type a question in the search area and the website will give you possible links for the answers. These are usually not peer reviewed sources.
www.findarticles.com
Online search engine for articles
You can type in a search topic and the website will give you possible articles on that topic. Some are peer reviewed and some aren't.
Make sure to print out your reference and make note of all of the information that you will need for your reference pages.
There are several methods of taking notes from your research. Some include highlighting on the printed out copies, using note cards, cutting the sources into strips and putting them together like a puzzle. You must find the method that works the best and then determine what could be useful in your paper.
Writing the paper
The Outline
Once you have determined what information you are going to (possibly) use in your paper, you will need to come up with an outline. A general outline will look something like this:
Flowers
I. Introduction
II. History of Flowers
a. Prehistoric
b. Early 1800s
c. Early 1900s
d. 1950 - 2000
e. Present
III. Uses of flowers
a. Decoration
i. Lawn
ii. home
b. Gifts
c. Scent
d. Food
IV. Current technological advances
a. Hybrids
b. Scientific discoveries
V. Conclusion
After you have done the outline, you will be ready to put the paper together. You will need to go through your sources and determine where the information that you have highlighted will fit (under what heading). Example, on one source print out you found information on How flowers are being used as lawn décor in Florida. You would mark this as Lawn decoration so that you know that you will put this in that part of the paper.
The Paper
The structure of the paper will be determined by the format that your instructor has given you, but APA has some standards that can be used.
The Title Page
The title page will include several things, including: Title of the paper, Author's name, Name of the class, instructor's name, Date, and the Header for the Title of the paper and page number (please see example). The Title page should be centered both vertically and horizontally.
To set up the formatting for the title page:
1) Make sure that you are single spaced.
2) Make sure that the margins are set up as 1" all around. ( To check or to change go to File, Page Setup, Margins tab, and ...
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