Write research paper in word - Word и Excel - помощь в работе с программами

Research and add content with citations to your document

Note: Researcher uses Bing to pull in the appropriate content from the web and provide structured, safe and credible information.

On the Reference tab, in the Reference group, choose Researcher.
In the search box, type a keyword for the topic you are researching and press Enter.

The Results pane shows a list of sources you can use in your document.
Choose a topic in the Results pane to explore in detail.

or

Tap the plus sign on the upper right hand corner of on any result to begin an outline for your research topic. This adds the result as a topic heading in your document and saves a link to the result in a comment.
When you are exploring the text in the Results pane and do one of the following:
- Choose Add to add only text to your document.
- Choose Add and Cite to add text and also include citation for your source.
- Tap See all images to open the image gallery. Choose the plus sign to add the image to your document
After you add text or image, you are prompted to update your bibliography.

Choose Update to automatically create or update your existing bibliography.

Editing Citations

To edit, choose the citation and select the drop-down.

SelectEdit Citation.

See Add or change sources, citations, and bibliographies for more information.

Research and add content with citations to your document

On the Reference tab, choose Researcher.
In the search box, type a keyword for the topic you are researching and press Enter.

The Results pane shows a list of sources you can use in your document.

Note: Researcher uses Bing to pull in the appropriate content from the web and provide structured, safe and credible information.
Choose a topic in the Results pane to explore in detail.

or

Tap the plus sign on the upper right hand corner of on any result to begin an outline for your research topic. This adds the result as a topic heading in your document and saves a link to the result in a comment.
When you are exploring the text in the Results pane and do one of the following:
- Choose Add to add only text to your document.
- Choose Add and Cite to add text and also include citation for your source.
- Tap See all images to open the image gallery. Choose Add image to add it to the document
After you add text or image, you are prompted to update your bibliography.

Choose Update to automatically create or update your existing bibliography.

For a quick overview of the feature, check out the video below

Editing Citations

To edit, choose the citation and select the drop-down.

Choose Edit This Citation….

See Editing citations for more information.

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Being a student isn’t easy. When you’re writing academic papers and theses, help in any shape or form, is highly welcome, especially if you hate writing.

That’s why being familiar with new tools and just keeping up to date with current tech trends, will make the writing process much easier.

As a student, you‘re no doubt familiar with Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar checker that helps you polish your writing. But do you ever go beyond those two features when drafting your documents?

In case you didn’t know, Microsoft comes with Editor and Researcher tools to complement the ones you commonly use and have at your disposal.

The Researcher tool gives you the opportunity to explore online information without leaving the document editing page, while the Editor tool improves and simplifies your spell check and grammar.

If you haven’t used these features or don’t even realize the power of what they can do for your papers, you’re missing out. Whether you need to boost your writing skills for that summer course you’re taking or looking to improve for next September, these features just might do the trick.

Let’s explain how these can help you a bit more.

Researching Tips — All You Need To Know

Everything starts with an idea and the same goes for your paper writing. When you’re done with brainstorming it’s time to start educating yourself a bit more about your topic and start the actual writing.

But when you’re doing your thesis writing in Microsoft Word, you probably spend a lot of time on tiresome and tedious online research. That’s why Microsoft Word 2016 created the Researcher tool to assist you with the exhausting process.

The Researcher feature is a service that helps you find and incorporate credible sources and content to your Word documents. The feature uses Microsoft’s Bing Knowledge Graph to get the desired information online and place it directly into your document.

And you don’t have to worry about the trustworthiness of your data. Microsoft created and curated a list of trusted material and reference sources from which it pulls out your research. Researcher provides structured, credible and, more importantly, safe information you can use freely.

You can even use the option to automatically create your citations and directly add quotes to your research paper. So you don’t have to worry about writing references in MS Word. This eliminates the hard work that includes finding, inserting, and citing any published sources you use, giving you more time to refine and strengthen your thesis rather than going back and digging up more research to support it.

You can find the Researcher option under the References Tab in the top menu bar:

After clicking the icon, a right sidebar will appear where you can search for the term you’re researching.

The Editor Feature That Will Help You Write More Naturally

What makes the difference between a great research paper and a poor one? The secret is in the way everything is edited for the final version. Behind every good student lies a top class editing tool and to help you here, Microsoft offers up an Editor feature.

The Editor feature is a digital writing assistant that helps you with proofing and editing your content. Simply put, the feature flags any unclear phrases, marks up complex words, and makes suggestions by displaying various alternatives. It’s aimed at improving your writing style in MS Word.

The writing style functionality uses a combination of machine learning and human input, making the writing clearer or more effective. Rather than concentrating solely on spelling errors, MS Word’s style suggestions ability can replace complicated phrases with more direct alternatives.

To boot, details on why MS Word suggested the proposed changes are also added inside your document so you get a chance to learn from your mistakes.

Spelling checks and grammar edits will still be underlined, while writing style suggestions have their own design with dotted lines:

Spelling mistakes are underlined with a red squiggle
Blue double underlines are for any grammar issues
Gold dotted lines are reserved for writing style concerns

Bonus Tip: Present Your Paper In A More Dynamic Way

If you’ve done everything right, then it’s time to present your work. It’s not uncommon to use MS PowerPoint to create presentations and visually explain your theses. And now this is even easier with an option in Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 you also probably didn’t know about.

This nifty feature is the Zoom feature, which looks similar to what Prezi is offering. This is aimed at making presentations more appealing, giving your slides a breath of fresh air.

Instead of presenting slides one by one, you can quickly provide a full summary and let the audience know exactly how long is left in the presentation. This way you get a clear view of what section is being covered and the Zoom feature will make it more visually appealing.

Essentially, it gives the student a “thumbnails” view of upcoming slides, managing individual ones more like hyperlinks to different web pages.

With these features writing a paper or presenting your ideas becomes much easier. And this isn’t useful just for students. It’s useful for anyone conducting, writing and presenting research.

Will the Researcher tool make your life easier and will the style suggestions actually be useful for you? Let us know in the comment section below.

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This reference guide provides some tips to format academic papers in Microsoft Word. To give you an opportunity to practice proofreading, we have left a few spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in the text. See if you can spot them! If you spot the errors correctly, you will be entitled to a 10% discount.

Document Margins of Microsoft Word
Indentation of Microsoft Word Documents
How to Set Font Settings for Academic Papers in Microsoft Word
How to Change the Default Font of Your Academic Paper
How to Format Page Numbers for Academic Papers
Document Spacing of Academic Papers in Microsoft Word
How to Format Paragraph Spacing for Academic Papers
How to Create a New Page or Insert a Page Break in Microsoft Word

This reference guide will explain how to format your academic documents in Microsoft Word 2022, giving you the fundamental rules for formatting your academic papers as described in most guidelines, such as MLA and APA styles. The rules discussed in this guide apply to most of the academic papers you will submit as college assignments or articles for journals; however, keep in mind that some of your professors may want you to follow specific standards that may differ from the rules here. Adopting standard formatting for your academic papers indicates that you comprehend the rules of your college and therefore helps to improve your own credibility.

