Revising your Research Paper

Now that you have your draft ready, you need to go over your paper with a critical eye.

Content structure & style:

Edit the content to ensure logical flow. Grammatical correctness is very essential and the content needs to be well formatted. Quotations and Citations are to be provided wherever appropriate to ensure the content is free of plagiarism.

Logical Presentation:

• The three main sections of a paper are introduction, body and conclusion.
• The introduction should be drafted to capture the reader’s attention and motivate him or her to know more.
• The body describes in detail about the topic or your work. For better readability, the flow in the content must make logical sense. Use shorter paragraphs, bullet points, relevant headings and subheadings to make it readable and convenient for the reader to understand the matter.
• The conclusion should be a crisp summary that conveys the outcome or significance of your work.

Grammar Check:

You could seek professional help to proofread your article or, a reliable Grammar Check software tool can be used. The context of the article and the tone of the language needs to be kept in mind while rephrasing the sentences to make it more readable.

Formatting your paper:

Depending on the type of research paper, you can choose the formatting styles, options include:

• AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
• MLA (Modern Language Association) for literature, arts, and humanities
• APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
• Chicagoa common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books

Each of these have a different style of structuring the document.

Here are a few of things to consider when you are in the process of formatting a paper.

• Include a Table of Contents
• Use suitable Margins
• Include Page Numbers
• Ensure Words and Lines are well spaced
• Format the title and headings as per the formatting style
• Use Indentations and Paragraph justifications.
• Use good quality Paper
• Never use the back of a sheet of paper

Plagiarism Check

Plagiarism means to show somebody else’s work as your own. This happens when you borrow content or ideas from another source without giving the author due credit.

It is considered an offence and can impact your reputation or even attract penalties. Citations are the best way to acknowledge the original author. This way, even if you have rephrased an idea or content, it will not be considered as Plagiarism. A thorough check of your content and citing the resources wherever applicable is critical before submitting your paper.

Quotations and Citations:

Quotations in your paper writing can be used to support or enhance the content. It is essential to state the quote within quotation marks. A quote should never be rephrased – use the same words that were used by the speaker/writer. You need to mention the author’s name when you introduce the quote or in a Citation.

A Citation is a representation of source from where you have utilised content or ideas to support your article. For instance, consider the following Citation:

Rudyard Kipling, John L. Kipling, W H. Drake, and Paul Frenzeny. The Jungle Book. London: Macmillan, 1898. Print.

This clearly mentions of the Author’s Name, Illustrators’ names, Name of the Book, Place of Publication and the Year of Publication.

It is important to choose the right Citation Format based on the context of the paper and the kind of the source from where the quote is picked. Citations can be used to avoid Plagiarism and showcase the effort taken to procure information from various sources.