1 Formal research papers require formal language.
Absolutely no use of “I, me, my, mine; we, our, us,
ourselves, ours, you, your, yours.”
Absolutely no contractions,
abbreviations, or symbols.
Do not use “a lot of”; use “much” or “many” or a specific
amount.
Avoid “get” and “got” except when it means “obtain”.
How-to information is not formal--ever. Extract the information; give it as information;
not directions.
Polysyllabic words are appropriate and preferred to many
small words.
Complex sentences are preferred over simple sentences.
Avoid clichés, such, “nipped in the bud”, “as luck would
have it”, and “gung
ho”.
Avoid slang.
Anything your grandparents would not use to speak to their boss is
slang.
Do not try to be cute or entertaining. The purpose of this paper is not to impress
the reader with your personality. It is
to give information.
Grammar and spelling do count. Neatness also counts.
2 Sentence structure needs to be tight and concise.
Wordiness is the use of too many words--more words than are
necessary to express an idea correctly and clearly.
Redundancy, the unnecessary repetition of an idea through
synonyms, is a common type of wordiness.
Repetition
is the same word or phrase used for no clear reason. This frequently accompanies the problem with
simple sentences.
3 Sentences should be grammatically correct.
Subject-verb agreement: If the
subject is singular, the verb must be singular.
If the subject is plural, the verb must be plural.
Pronoun-antecedent
agreement: The following words are singular: everyone,
anyone, anybody, anything, everything, someone, something, each, one. Therefore, every
word referring to them must also be
singular.
4 Logic/organization is important.
Just
because three pieces of information came from the same source does not mean
that they all must be in one paragraph.
Make sure there is a topic sentence since it is helpful in creating a
unified, organized paragraph.
5 Papers are to be typed.
Use white paper 8 1/2 by 11 inches.
Type your name and other required information in the
cover sheet.
Center
the title about two inches from the top of the page. Use no punctuation mark
after the title unless a question mark or an exclamation point is needed, do
not enclose quotes, and do not underline
the title.
Skip a line after the title. Double-space the text. Allow two spaces between sentences, one space
between words.
In
the title the first and last words are always capitalized. Articles (a, an, the), prepositions (in, on,
with, to, at), and conjunctions (and, for, but) are not capitalized unless they
are the first or last word.
Indent the first word of every paragraph.
At the end of a line, divide a word only between
syllables. Place a hyphen at the end of
the line.
Do not number the first page. Number each of the following pages in the
upper right-hand corner.
Type only on the front side of the
paper.
To correct an error, use ink eradicator, a clean
ink eraser, white out, or a self-correcting typewriter; then write in the
correct word or words. Do not use this method to correct a group of
words or an entire sentence.
Use only complete sentences.
Underline book titles.
In general, number of fewer than three digits should be
spelled out. A date is not spelled out
unless it begins a sentence.
6 All sources must be acknowledged.
Students
are encouraged to paraphrase and have few quotes. Any information copied directly must be
enclosed in quotes and the source identified.
Source identification could be the abbreviated technical form keyed to
the bibliography (last name of author, page number) and placed at the end of
the sentences. Example: Only one author has analyzed this theory
(Smith, 20-23).
Be careful not to plagiarize someone else’s work. One may NOT copy word for word from any
source.