These rules and instructions can be applied to all versions of Microsoft Word for Mac and Windows. The tools, however, cannot be found at the same place on the toolbar at the top of your document.

Document Margins of Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word documents generally come with the default setting for margins. Check your default setting if it is to have different left and right margin. If so, change the default setting. Suppose that the paper you need to submit for review or grading should have 3.0 cm margins all around.

Here are the instructions you should follow:

Go to the Format menu at the top, scroll down to Document, change the margins, click on the Default button, and accept the change to the Normal template.

Make sure you leave the gutter set to 0 cm; otherwise, your document formatting will be messed up.

Then, make your selection.

Indentation of Microsoft Word Documents

Suppose that you want the first line of each paragraph to be automatically indented. Here are the instructions to follow:

To change the indentation format for an academic paper in Microsoft Word, choose Select All from the Edit menu, or press the combinations of ⌘ A.

Then go to the Format menu, select Paragraph from the drop-down menu (or press the key combinations of ⌥⌘M).

Indents and Spacing menu will be selected automatically. Under this menu, go to the Special drop-down menu and select First line. This setting automatically indents the first line of the new paragraph of your academic paper so that you do not have to set it manually each time.

How to Set Font Settings for Academic Papers in Microsoft Word

Guidelines may adopt different font settings for academic papers. For instance, a variety of fonts are permitted in APA Style papers. Font options in APA Style include sans serif fonts, such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, serif fonts, such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (the default font for LaTeX).

To change it, go to the Format menu, select Style under the drop-down menu.

Make sure Normal is selected from the list of styles, and click Modify. Choose your preferred font and size from the Formatting menu.

Click OK to make the change to your default settings. You may name it as you wish.

How to Change the Default Font of Your Academic Paper

Changing the default font in any template means that the newly set font will be used in every new document that is based on that template. For instance, the default font for new blank documents is based on the Normal template. First, open the template or a document based on the template whose default settings you wish to change. Go to the Format menu at the top of the screen, click the Font tab (or press the key combinations of ⌥⌘D).

Make any changes that you want, and then click Default.

You will have two options here: You can set the default font to the selected option for This document only or All documents based on the Normal template. Then click OK.

How to Format Page Numbers for Academic Papers

All documents should have automatically inserted page numbers shown in the upper right corner on all pages except the first page. Do not insert these page numbers manually. Use the Header/Footer tool of Microsoft Word instead.

Go to the View menu and choose Header and Footer.

A header box will appear at the top and a footer box at the bottom. Click in the header box; you can type your last name or the title of your document, and make it align to the right or left as you wish.

Then, select Page Numbers from the Insert menu.

If you want to show the number on the first page of your document, check the box next to Show number on first page. Set your Position and Alignment as you wish.

For advanced options, click Format, and set other settings, such as your number format, chat numbers, page numbering, etc.

When you are finished with the settings, click on the Close tab under the Header view. Each page of your document should now display a page number in the upper right corner that updates automatically when you make changes to your document. It will appear as grayed-out text unless you activate the Header and Footer tool to make changes.

If you want to change the setting so that page numbers do not display on the first page of your document, click on Document under the Format drop-down menu and click on the Layout menu.

Under this menu, check the box next to Different First Page, and click OK. If required, remove the header that appears on the first page, and insert a header on the second page. This will automatically appear on all subsequent pages.

Document Spacing of Academic Papers in Microsoft Word

Choose Select All from the Edit menu. Select Paragraph under the Format drop-down menu. Choose your desired spacing from the Line spacing menu under the Spacing section. Alternatively, you can use keyboard shortcuts.

How to Format Paragraph Spacing for Academic Papers

Select the Style from the Format drop-down menu. Make sure that Normal is selected from the list of styles, and click Modify. In the lower-left corner, select the Paragraph under the Format drop-down menu.

In the Paragraph settings menu that pops up, change the settings for After to 0 pt under the Spacing menu.

How to Create a New Page or Insert a Page Break in Microsoft Word

If you wish to create a new page, instead of using numerous returns before starting your bibliography, go to the Insert menu at the top of the screen. Select Page Break under the Break drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can press ⌘+Enter to insert a page break.

If you need help with formatting your academic papers, contact us!

Best Edit & Proof expert editors aim to provide your manuscripts with proper scholarly and academic tone and style. They will significantly improve the chances of having your research manuscript accepted for publishing. They provide subject-area proofreading and editing services in several fields categorized under various disciplines. With our extensive knowledge and expertise, we will help you find the right tone and style for your manuscript.

If you need our subject-area editors to format your manuscripts, giving you the fundamental rules for formatting your manuscripts as described in your guidelines, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago/Turabian styles, then contact us. At Best Edit & Proof, our proofreaders and editors edit every type of academic paper. We have a user-friendly website and a simplified ordering process.

If you would like our subject-area editors and language experts to work on your project for the improvement of its academic tone and style, then please visit the order page. It is easy! It takes only a few minutes to submit your paper and complete the process. Click here to see how it works.

We have flat-rate pricing based on our type of service (editing or proofreading), word count, and turnaround time. Enter your word count or copy and paste your document into our pricing calculator to get an instant quote.

If you need support for academic editing and proofreading, contact us. You can also e-mail us or use the 24/7 live chat module to get direct support. Our doctorally qualified editors will polish and fine-tune your projects.

For more posts, click here.

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Essential Guidelines for Structuring a Research Paper

Lecturer: Kevin J. Heintz, M.A. English

This lecture was presented at ChungAng University in Seoul, South Korea in November 2018. Wordvice/Essay Review Managing Editor Kevin J. Heintz explains how to organize and compose a research manuscript that will get your study published in top journals.

Even researchers whose first language is English must learn some specific rules and follow some standard conventions when writing research papers. This takes a completely different skillset than essay writing or sending emails to your professors and friends, and therefore it is a good idea for every researcher to keep learning how to improve research writing.

Research is about more than just the scientific principles and discoveries you are making—it is about sharing these discoveries with fellow researchers and with the public. And to do this, researchers must publish their work in journals. Strong writing is key to making your research more accessible and powerful, and therefore this presentation is not about the rigors of research, but the demands of research writing. The methods and information in this lecture can be applied to almost any kind of research paper, although of course the exact structure and content will be somewhat determined by where you are submitting your research.

