Whether you’re writing your first high school term paper, or putting the finishing touches on your doctoral thesis, a great essay needs more than simply good ideas. For ease of reading and proper citations, you need to make sure that your writing is encapsulated in one of the standard forms. You should first better acquaint you with the two most popular writing styles for term papers today–the APA and Chicago Manual of Style formats.
Using Approved Styles for Citations
One of the most important functions of both the APA Style and Chicago Manual of Style is citation creation. Few thoughts are wholly original, but you’ll want to make sure that any supporting materials you quote are properly cited. Failing to properly cite your sources amounts to plagiarism, which can ruin your academic career in a single instance.
Remember the days of endless footnotes and bulky numbered lists of citations at the end of an academic paper? The beauty of these new formats is that you can make your citations in an easier way with little effort. Using parenthetical citations, you can quickly cite your source, and add publication information to a simple list of cited works at the paper’s end.
Using Approved Styles for Standard Writing
Whether you are a newspaper reporter, or simply are writing for an Internet publication, you’ll want to make certain that you’re using the right style. How you and your company are perceived rests, in large part, in the quality of your writing. You will want to be sure your capitalization and punctuation is more than correct–you’ll want to make sure it meets the accepted standards.
How do you find out what those standards are? Simply by using either the APA format or the Chicago Manual of Style format, you can align your writing to the most popular standards out there. Across the country, most newspapers use the Chicago Manual of Style as a measuring stick against which all their copy is compared. Academia has likewise embraced the APA style guide as standard, expecting its publications to adhere to its standards.
What You Might Not Know about Modern Language
Most of us consider ourselves good, solid writers. But how perfected is your style? Do you know when to capitalize technological terms, and when to double and single space quotations? How would you quote poetry, if you had to?
Beyond these stylistic questions, you might also find you have questions on the finer points of grammar. The tragedy of modern day education is that while you are certainly expected to use correct grammar, many public institutions no longer teach grammar and usage heavily. Many writers no longer know when to use “who” or “whom,” and few could tell you exactly when to use a semi-colon over a comma. These basic grammatical points, when overlooked, can make your writing look sloppy and juvenile.
How to Perfect Your Writing
Maybe you’re looking for APA and Chicago Manual Of Style Writing Resources. But sometimes the information contained in most of these resources is partial or incomplete. Do you have a specific question you’re having trouble answering?
Luckily, you can find solid, comprehensive APA and Chicago Manual of Style writing resources that cover all of your citation and style needs. Using the magic of technology, you can purchase APA format software or publication manual to use as a complete reference tool. Tighten your writing, and ensure the accuracy of business and academic papers by perfecting your style.