The information is relevant as of 01/02/2025
If you hear someone saying that writing research papers, theses, and dissertation is a boring and rational process, don't believe them. Even if you have the most monotonous text mixed with graphs and numbers, the creativity is still present there. It all starts with an idea. The experiments you choose to carry out and the topic of your paper have to do with the creative part of the assignment. However, due to the fact that it is an academic paper, you can't rely on creativity alone. There should be a certain structure and organization of your writing. Thanks to Kate L. Turabian and her “A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations” you've got it.
It is a convenient guide to make sure every scholar writing a paper can easily find the work of others quickly as all the works have standard formatting. In the manual, you will find a list of rules and suggestions on how to format your paper and cite the sources you use. It is for those students who focus on writing in American English (either there is such requirement from a teacher or not). The problem with the long manuals is that it takes a lot of time to get your head around them. To do it faster, you can look through this short guide. It will provide you with specific examples and generalized requirements.
Every academic paper has a detailed specific structure. Although you might think that it is to make the life of students even harder than it already is, it is not the reason. When there is a standardized system of organizing the information, it easy to revise and review, find the section you are interested in, and make your message clear. If your goal is to write a paper that would meet all of the Turabian style requirements (and it should), here are some of the points to pay attention to:
There are no specific recommendations on when to use Turabian style. It is designed for the assignments that include conducting a scientific research but no one says that it is its limit. As a rule, your instructor will highlight the main requirements to the paper you will have to submit and formatting style point will be among them. Otherwise, you can ask your teacher to provide you with more details. Either way, make sure you know what is required and how to do it.
One of the main benefits of this formatting style is that you can use footnotes and endnotes opposed to the direct in-text quotations. Here are some examples of how to format
a book:
Adam Simons, The Biggest Mistakes of the Humanity (New York: Best Publishing Company, 1999), 58.
a publication:
Adam Simons, “The Biggest Mistakes of the Humanity”, Behaviorism Today 46, no. 3 (2008): 21.
Gerry Weinstein, “Superfoods,” Scientific Research 19, no. 7 (2002): 134, http://www.jrt.org/open/11110000.
a webpage:
Alex Parks, “Three teams win President’s Innovation Challenge Awards”, Harvard Correspondent, May 3, 2018, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/05/3-student-ventures-win-top-prizes-in-presidents-innovation-challenge/
Now, let's focus on the formatting of the bibliography page. Here are examples of how to format
a book:
Simons, Adam. The Biggest Mistakes of the Humanity. New York: Best Publishing Company, 1999.
a publication:
Simons, Adam. “The Biggest Mistakes of the Humanity.” Behaviorism Today 46, no. 3 (2008): 21-27.
Weinstein, Gerry. “Superfoods.” Scientific Research 19, no. 7 (2002): 0-134.
http://www.jrt.org/open/1243342.
a webpage:
Parks, Alex. “Three teams win President’s Innovation Challenge Awards”. Harvard Correspondent. May 3, 2018.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/05/3-student-ventures-win-top-prizes-in-presidents-innovation-challenge/
Essayhave.com is a unique place where you can not only get detailed examples of formatting your paper properly but also improve your techniques. No one is here to judge you for misplacing a comma. Our experts are writers with years of experience who know the most effective approaches to help students write better. If you want to score high on your next assignment, we can make it happen.