Lecture Content

Overview of Research Paper Writing
The Structure of a Research Paper
Composing Your Paper Sections
Tips for Improving Quality of Writing

*Quizzes are given throughout the lecture to test your comprehension and understanding.

Research Paper Structure Overview

“What should a research paper do?”

Share the knowledge you have gained about a specific area of study with other researchers
Show how your study fits into current science.
Inform the public about important scientific activity.
Explain clearly and succinctly the context of your study, including relevant literature (Introduction), the methods used for research and analysis (Methods), the findings of your study (Results), and the implications for these results and further research that might be needed (Discussion and Conclusion).

“What are the most important factors to consider when writing a research paper?”

The research you conduct should of course be novel, timely, rigorous, and hopefully interesting. But you must also transmit your scientific research into writing—a well-written paper will greatly improve your chances of getting accepted into journals. Here is an overview of the factors that help create quality writing in a research paper:

Coherence

All of the parts of your paper should fit together in an order that makes sense.
Include all necessary information in each section needed to understand the other sections.
Do not repeat information unless it is necessary.
Ensure that your sentences are grammatically and logically coherent.

Organization

Most scientific papers follow the IMRD structure—be sure to put the right parts in the right section (e.g., don’t include the literature review in the Methods section).

Relevance

As you do research you will notice that there are a great many pieces of information and data you COULD include in your paper. However, you need to conform to length guidelines and keep your paper focused. Therefore, you should be sure that you are choosing a proper number of items to focus on for each section.
For example, if your study has 10 results but your paper can only be 4,000 words, you might want to narrow down these results to only those that support your hypothesis, perhaps the 3-5 most important results.
The same applies to the Introduction, where you must choose what background, context, and relevant literature to include. Be sure to only include information that gives readers a focused and relevant understanding of your area of study.

Clarity

Clarity is related to coherence, organization, and relevance. It means ensuring that each paragraph and sentence in your paper is natural and easy to read and understand: proper grammar, phrasing, and style are key to writing a paper that is readable and comprehensible to both experts and possibly non-experts, depending on your target audience.
Perhaps the most important rule is to conform to the formatting guidelines and other style conventions of the journal to which you are submitting. Check the “GUIDE FOR AUTHORS” section of the journal or conference, or if the paper is for a class, ensure that you are using the proper formatting requirements. Here is one handy site: OWL—Online Writing Lab at Purdue University

Research Paper Structure

Most research papers move from broad to specific information and back to broad again.

The general structure of scientific research papers is IMR&D (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion). The information moves from broad to specific to broad again as seen in this diagram, the Introduction and Discussion taking up the most room in your paper and the Methods and Results usually being the shortest ad most focused sections. However, the order in which you write your paper will not be the same as the final order of the information. Let’s first look briefly at what each section does and then discuss how to organize and compose your work.

Introduction Section

What does it do?

*Discusses the problem to be solved (purpose statement)

*Describes where your research fits into the current science (background and context)

*Uses primary literature with citations and summarizes the current understanding of the problem (“literature review”)

When do you write it?

*Write it last—after the conclusion and before the title and abstract

Methods Section

What does it do?

*Tells how you did the study—what materials and methods of research and analysis were used.

When do you write it?

*First section you write—after preparing your figures and tables

Results Section

What does it do?

*Explains the important findings of your study that help to answer your research question or hypothesis and address your purpose statement.

When do you write it?

*After the Methods and before the Discussion/Conclusion

Discussion/Conclusion Section

What does it do?

*Explains what your findings mean and what the implications and importance are both to your specific area of research and in a broader context (i.e., to the wider field or to society ).

*Includes limitations to your study and discusses possible future research that is needed to answer your research question more clearly and address closely related questions.

When do you write it?

*After the Results Section and before the Introduction

Composing Your Research Paper Sections

The Methods and Results comprise the core content of your paper. Write these sections first.

This portion of the lecture focuses on developing techniques for composing your paper. You should always go back through your paper after one section is finished and correct or change another part, but by composing in this order you will be sure to include all of the important information. Not that the Methods and Results sections are written first. The reason for this is because you will not be changing or adding to these sections after you have evaluated your research—they represent the core data of your study.

Step 1: Prepare the figures and tables

Most likely, your research paper will use some figures, tables, or other graphics—they are also core data because they are usually numbers representing your findings and methods used. We won’t go into the details of how to prepare these here, but in the Results section, we will go over how to write captions for the figures based on the data and research questions. For a detailed explanation of preparing and formatting figures, check out these sites (every journal will have their own formatting guidelines):

Springer Online Research Resources
ACSESS Digital Library (ASA, CSSA, and SSSA publications for reference)

Step 2: Write the Methods section

This section responds to the question “How was the problem studied and analyzed?”

The Methods section should:

Describe how an experiment was done
Give a rationale for why specific experimental procedures were chosen
Describe what was done to answer the research question and how it was done.
Explain how the results were analyzed

Organization of Methods

Write the Methods section in this order to ensure proper organization and make it easier for readers to understand how your study was carried out:

Description of materials used, including site and sample
Explanation of how materials were prepared
Explanation of how measurements were made and calculations performed
Explanation of statistical methods to analyze data

Tips for the Methods Section

Organize description of preparations, measurements, and protocol chronologically
List the Methods in the same order as they will appear in the Results section
Material should be organized by topic from most to least important
Headings can be used to separated different results; paragraphs are often used instead

Step 3: Write the Results

This section responds to the question “What did you find?” Only the direct results of your research should be presented here, not any results from other studies. This is essentially an analysis of the data explained in sentence form so that it is easier to read and put into context.

The Results section should include:

Findings presented in the same order as in the Methods section
Data presented in tables, charts, graphs, and other figures (placed among research text or on a separate page)
Reports on data collection, recruitment, and/or participants
Data that corresponds to the central research question(s)
Secondary findings (secondary outcomes, subgroup analyses, etc.)

Organization of Results

Write the Results in the same order as you wrote your Methods. One trusted method of writing the results is addressing specific research questions presented in the figures. Within each research question, present the type of data that addresses that research question.

Sample research question asked in a survey:

“What do hospital patients over age 55 think about postoperative care?”

Present this answer as a statement based on the data:

“Hospital patients over the age of 55 were 30% more likely to report negative experiences after postoperative care (M=83; see Fig. 1).”

Elaborate on this finding with secondary information included in the same paragraph:

“The most common negative issues reported were inattention by nurses, lack of proper medicine and a prolonged waiting period for personal issues ((P>12), (W>13), and (D>10); see Fig. 3).”

