Yes, Scribbr offers a limited free version of its plagiarism checker in partnership with Turnitin. It uses Turnitin’s industry-leading plagiarism detection technology and has access to most content databases.
If you’re a university representative, you can contact the sales department of Turnitin.
A research project is an academic, scientific, or professional undertaking to answer a research question. Research projects can take many forms, such as qualitative or quantitative, descriptive, longitudinal, experimental, or correlational. What kind of research approach you choose will depend on your topic.
The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.
Fishbone diagrams (also called herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, and Ishikawa diagrams) are most popular in fields of quality management. They are also commonly used in nursing and healthcare, or as a brainstorming technique for students.
Fishbone diagrams have a few different names that are used interchangeably, including herringbone diagram, cause-and-effect diagram, and Ishikawa diagram.
These are all ways to refer to the same thing– a problem-solving approach that uses a fish-shaped diagram to model possible root causes of problems and troubleshoot solutions.
Although a few doesn’t refer to any specific number, it’s typically used to refer to a relatively small number that’s more than two (e.g., “I’m going home in a few hours”).
Some synonyms and near synonyms for few include:
The present participle of the verb “lie” is “lying.” The present participles of verbs ending in “ie” are usually formed by replacing “ie” with “y” and adding the suffix “-ing.”
The present participle of the verb “be” is “being” (e.g., “you are being callous”). The past participle of “be” is “been.”
The “-ing” form of a verb is called the present participle. Present participles can be used as adjectives (e.g., “a thrilling story”) and to form the continuous verb tenses (e.g., “We are partying”).
Gerunds also use the “-ing” form of a verb, but they function only as nouns (e.g., “I don’t enjoy studying”).
People sometimes mistakenly write “looking forward to hear from you,” but this is incorrect. The correct phrase is looking forward to hearing from you.
The phrasal verb “look forward to” is always followed by a direct object, the thing you’re looking forward to. As the direct object has to be a noun phrase, it should be the gerund “hearing,” not the verb “hear.”
“Looking forward in hearing from you” is an incorrect version of the phrase looking forward to hearing from you. The phrasal verb “looking forward to” always needs the preposition “to,” not “in.”
Some synonyms and near synonyms for the expression looking forward to hearing from you include:
Because of the framing effect, the way information is presented to us influences how attractive a proposition is.
Suppose you are considering joining a gym. A membership at $500 per year sounds like a considerable investment and might prevent you from signing up immediately. However, if they tell you it costs just $1.37 per day and emphasize that this is less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you might think it’s a great offer, even though in reality both offers cost you the same.
The framing effect is often used in advertising to positively influence consumer choice.
One common type of frame is “gain framing.” This shows consumers how they are going to benefit from a product or service. For example, dental care product advertisements use gain framing to display the benefits of using their product: white teeth, healthy gums, fresh breath, etc.
Apart from the obvious benefits, ads using the framing effect often imply other benefits, such as how a better-looking smile makes one more attractive to potential dating partners.
In survey research, such as political polling, the way questions are worded or the order in which answers are presented can influence how respondents answer the questions. This is called the framing effect.
For example, if voters are asked to select which of two candidates they plan to vote for, the order in which the candidates are listed affects the percentage of respondents selecting each candidate. Recognizing the potential for research bias, researchers typically rotate which major candidate is listed first and which is listed second.
Although both are common types of cognitive bias, they refer to different ways of processing information.
In other words, the availability heuristic gives preference to information that is easy to recall, while confirmation bias gives preference to information that aligns with our existing beliefs. Even though they are different, they both cause us to focus on only a subset of information.
Heuristics are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that help people reduce the time and effort required to make a decision. An example of a heuristic in psychology is the availability heuristic (or availability bias). It involves relying on information that comes to mind quickly, (i.e., information that is available to us).
The availability heuristic can influence our perception of risk in everyday life. One common example occurs when we are considering buying insurance. The sharp increase in purchases of flood insurance in the aftermath of flood events illustrates this phenomenon.
Witnessing such events, knowing someone who was personally affected, or extensive media coverage can make us more aware of floods (or make floods more “available” to us). This can change our risk perception, even though statistically there may not be a change in the probabilities of future flooding.
Belief bias and confirmation bias are both types of cognitive bias that impact our judgment and decision-making.
Confirmation bias relates to how we perceive and judge evidence. We tend to seek out and prefer information that supports our preexisting beliefs, ignoring any information that contradicts those beliefs.
Belief bias describes the tendency to judge an argument based on how plausible the conclusion seems to us, rather than how much evidence is provided to support it during the course of the argument.
Yours truly is a phrase used at the end of a formal letter or email. It can also be used (typically in a humorous way) as a pronoun to refer to oneself (e.g., “The dinner was cooked by yours truly”). The latter usage should be avoided in formal writing.
It’s formed by combining the second-person possessive pronoun “yours” with the adverb “truly.”
There are numerous synonyms for the various meanings of truly:
| In a truthful way | Absolutely | Properly |
| Candidly | Completely | Accurately |
| Honestly | Really | Correctly |
| Openly | Totally | Exactly |
| Truthfully | Undoubtedly | Precisely |
The bandwagon effect is a type of cognitive bias. It describes the tendency of people to adopt behaviors or opinions simply because others are doing so, regardless of their own beliefs.
Formulating a main research question can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your problem statement.
However, it should also fulfill criteria in three main areas:
Use to and used to are commonly confused words. In the case of “used to have”, the latter (with “d”) is correct, since you’re describing an action or state in the past.
