University of California, Santa Cruz
University Library, Reference Services

Your Research Paper

A UCSC LIBRARY REFERENCE GUIDE

When you write a research paper, it is imperative that you follow a specific documentation style to present your work. In addition to good writing and research skills, presentation is important. Be consistent. Pay close attention to periods, commas, quotation marks, etc. Your consistency will allow for an easier read. This guide will provide some basic information and examples to develop your research paper.

A Primary Document
Types of references can be either unpublished manuscripts or published materials. "Manuscripts include materials such as letters, diaries, and memoranda, usually intended as private, sometimes intimate documents, often published after the death of their authors. Published materials are materials that were intended from the outset to be printed and made publicfor example, newspapers, congressional debates, autobiographies, annual company reports, and the United States Census" (Brundage 1989:15).

A Secondary Document
A secondary document includes books, essays, articles, dissertations, or conference papers (Brundage, 1989).

Style Manuals
The examples in this guide are formatted in the APA (American Psychological Association) Style. APA is used mostly among the sciences and social sciences. The MLA (Modern Language Association) style is widely used in the humanities. These two styles vary but not by much. When citing an author the APA style requires the date of publication. The MLA style does not. For example:

APA (Marcuse, 1975:197) (author, date:page)

MLA (Marcuse 197) (author page)

Quoting and Paraphrasing
It is important that you know the difference between quoting and paraphrasing an author's work. Not giving authors the appropriate credit can be viewed as plagiarizing.

Quoting a source directly means extracting a word, phrase, sentence, or passage, and inserting it, enclosed by double quotation marks or indented, according to its length, into your own paper (Richlin-Klonsky and Strenski, 1991:45).

Paraphrasing means condensing the author's meaning and translating a passage into your own words (Richlin-Klonsky and Strenski, 1991:46).

If your quotation is longer than five lines, indent all lines five spaces from the left margin (leave the right margin as it is throughout the text) and single-space. Quotation marks are unnecessary, since the indented left margin tells your reader that the material is quoted. In rare cases, you may also use this quotation format when you want to emphasize especially important or interesting quoted material (Richlin-Klonsky and Strenski, 1991:41).

Notes (footnotes)
Notes are used only to clarify or to expand on an idea, term, or statement that may not be directly relevant to the point that you are presenting in your paper. A note can be identified by an asterisk* (should you only have one note) or by a superscript or raised number1 when there is more than one note on a given page.

Writing Guides
Heffernam, Thomas M. 1997. A Student's Guide to Studying Psychology. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press, Publishers. (McH Ref BF77.H45 1997)

Richlin-Klonsky, Judith and Ellen Strenski, eds. 1994. A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers. Third edition. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press. (McH Ref HM73.G78 1994)

Gibaldi, Joseph. 1995. MLA Handbook for Writers for Research Papers. Fourth edition. New York, NY: The Modern Language Association of America. (McH Ref LB2369 .M63 1995)

Turabian, Kate L. 1996. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (McH Ref LB2369.T8 1996)

Williams, Joseph M. 1990. Style : Toward Clarity and Grace. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (McH Ref PE1421.W546 1990)

Mauch, James E. and Jack W. Birch. 1993. Guide to the Successful Thesis and Dissertation : A Handbook for Students and Faculty. Third ed. New York : M. Dekker. (McH Stacks LB2369.M377 1993)

Wingell, Richard. 1990. Writing about Music : An Introductory Guide. Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice Hall. (McH Stacks ML3797.W54 1990)

Steffens, Henry John and Mary Jane Dickerson. 1987. Writer's Guide: History. Lexington, MA : Heath. (McH Ref D13.S815 1987)

Winkler, Anthony C. and Jo Ray McCuen. 1994. Writing the Research Paper. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. (McH Ref Desk LB2369.W55 1994)


For specific citation and bibliography examples see the MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association) Style Guides Reference Guide. kbr 9/97