Caption your figures with the same method, using the data and research question to create phrases that give context to the data:

“Figure 1: Attitudes towards postoperative care in patients over the age of 55.”

research paper structure, results section figure

Your figure captions answer research questions by representing the data findings as phrases.

Grammar Guidelines for Results

When referencing figures, use the present tense; when discussing events of the experiment/study, use past tense
Passive or active voice are generally acceptable—but consistency is most important. (Read articles from target journal).
Cite the figure or table every time you reference it, just as you would another text.

Dos and Don’ts for Results

Limit your results to only those that address your research questions; return to the Results section later after you have completed the Introduction and remove less relevant information.
Indicate the statistical tests used with all relevant parameters. E.g., mean and standard deviation (SD): 44% (±3); median and interpercentile range: 7 years (4.5 to 9.5 years).
Use mean and standard deviation to report normally distributed data.
Use median and interpercentile range to report skewed data.
For numbers, use two significant digits unless more precision is necessary (2.08, not 2.07856444).
Never use percentages for very small samples. E.g., “one out of two” should not be replaced by 50%.

Step 4: Write the Discussion/Conclusion

This section responds to the question “What do the results mean?” This section is easy to write, but difficult to write well. It requires more than a simply analysis—you have to interpret and “sell” your data to the journal and researchers, explaining just how important your findings are. In fact, many manuscripts are rejected because the Discussion section is weak.

The Discussion and Conclusion are often considered to be part of the same section, but the Conclusion is sometimes considered a separate section. At any rate, the Conclusion will be a very short and clear justification of your work or suggestion for future studies.

In the Discussion Section you should:

Critique your study—be honest about the effectiveness of your design; suggest modifications and improvement.
Answer this question: “Did your study contribute to knowledge in the field or not?”
Discuss the impact of this research on related research within the domain

Pre-writing Questions to Answer for the Discussion:

How do these results relate to the original question or objectives outlined in the Introduction section?
Do the data support your hypothesis?
Are your results consistent with what other investigators have reported?
Discuss weaknesses and discrepancies. If your results were unexpected, try to explain why
Is there another way to interpret your results?
What further research would be necessary to answer the questions raised by your results?

Organization of the Discussion Section

The Discussion section is more open than the Results and Methods section, but you should always focus first on what is MOST important and then move to what is less important to your research problem. Divide the analysis of results by paragraph and do not combine unrelated datasets in one paragraph

The first paragraph/part should summarize the process, the results, and the overall purpose of this study.
The second paragraph/part should answer questions about the limitations and potential flaws or shortcomings of this study (e.g., the “failure to reveal clear relationships between samples or groups”). Assesses which of the results are most useful in answering the research question.
The third paragraph should focus on the successes of the study and highlight which method or approach yielded the best results or those most closely hypothesized. You can also compare the results of different methods and assess which was more fruitful and why.
In subsequent paragraphs, discuss the implications of this research and compare it to the results of other studies. This is the other section (in addition to the Introduction) where you can cite related studies to show how your study compares.

Conclusion

The Conclusion paragraph offers you a chance to briefly show how your work advances the field from the present state of knowledge. It adds a sort of exclamation point at the end of your paper and makes it more memorable as well.

Add a justification for your work here as well as indicate extensions and wider implications, as well as suggest future studies/experiments and point out any work that is currently ongoing. Do not simply repeat the Introduction or abstract here—extend the claims or questions raised in these sections.

Dos and Don’ts for Discussion/Conclusion

Don’t be TOO broad about the impact of this research—set some limitations.
Don’t include new terms or ideas in this section—they should be presented in the Introduction.
Use specific expressions: instead of “higher temperature” write “41ºC”; instead of “at a lower rate” write “0.7% less”; instead of “highly significant” write “p<0.001.”

Step 5: Write the Introduction

The Introduction section might be the most important section of the body of your paper—it comes first and introduces what you will be doing, telling readers why your work is important.

A good introduction should:

Establish the context of the work
State the purpose of the work in the form of a hypothesis, question, or problem investigated
Give aims and rationale for your approach

Pre-writing questions to answer for the Introduction

What is the problem to be solved? (background and problem)
What do we know about this problem? (literature)
Are there any existing solutions? (literature)
What are the limitations or gaps in knowledge of existing solutions?
What do you hope to achieve with this study? (hypothesis/statement of purpose)

Organization of the Introduction

Background information
Motivations
Key primary literature
Hypothesis/research problem investigated
Approaches and rationale

Eliminating grammar and style errors can greatly improve the flow of information in your paper and increase its chances of publication in journals.

Improving Quality of Writing

In order to write an effective research paper, authors need to know what areas of their writing to improve, and this includes avoiding grammar and style errors. Among the top writing errors we see at Wordvice are the following:

Article and Determiner Misuses
Nominalization and Wordiness
Usage of Past and Present Tense

Receiving Language Editing Before Submission

After you are finished writing your Results section and have polished the rest of your research paper, be sure to submit your manuscript to an English proofreading service and paper editing service before delivering it to journal editors for publication. And learn more about the editing process to determine which kind of revision your paper needs.

Wordvice Resources

How to Write a Research Paper Introduction
Writing the Results Section of a Research Paper
Which Verb Tenses to Use in a Research Paper
How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper
How to Write a Research Paper Title
Useful Phrases for Academic Writing
Common Transition Terms in Academic Papers
Active and Passive Voice in Research Papers
100+ Verbs That Will Make Your Research Writing Amazing
Tips for Paraphrasing in Research Papers

Related Resources

Springer Online Research Resources (Springer)
ACSESS Digital Library (ASA, CSSA, and SSSA publications for reference) (ACSESS Digital Library)

Lecture Research Paper Reference

Yoon S-R, Kim SH, Lee H-W, Ha J-H (2017) A novel method to rapidly distinguish the geographical origin of traditional fermented-salted vegetables by mass fingerprinting. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0188217.

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Are you staring at the blank page on your screen and have no idea how to approach your challenging research paper? Research papers are complex and time-consuming assignments and what is really important they make up a large part of student’s grade in all classes. It’s not a secret that academic writing is hard but written communication skills are essential for your success in college, graduate school, and in your future career. That’s why you should work hard to master the art of paper writing.

If you are not sure where to start, read this article to learn about effective strategies that make this process as painless as possible.

We’ll break down the writing process into easy steps to help you understand how to write a research paper fast no matter how long it must be.

Step 1. Choose a Topic

Sometimes college students are assigned with their research paper topics, but if you are fortunate enough to have such an option, choose your topic wisely. First of all, think about choosing a challenging topic you are interested in. Then, you won’t be bored when doing the research because you are sure to discover something new and you’ll enjoy the writing process. Don’t select subjects that are too technical or general.

