Many students find formatting a research paper the most boring aspect of completing projects. It is not surprising, since research paper formatting is all about formal rules and requirements that you have to know and stick to.
 
Thus, do not count on a high grade without proper formatting.
 
We know that some particular requirements for formatting research papers vary. However, there are some basic rules that you can use and be sure that your paper is formatted correctly.
 
In this article, we will focus on two main aspects of research paper formatting.
 
Research paper formatting: aspect 1
 
It refers to the content of your paper, particularly to the order in which you arrange the chapters of your work. According to the rules of research paper formatting, you need to stick to the following order: title page, abstract, table of contents, list of illustrations, main body, footnotes, and bibliography.
 
Research paper formatting: aspect 2
 
Actually, this second aspect is more important, since it refers to some details of papers’ organization and documenting sources used.
 
There are two main citation styles used for citing sources – MLA and APA, though your teacher might require other styles to be used for research paper formatting.
 
Anyways, here are some requirements for formatting research papers using both MLA and APA formats:

• Page margins of your paper should be set at 1 inch on all sides;
• The text of your paper should be double-spaced;
• You have to use standard, 12 pt, legible fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, Courier, etc.

You can get more details about these formats in our next articles about an APA term paper and MLA term paper.