Conventions of academic writing - Essay Example

Conventions of Academic Writing When doing science-based research paper in the past, it was essential to apply the APA convention as it helped me manage to standardize scientific writing in a way that would be comprehensive to the evaluator. I have learned that besides research reports, APA style is used as well for term papers, empirical studies, literature reviews, theoretical articles, methodological articles, and case studies. The style itself does establish ease in reading comprehension especially among social and behavioral sciences, for clarity of communication, as it enables shifting of the idea forward with a minimum of distraction and a maximum of precision.

Formatting paper in APA style means paying attention to mechanical details such as typeface, line spacing, margins, and page numbers.On the other hand, it has rather been conducive to accomplish my English papers using the MLA style. As an academic writing convention that provides guidelines for writing and documentation of research in the humanities, especially in English studies, I acquire a sense of flexibility every time I review and edit my critical writing with MLA format. This style is widely used as well in the study of other modern languages and literatures, including comparative literature,  literary criticism, media and cultural studies, and some other related disciplines.

Writing a paper on history subject is another area for which I find MLA style useful. This convention had undergone certain changes including the use of italics instead of underlining title and URL listing of online sources is optional. (2) Act of PlagiarismPlagiarism is nowhere far from the crime of inflicting damage or plunder of intellectual property, making it a serious academic offense. If I were a writer whose original quote/line is used or rephrased by someone else, for whatever purpose without due acknowledgment, then that person commits plagiarism against my right to personal property.

In this case, I am equivalently deprived of a ‘right to identity’ by way of rational design or one that essentially sets an individual’s uniqueness apart from the rest. To avoid plagiarism, it is always essential to cite references especially the primary ones properly. For instance, whenever one finds it necessary to use more than three words in a row that occurred exactly in the same order in the source material, these words must be put into quotation marks with in-text citation within parentheses having footnote or endnote added to give appropriate credit to the source.(3) Research Terminology Hypothesis is one important research terminology I came across during the past scientific research and being guided by an ‘intelligent guess’ as we conducted experiment was a huge help in comparing data and arriving at the desired output.

Reading abstract in a source and creating one makes a necessary tool in developing the intended subject and body of the paper. Empirical data, as another useful terminology implying a furnished or generated resource out of experimentation also applies when there emerged the need to compare actual figures with literature values. Additionally, I take advantage of objective, a term and concept proven to direct the subject along all necessary points in completing a written project. Then with conclusion, pertinent inferences are evaluated from which to decide which matching theory best coincides with the experimental results.