If your topic is too broad, your research paper is unlikely to be successful because it will look like a general overview. You should narrow your topic down to a certain aspect, concept or idea and make it specific and manageable. For example, if your topic is “Global Warming”, you should narrow it to “Causes of Global Warming”, “Impact of Global Warming on Human Health” or something like that.

Step 2. Write a Working Thesis Statement

Prepare a working thesis before you actually organize your research because it will guide your investigation and will help you stay focused on your subject. Your thesis statement should be concise and reflect the type of paper you are writing. All research papers can be divided into 3 categories:

argumentative or persuasive if you are arguing the conclusion;
expository when you explain information;
analytical when you present your analysis of certain information.

You have to devote enough of your precious time to creating a good strong thesis statement so that your project has a clear purpose. Your thesis should be debatable and narrow because your claims should be supported by evidence. If your claim is broad, you will need more evidence to convince your readers that you are right. Here is an example of a debatable thesis statement:

Climate change is the most pressing challenge facing the world today.

Step 3. Do Research on Your Topic

You should find enough secondary and primary credible sources on the subject of your paper, carefully read all of them, and find relevant evidence to support your thesis. At this stage, you should evaluate your sources, take notes, and start documenting your sources according to a citation style specified by your instructor (APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, etc.)

Make sure you use the latest edition of a specific style guide. You will use your notes about references later when writing your paper and building your bibliography. It’s crucial to cite all sources that you used for quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing to avoid plagiarism.

Step 4. Make a Good Outline

Your research has given you tons of great ideas. Now you have to organize them for your impressive presentation. Don’t skip this vital step because without it, your project will lack focus and you will need more time for revising your draft trying to make sense of your jumbled thoughts. That’s why you need an outline. You have to finalize your thesis and create a working outline that you plan to cover and that will serve you as a roadmap and keep you focused.

Think about key points that you’ll need to develop to support your thesis statement. You can use them as subheadings for the body of your paper. Look through your notes and organize the information under each sub-heading. Make sure you include only relevant information that fits under your sub-headings and directly supports your thesis.

You should resist the temptation to include any information that doesn’t fit into your outline no matter how interesting it is.

When writing an outline, you should keep in mind a typical research paper structure that commonly includes:

a title page;
an abstract;
an introduction;
a methodology section;
findings/results;
discussion;
conclusion.

But if your research paper is not long, its format may include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In any case, you should follow specific guidelines provided by your instructor.

Step 5. Create the First Draft

This is the middle of the process. You have a clear direction and it’s time to create the first draft with a title, in-text citations, and a reference page.

The title is very important if you want to make a good impression on your readers because it’s the first thing that they see. It forms their view on what exactly they should expect in your paper. You should list the keywords that present the topic of your paper, methods you used, and results that you achieved. Now create a sentence that includes all the keywords that you have listed and delete the unnecessary words. After that, you need to link the remaining ones. Finally, you have to delete non-essential info and organize the remaining words in the logical order. You can also include the subtitle. Make sure that your title is concise.

Afterwards, you need to write an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. These are the main parts of your paper so let us provide you with some details on how to do it right.

How to Write an Introduction for a Research Paper

Start writing an intro. The introductory paragraph should begin with an attention grabber that may be:

★ a provocative question;

★ statistics;

★ an anecdote;

★ unusual facts, etc.

You are writing an academic paper but that doesn’t mean you have to be boring. Next, you need to provide the background information, explain your goals, and how you plan to approach your research paper topic. You should finish your introduction with your thesis statement or research question. This section of your paper is not long so you are sure to finish it fast.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

Your outline will help you to complete this part of your paper. But you shouldn’t think that you must strictly follow it. It may evolve and you are free to revise it and make changes. The key thing is to stay on your track and focus on your thesis. You should provide your points and support your main idea.

Start each body paragraph with a topic sentence and provide arguments and relevant evidence to support it. You should write as many body paragraphs as you have the key points.

How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper

Most research papers end with restarting their thesis statements. You can also do it but you shouldn’t repeat it word for word. Paraphrase it or summarize the key points of your paper. You may emphasize the significance of your findings as well. A good idea is to provide some recommendations based on the results of your investigation or suggest some directions for further research.

Your rough draft is ready. Wondering what to do next? Go on reading to find some tips on how to revise your research paper.

How to Make Your Paper Perfect

No one can write their first draft perfectly. So, if you want to make a good impression on your professor and earn a high grade, you should revise your draft to make sure that your project is on point. Be ready that you may need to revise your project more than once because it is really worth doing.

Step 6. Revise, Edit and Proofread

You have to make large-scale changes and check the logic, flow, transitions, make changes in the structure and order of your paragraphs. You should make sure that all your ideas are fully developed and all the claims are supported by credible evidence. You may need to add some section headings.

The next stage is editing. You have to check and eliminate filler words and phrases, improve word choice, and correct mistakes in punctuation and grammar if you find any. You should look for:

incomplete sentences;
dangling modifiers;
easily confused words (such as to, too, and two);
spelling mistakes;
apostrophes for possessives and plurals;
quotation rules obeyed;
comma use;
eliminate contractions.

You will need to re-read your paper several times. A good strategy is to read your paper backwards. In this way, you will feel a little disoriented and will be able to catch more mistakes. You should start reading the last sentence, then check the second to the last one and continue doing it until you get to your first sentence.

You should ask your friends or family members to review your research paper and express their opinion about it. They should evaluate your argument, transitions, and the balance and look for any inconsistencies with usage, grammar or mechanics. Ask your friends to provide their feedback and make suggested changes if you think they make sense. Finally, you may print your paper and proofread it to eliminate minor mistakes or typos and ensure that your amazing research paper is flawless.

Step 7. Rely on Our Academic Custom Writing Service

You can use our easy guide to craft winning research papers fast, get better grades, and enjoy your life in college. Alternatively, you can address our specialists to write research paper for you. As a result, you’ll spend less time but get more pleasure from studying at university.

Patricia Jenkins is the senior writing advisor at FastEssay blog for international students that seek quick paper assistance. In her blog, Patricia shares useful tips on productivity, writing, research, references. Sometimes Patricia goes off topic by sharing her personal experience peppered with lively humor and healthy irony.
View all posts by Patricia Jenkins

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Published on
November 19, 2022
by

Jack Caulfield.

Revised on
January 20, 2023.

The formatting of a research paper is different depending on which style guide you’re following. In addition to citations, APA, MLA, and Chicago provide format guidelines for things like font choices, page layout, format of headings and the format of the reference page.

Scribbr offers free Microsoft Word templates for the most common formats. Simply download and get started on your paper.

