Writing an APA Research paper

Step 1: Formatting. Running Header (Left hand side) ON EVERY PAGE Page number (Right hand side) ON EVERY PAGE Times New Roman 12 pt font FOR EVEYTHING Double spaced.

Step 2: Title Page Things to remember: Information should be centered (Left/right AND top/bottom) Include (in order): Title, Category (if chosen), Your Name, Woodstock High School NO BOLD, NO UNDERLINE, NO CHANGE IN FONT/SIZE

Step 3: Body of paper Body of paper should start directly on the following page, no title, just the first paragraph of the paper. This is a research paper. You do not speak to the reader. You do not question the reader. As far as you are concerned the reader is not there. Your opinion is not relevant, do not include it. In fact, never refer to yourself. (No I, we, etc) You can refer to “The experiment”, or “The scientist”

Step 3: Body of paper - INTRODUCTION - Write the introduction to provide background details or the setting of your specific research problem. Assume that the reader will be scientifically literate, but he or she may not be familiar with the details. State the purpose of the research study early in the introduction, and then state the hypotheses that you are testing. Describe what is already known about the research.

Step 3. Body of the paper Statements in the body of the paper should include information from you research. Any sentence/paragraph created using information from your resources must be cited with a parenthetical cite. Direct quotes must be in quotation marks with parenthetical cite. Failure to do this is PLAGIARISM. If you do not include the information your researched on your topic, it is NOT A RESEARCH PAPER!

Step 4: Works Cited Page (Goes at the very end) “Works Cited” centered at top of page. Resource citations listed in alphabetical order, with hanging indent. For each resource provided, there should be at least one direct quote citation or parenthetical citation.

Methodology (If I said re-format for clarity) Use the following titles to organize your information: Question Hypothesis Materials Dependent variable Independent variable Experimental groups with explanation Number of trials Detailed, step by step procedure of what you will do.

Safety Sheet If you are using ANY chemical in the lab (rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, literally anything that isn’t H2O) you must include the MSDS (aka SDS) information. You can copy and paste this information directly from the internet.

Requirements by Friday Fix all existing issues in your paper. Your paper MUST HAVE: title page, introduction/body (2-4 pages) with correct format, methodology, Safety information (MSDS), citation page YOU MUST HAVE 2 PEOPLE PROOFREAD YOUR PAPER AND SIGN OFF.