One of the most cumbersome things is learning the structure of an academic paper and knowing how to cite correctly. We explain how to do it.

To get our university eTítulo we have to submit papers in abundance and with them come the classic doubts: what line spacing should I put?, what margin?, what type of font should I choose? No problem: we’ll explain it to you.

Making a correct structure of an academic work is relatively simple and practically the same for all works, but at first it is confusing. There are professors who ask for certain margins or line spacing, or a specific font, but in general, you just have to follow the structure of a standard academic paper. We tell you how it is:

Front page

It is not only an aesthetic question, but also, but the main function of the cover is to identify the theme of the work and its author, so we must include the title, our name and surname, subject, course, group, etc.. It’s also an opportunity for our work to stand out, so it’s a good idea to put our creativity to work. There is no need to be afraid of using colors or images to differentiate our work from the rest, but only if we believe that the work is well done.

Margins

We need the work to be legible and not overwhelming and, for that, the text must have “air” around it. It is good to keep the reader in mind that, in this case, he will also be responsible for scoring our work, so it is even more important that it is not stressful to the eye. If we follow the structure of a basic academic work, the upper and lower margins should have a space of 2.54 cm and on the sides about 3.5 cm.

Leading

The structure of a standard academic work says that the line spacing must be double spaced between lines and triple when there are titles or images. Each page should not have more than 30 lines, including footnotes, and be very careful not to leave stray lines at the top or bottom of the page (what typographers call “widow and orphan” lines ). It will be necessary to square the text so that it does not pass.

Numeration

It is important that the pages are numbered and that this numbering agrees with the index. Teachers have a lot of work to correct and, sometimes, they do not read everything in depth, but rather they are guided by the contents that we point out in the index. We can number the pages in the upper or lower margin on the right side and place the number 2.5 cm from the edge.

Font and font size

Unless they tell us something specific, we must use one of the classic fonts that are recommended (nothing to get gothic or too artistic), such as Sans, Times New Roman, Curier New, etc. And even if we want the job to appear longer than it really is, we should not exceed size 12.

Other

Quotations are references that we make within the text to information sources and, therefore, they must be distinguished visually so that the reader knows that what he is reading is a quoted text.

It is appropriate to include a large number of citations so that it is seen that we have searched for the necessary sources to document ourselves, but that does not mean that we have to literally copy the words cited each time. It is correct to quote by putting in our words what such an author said or we can make a literal quote.

Let’s look at some examples of quotes:

In the following example, we transcribe what the author says literally, so it must be placed in quotation marks (with a Latin comma if possible) or put it in italics:

This data collection is essential because, in the words of Raquel Osborne (2008), “Keeping an account raises the phenomenon of anecdote to a category, leading to its greater visibility.”

It must be taken into account that if the quote has more than 40 words, it must be placed in a separate paragraph, with a larger margin and smaller characters (type 10 instead of 12).

We can also say it with our words. In this way, we will avoid problems with anti-plagiarism programs and we will not fill our work with phrases from others:

Raquel Osborne (2008) argues that the fact of collecting the data and keeping track of the times the phenomenon occurs, makes its full magnitude visible and makes it a tangible fact that can be worked on and investigated.

Bibliography

In the structure of an academic work, the bibliography is always included at the end, which is a compilation that collects all the information from the sources that we have used during the preparation of the academic work.

It is very useful that we create it at the same time that we write the work. Thus, as soon as we cite a study or an author, we will introduce it in the bibliography and we will not forget anything and we will not have to reread the work in search of references.

If we are going to cite a book, there are several criteria, but the recommended formula is the following:

Surname name. Title of the book in italics. Place of publication, publisher, year and page on which the quote appears.

If the author is anonymous, start with the title of the novel and then it will be “anonymous”.

Respecting the structure of an academic paper may seem a bit cumbersome at first, but as soon as we get used to it, it will be simple and very useful.