APA | MLA | Chicago author-date | Chicago notes & bibliography

Tip

If you struggle with the format of your paper, you could use Scribbr’s APA Paper Formatting service or Customized Formatting service. Our formatting experts can:

Generate an automatic table of contents
Generate a list of tables and figures
Ensure consistent paragraph formatting
Insert page numbering

Formatting an APA paper

The main guidelines for formatting a paper in APA Style are as follows:

Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman or 11 pt Arial.
Set 1 inch page margins.
Apply double line spacing.
If submitting for publication, insert a APA running head on every page.
Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.

Watch the video below for a quick guide to setting up the format in Google Docs.

Title page

The image below shows how to format an APA Style title page for a student paper.

Running head

If you are submitting a paper for publication, APA requires you to include a running head on each page. The image below shows you how this should be formatted.

For student papers, no running head is required unless you have been instructed to include one.

Headings

APA provides guidelines for formatting up to five levels of heading within your paper. Level 1 headings are the most general, level 5 the most specific.

Reference page

APA Style citation requires (author-date) APA in-text citations throughout the text and an APA Style reference page at the end. The image below shows how the reference page should be formatted.

Note that the format of reference entries is different depending on the source type. You can easily create your citations and reference list using the free APA Citation Generator.

Generate APA citations for free

Formatting an MLA paper

The main guidelines for writing an MLA style paper are as follows:

Use an easily readable font like 12 pt Times New Roman.
Set 1 inch page margins.
Apply double line spacing.
Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.
Use title case capitalization for headings.

Check out the video below to see how to set up the format in Google Docs.

First page

On the first page of an MLA paper, a heading appears above your title, featuring some key information:

Your full name
Your instructor’s or supervisor’s name
The course name or number
The due date of the assignment

Page header

A header appears at the top of each page in your paper, including your surname and the page number.

Works Cited page

MLA in-text citations appear wherever you refer to a source in your text. The MLA Works Cited page appears at the end of your text, listing all the sources used. It is formatted as shown below.

You can easily create your MLA citations and save your Works Cited list with the free MLA Citation Generator.

Generate MLA citations for free

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

Academic style
Vague sentences
Grammar
Style consistency

See an example

Formatting a Chicago paper

The main guidelines for writing a paper in Chicago style (also known as Turabian style) are:

Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman.
Use 1 inch margins or larger.
Apply double line spacing.
Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.
Place page numbers in the top right or bottom center.

Title page

Chicago doesn’t require a title page, but if you want to include one, Turabian (based on Chicago) presents some guidelines. Lay out the title page as shown below.

Bibliography or reference list

Chicago offers two citation styles: author-date citations plus a reference list, or footnote citations plus a bibliography. Choose one style or the other and use it consistently.

The reference list or bibliography appears at the end of the paper. Both styles present this page similarly in terms of formatting, as shown below.

Frequently asked questions about research paper formatting

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J.
(2023, January 20). Research Paper Format | APA, MLA, & Chicago Templates. Scribbr.
Retrieved April 12, 2023,
from https://www.scribbr.com/research-paper/research-paper-format/

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Whether you’re in a history, literature, or science class, you’ll probably have to write a research paper at some point. It may seem daunting when you’re just starting out, but staying organized and budgeting your time can make the process a breeze. Research your topic, find reliable sources, and come up with a working thesis. Then create an outline and start drafting your paper. Be sure to leave plenty of time to make revisions, as editing is essential if you want to hand in your best work!

Sample Research Papers and Outlines

1
Focus your research on a narrow topic. As you conduct research, try to make your paper’s subject more and more narrow. You can’t defend an argument about a super broad subject. However, the more refined your topic, the easier it’ll be to pose a clear argument and defend it with well-researched evidence. It’s easy to drift off course, especially in the early research stages. If you feel like you’re going off-topic, reread the prompt to help get yourself back on track.^[1]
- For instance, you might start with a general subject, like British decorative arts. Then, as you read, you home in on transferware and pottery. Ultimately, you focus on 1 potter in the 1780s who invented a way to mass-produce patterned tableware.
Tip: If you need to analyze a piece of literature, your task is to pull the work apart into literary elements and explain how the author uses those parts to make their point.
2
Search for credible sources online and at a library. If you’re writing a paper for a class, start by checking your syllabus and textbook’s references. Look for books, articles, and other scholarly works related to your paper’s topic. Then, like following a trail of clues, check those works’ references for additional relevant sources.^[2]
- Authoritative, credible sources include scholarly articles (especially those other authors reference), government websites, scientific studies, and reputable news bureaus. Additionally, check your sources’ dates, and make sure the information you gather is up to date.
- Evaluate how other scholars have approached your topic. Identify authoritative sources or works that are accepted as the most important accounts of the subject matter. Additionally, look for debates among scholars, and ask yourself who presents the strongest evidence for their case.^[3]
- You’ll most likely need to include a bibliography or works cited page, so keep your sources organized. List your sources, format them according to your assigned style guide (such as MLA or Chicago), and write 2 or 3 summary sentences below each one.^[4]
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3
Come up with a preliminary thesis. As you learn more about your topic, develop a working thesis, or a concise statement that presents an argument. A thesis isn’t just a fact or opinion; rather, it’s a specific, defensible claim. While you may tweak it during the writing process, your thesis is the foundation of your entire paper’s structure.^[5]
- Imagine you’re a lawyer in a trial and are presenting a case to a jury. Think of your readers as the jurors; your opening statement is your thesis and you’ll present evidence to the jury to make your case.
- A thesis should be specific rather than vague, such as: “Josiah Spode’s improved formula for bone china enabled the mass production of transfer-printed wares, which expanded the global market for British pottery.”

1
Create an outline to map out your paper’s structure. Use Roman numerals (I., II., III., and so on) and letters or bullet points to organize your outline. Start with your introduction, write out your thesis, and jot down your key pieces of evidence that you’ll use to defend your argument. Then sketch out the body paragraphs and conclusion.^[6]
- Your outline is your paper’s skeleton. After making the outline, all you’ll need to do is fill in the details.
- For easy reference, include your sources where they fit into your outline, like this:
  III. Spode vs. Wedgewood on Mass Production
  A. Spode: Perfected chemical formula with aims for fast production and distribution (Travis, 2002, 43)
  B. Wedgewood: Courted high-priced luxury market; lower emphasis on mass production (Himmelweit, 2001, 71)
  C. Therefore: Wedgewood, unlike Spode, delayed the expansion of the pottery market.
2
Present your thesis and argument in the introduction. Start with an attention-grabbing sentence to draw in your audience and introduce the topic. Then present your thesis to let them know what you’ll be arguing. For the remainder of the introduction, map out the evidence you’ll use to make your case.^[7]
- For instance, your opening line could be, “Overlooked in the present, manufacturers of British pottery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries played crucial roles in England’s Industrial Revolution.”
- After presenting your thesis, lay out your evidence, like this: “An examination of Spode’s innovative production and distribution techniques will demonstrate the importance of his contributions to the industry and Industrial Revolution at large.”
Tip: Some people prefer to write the introduction first and use it to structure the rest of the paper. However, others like to write the body, then fill in the introduction. Do whichever seems natural to you. If you write the intro first, keep in mind you can tweak it later to reflect your finished paper’s layout.
3
Build your argument in the body paragraphs. First, set the context for your readers, especially if the topic is obscure. Then, in around 3 to 5 body paragraphs, focus on a specific element or piece of evidence that supports your thesis. Each idea should flow to the next so the reader can easily follow your logic. For a paper on British pottery in the Industrial Revolution, for instance, you’d first explain what the products are, how they’re made, and what the market was like at the time.^[8]
- After setting the context, you’d include a section on Josiah Spode’s company and what he did to make pottery easier to manufacture and distribute.
- Next, discuss how targeting middle class consumers increased demand and expanded the pottery industry globally.
- Then, you could explain how Spode differed from competitors like Wedgewood, who continued to court aristocratic consumers instead of expanding the market to the middle class.
- The right number of sections or paragraphs depends on your assignment. In general, shoot for 3 to 5, but check your prompt for your assigned length.
4
Address a counterargument to strengthen your case. While it’s not always necessary, addressing a counterargument can help make your argument more convincing. After layout out your evidence, mention a contrasting view on the topic. Then explain why that differing perspective is incorrect and why your claim is more plausible.^[9]
- If you bring up a counterargument, make sure it’s a strong claim that’s worth entertaining instead of ones that’s weak and easily dismissed.
- Suppose, for instance, you’re arguing for the benefits of adding fluoride to toothpaste and city water. You could bring up a study that suggested fluoride produced harmful health effects, then explain how its testing methods were flawed.
5
Summarize your argument in the conclusion. Think of your paper’s structure as “Tell them what you’ll tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them.” After the paper’s body, remind the reader of your thesis and the steps you’ve taken to defend it.^[10]
- Sum up your argument, but don’t simply rewrite your introduction using slightly different wording. To make your conclusion more memorable, you could also connect your thesis to a broader topic or theme to make it more relatable to your reader.
- For example, if you’ve discussed the role of nationalism in World War I, you could conclude by mentioning nationalism’s reemergence in contemporary foreign affairs.

1
Ensure your paper is well-organized and includes transitions. After finishing your first draft, give it a read and look for big-picture organizational issues. Make sure each sentence and paragraph flow well to the next. You may have to rewrite a paragraph or swap sections around, but taking the time for revisions is important if you want to hand in your best work.^[11]
- This is also a great opportunity to make sure your paper fulfills the parameters of the assignment and answers the prompt!
- It’s a good idea to put your essay aside for a few hours (or overnight, if you have time). That way, you can start editing it with fresh eyes.
Tip: Try to give yourself at least 2 or 3 days to revise your paper. It may be tempting to simply give your paper a quick read and use the spell-checker to make edits. However, revising your paper properly is more in-depth.
2
Cut out unnecessary words and other fluff. In addition to your paper’s big-picture organization, zoom in on specific words and make sure your language is strong. Double check that you’ve used the active voice instead of the passive voice, and make sure your word choices are clear and concrete.^[12]
- The passive voice, such as “The door was opened by me,” feels hesitant and wordy. On the other hand, the active voice, or “I opened the door,” feels strong and concise.
- Each word in your paper should do a specific job. Try to avoid including extra words just to fill up blank space on a page or sound fancy.
- For instance, “The author uses pathos to appeal to readers’ emotions” is better than “The author utilizes pathos to make an appeal to the emotional core of those who read the passage.”
3
Proofread for spelling, grammatical, and formatting errors. After you’ve revised your paper’s organization and content, fix any typos and grammar issues. Again, it’s helpful to put your paper aside for a while so you can proofread it with fresh eyes.^[13]
- Read your essay out loud to help ensure you catch every error. As you read, check for flow as well and, if necessary, tweak any spots that sound awkward.^[14]
4
Ask a friend, relative, or teacher to read your work before you submit it. Have 1 or 2 people assess your draft’s organization, persuasiveness, spelling, and grammar. New readers can help you find any mistakes and unclear spots that you may have overlooked.^[15]
- It’s wise to get feedback from one person who’s familiar with your topic and another who’s not. The person who knows about the topic can help ensure you’ve nailed all the details. The person who’s unfamiliar with the topic can help make sure your writing is clear and easy to understand.

Add New Question

Question

Does making a research paper require me to invent something new or it is just about gathering information?

It can be for the both, whether you invent something new to implement or you gather some sort of data based valuable information and synthesize it.
Question

What about can I write for the introduction?

The introduction should set out what you intend to discuss and prove in the research paper, and outline the approaches per topic or heading section. It is also nice to open the topic and lead into it in an interesting way that helps the reader to want to read on.
Question

How do we know what topic is better than the other ones?

To be honest there is no rule book or a set of formulas which will give you the best or better topic. Once you have a number of topics in hand you need to evaluate as to which topic interests you and your audience more.

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Remember that your topic and thesis should be as specific as possible.
Researching, outlining, drafting, and revising are all important steps, so do your best to budget your time wisely. Try to avoid waiting until the last minute to write your paper.

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Article SummaryX

To write a research paper, start by researching your topic at the library, online, or using an academic database. As you conduct your research and take notes, zero in on a specific topic that you want to write about and create a 1-2 sentence thesis to state the focus of your paper. Then, create an outline that includes an introduction, 3 to 5 body paragraphs to present your arguments, and a conclusion to sum up your main points. Once you have your paper’s structure organized, draft your paragraphs, focusing on 1 argument per paragraph. Use the information you found through your research to back up your claims and prove your thesis statement. Finally, proofread and revise your content until it’s polished and ready to submit. For more information on researching and citing sources, read on!

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Your best writing happens when you can write without hindrances. Technology and advanced tools can streamline the process and make it easier to write, and no tool is more important than your text editor when it comes to saving time and simplifying academic writing.

This guide will help you choose the best text editor to get all your thoughts from your brain to the screen without a hitch, depending on the type of research you do and your personal preferences when it comes to writing an academic paper.

Using Microsoft Word in Academic Writing

Microsoft Word is one of the most popular word processing (WP) softwares used today, and it’s already been installed on 1 billion devices worldwide. This user-friendly tool helps both home and business users create a wide variety of text-based documents quickly and easily.

Nevertheless, there are pros and cons to the well-loved software that you should keep in mind.

Pros of Microsoft Word

Beyond spelling and grammar checkers, there are many advanced features built into Word to help you write your academic paper.

There are two main tools that can help you with research, specifically:

Word Researcher helps you find and incorporate reliable sources into your paper without leaving the editing page. The data is reliable, credible, and safe for use, and citations are automatically created and added to your report.

Word Editor improves your writing style by flagging unclear phrases, marking complex words, and suggesting alternatives to improve the readability of your paper. The tool uses a combination of machine learning and human input to bring your writing up to a professional level.

Cons of Microsoft Word

As Word was developed to encompass all types of writing, you might find that the software is not exactly designed for writing academic papers. Here are some challenges you might encounter with Word when writing up academic research:

Collaboration between multiple contributors is difficult, as only one person can make corrections at any given time. Shared documents can not be edited in real-time, and formatting could change drastically between different users and computers.
Virus attacks are common, because Word is installed on more computers than any other word processor. Sharing documents over networks requires competent virus scanners and malware detectors, as the files may expose your computer to threats.

Word is unquestionably a powerful word processing package, despite the fact that it caters to the general public. As a researcher, you might find Word to be both limiting and distracting for writing academic papers, and it definitely lacks some specialized features which other text editors have.

Using LaTeX in Academic Writing

LaTeX (pronounced lay-tek) is the de facto standard, high-quality typesetting system for writing in scientific, mathematical, and technical fields. The system takes care of formatting and typesetting, allowing users to focus on writing without any distractions.

Pros of LaTex Editors

Number-heavy equations and data are easy to handle, manage, and edit.
It is platform-independent—the Java compiled code can run on all operating systems, and you can even use a LaTeX editor online.
Editing is easier, as it uses plain text instead of rich text, ciphertext, encrypted, or encoded text.
Complex structures are generated easily, such as footnotes, references, table of contents, and a LaTeX bibliography.

Cons of LaTex Editors

Reviewing manuscripts (what you’ll submit for publication) will be a struggle.
Libraries or the installation of additional packages are required for many of the features.
Customizing layout and typesetting is tedious on LaTeX.

Unlike Word that follows the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) approach, you need to shift to a WYSIWYM (what you see is what you mean) mindset when writing with a LaTeX editor online.

While there are many LaTeX editors online available for you to use, we’d recommend that you use Flowcite. With our online LaTeX editor, you can choose your preferred template and pre-format your paper—simply select from over 7,000 citation styles, or change your style mid-writing with ease.

Recently, we’ve also integrated Scribendi services for high-quality editing of your academic paper. You can access the features through the “Apps” section to proofread and generate a LaTeX bibliography as you write. This ensures that your work is judged based on its content and not rejected due to formatting, poor grammar, and other avoidable errors.

Using Rich Text Format (RTF) in Academic Writing

The opposite of plain text is Rich Text Format, or RTF for short. This file format is a widely-used method to share documents, as it allows you to exchange text between different WPs and operating systems.

For example, you can write in Windows 98, save it as RTF, and someone can open it using WordPerfect 6.0 or Windows 3.1 without a problem. On Microsoft Word, you can go to the “Save As” menu and choose “Rich Text Format” to convert the file.

Pros of Rich Text Editors

RTF is a good choice when you don’t know what system the receiver of your document uses. The format uses its own RTF language, defining control words and symbols that are “common denominators” of formatting commands.

RTF is widely readable—all major word processors or programs can open and read the format.
RTF preserves basic formatting, so you don’t have to worry about losing your fonts and styles.
RTF is not prone to virus attacks, as there’s no macro or programming capability.

Because RTF can be opened on a wide variety of software and operating systems, it’s great for working with multiple authors or moving text document files from one user to another.

However, it’s really security that makes RTF different from Word files, as Word macro viruses are one of the biggest virus problems on the internet. Antivirus products can help, but it’s easier to just save and send your documents as RTF files that cannot hide macros.

Cons of Rich Text Editors

There aren’t many cons to the format. However, it’s still good to keep the following the mind:

RTF documents are larger in size if they are not compressed. However, Word automatically shrinks your file for easier uploading and downloading when you’re working with RTF files.
RTF will not retain complex formatting, such as tables, charts, imagine alignments, paginations, or macros.
RTF files cannot be protected with a password or other forms of encryption—which essential if your document is highly confidential.

Additional Tools for Writing

Every researcher needs a grammar checking website, proofreader, and plagiarism checker tool for error-free submissions. Using automated tools like these help increase your efficiency and productivity.

Once you’re all set and you’ve drafted your academic paper, make sure to run it through grammar checking websites to polish your final output.

One of the more popular ones is Grammarly—a widely-used grammar, spelling, and plagiarism checker for general writing. Should you want Grammarly alternatives, you can also check out ProWritingAid or WhiteSmoke—both work in a similar fashion.

However, most of these tools are paid for separately, if you want the premium version, and they require you to sign into different accounts and switch between platforms when polishing your work. The ideal solution would be a single platform that combines all of these features in one.

Flowcite: All-in-One Platform with Text Editors, Grammar Checking Website, and a Publishing Tool

At the end of the day, you want a text editor that enables distraction-free writing, collaboration with others, and encryption that offers protection for your original content.

That’s why we created Flowcite – the only fully-integrated academic writing platform that provides everything researchers need to create professional, ready-to-publish papers in a single place.

With Flowcite, working with any text editor is easy. You’ll find referencing, writing (whether with LaTeX or rich text), style-checking, proofreading (with AI-driven assistants), and formatting apps all in one intuitive and unified interface.

Flowcite empowers you with all the tools you need to focus completely on writing your academic paper. We help you simplify every stage of the researching, writing, and publishing process with end-to-end academic writing services, including:

A reference management tool. This is the core feature of Flowcite, which lets you find and save relevant references & citations for your project, then insert them into your paper with a single click.
LaTeX, Word, and Rich Text editors that are fully interchangeable, so you and your peers can each work in whichever text editor you prefer.
Research collaboration tools that let you comment, share, and edit papers with colleagues or fellow students in real time.
An AI-driven article summarizer. This add-on service gives you an AI-generated summary of an academic paper, letting you evaluate sources in 30 seconds, rather than having to read through an entire journal article just to discover it’s not relevant for your research.
Proofreading, peer review, and publishing services to help you polish your paper and fulfill all the requirements for publishing, then help you find the perfect journal to submit your work to.

No other academic writing platform brings all of these together in one place.

This lets you consolidate your workflow in one platform, saving you time and energy spent on the (let’s face it) boring side of academia, like referencing, formatting, and proofreading.

If you want to handle every aspect of your paper with ease, sign up for Flowcite for free today!

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