Cognitive bias is an umbrella term used to describe the different ways in which our beliefs and experiences impact our judgment and decision making. These preconceptions are “mental shortcuts” that help us speed up how we process and make sense of new information.
However, this tendency may lead us to misunderstand events, facts, or other people. Cognitive bias can be a source of research bias.
Some common types of cognitive bias are:
Research questions anchor your whole project, so it’s important to spend some time refining them.
In general, they should be:
All research questions should be:
A funnel plot shows the relation between a study’s effect size and its precision. It is a scatter plot of the treatment effects estimated from individual studies (horizontal axis) against sample size (vertical axis).
Asymmetry in the funnel plot, measured using regression analysis, is an indication of publication bias. In the absence of bias, results from small studies will scatter widely at the bottom of the graph, with the spread narrowing among larger studies.
The idea here is that small studies are more likely to remain unpublished if their results are nonsignificant or unfavorable, whereas larger studies get published regardless. This leads to asymmetry in the funnel plot.
A visual aid is an instructional device (e.g., a photo, a chart) that appeals to vision to help you understand written or spoken information. Aid is often placed after an attributive noun or adjective (like “visual”) that describes the type of help provided.
“Visual aide” is incorrect.
A job aid is an instructional tool (e.g., a checklist, a cheat sheet) that helps you work efficiently. Aid is a noun meaning “assistance.” It’s often placed after an adjective or attributive noun (like “job”) that describes the specific type of help provided.
“Job aide” is incorrect.
A dissertation prospectus or proposal describes what or who you plan to research for your dissertation. It delves into why, when, where, and how you will do your research, as well as helps you choose a type of research to pursue. You should also determine whether you plan to pursue qualitative or quantitative methods and what your research design will look like.
It should outline all of the decisions you have taken about your project, from your dissertation topic to your hypotheses and research objectives, ready to be approved by your supervisor or committee.
Note that some departments require a defense component, where you present your prospectus to your committee orally.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search, interpret, and recall information in a way that aligns with our pre-existing values, opinions, or beliefs. It refers to the ability to recollect information best when it amplifies what we already believe. Relatedly, we tend to forget information that contradicts our opinions.
Although selective recall is a component of confirmation bias, it should not be confused with recall bias.
On the other hand, recall bias refers to the differences in the ability between study participants to recall past events when self-reporting is used. This difference in accuracy or completeness of recollection is not related to beliefs or opinions. Rather, recall bias relates to other factors, such as the length of the recall period, age, and the characteristics of the disease under investigation.
Placebos are used in medical research for new medication or therapies, called clinical trials. In these trials some people are given a placebo, while others are given the new medication being tested.
The purpose is to determine how effective the new medication is: if it benefits people beyond a predefined threshold as compared to the placebo, it’s considered effective and not the result of a placebo effect.
Although there is no definite answer to what causes the placebo effect, researchers propose a number of explanations such as the power of suggestion, doctor-patient interaction, classical conditioning, etc.
Our research indicates that the best free grammar checker available online is the Scribbr grammar checker.
We tested 10 of the most popular checkers with the same sample text (containing 20 grammatical errors) and found that Scribbr easily outperformed the competition, scoring 18 out of 20, a drastic improvement over the second-place score of 13 out of 20.
It even appeared to outperform the premium versions of other grammar checkers, despite being entirely free.
Common types of selection bias are:
Use to and used to are commonly confused words. In the case of “used to do”, the latter (with “d”) is correct, since you’re describing an action or state in the past.
Use to and used to are commonly confused words. In the case of “used to be”, the latter (with “d”) is correct, since you’re describing an action or state in the past.
Then and than are two commonly confused words. In the context of “better than”, you use “than” with an “a”.
Then and than are two commonly confused words with different meanings and grammatical roles.
| Examples: Then in a sentence | Examples: Than in a sentence |
|---|---|
| Mix the dry ingredients first, and then add the wet ingredients. | Max is a better saxophonist than you. |
| I was working as a teacher then. | I usually like coaching a team more than I like playing soccer myself. |
Its and it’s are often confused, but its (without apostrophe) is the possessive form of “it” (e.g., its tail, its argument, its wing). You use “its” instead of “his” and “her” for neuter, inanimate nouns.
Though they’re pronounced the same, there’s a big difference in meaning between its and it’s.
The indefinite articles a and an are used to refer to a general or unspecified version of a noun (e.g., a house). Which indefinite article you use depends on the pronunciation of the word that follows it.
Indefinite articles can only be used with singular countable nouns. Like definite articles, they are a type of determiner.
There are many ways to categorize determiners into various types. Some of the main types of determiners are:
A thesis is typically written by students finishing up a bachelor’s or Master’s degree. Some educational institutions, particularly in the liberal arts, have mandatory theses, but they are often not mandatory to graduate from bachelor’s degrees. It is more common for a thesis to be a graduation requirement from a Master’s degree.
Even if not mandatory, you may want to consider writing a thesis if you:
Yes, you should normally include an access date in an AMA website citation (or when citing any source with a URL). This is because webpages can change their content over time, so it’s useful for the reader to know when you accessed the page.
When a publication or update date is provided on the page, you should include it in addition to the access date. The access date appears second in this case, e.g., “Published June 19, 2021. Accessed August 29, 2022.”
Don’t include an access date when citing a source with a DOI (such as in an AMA journal article citation).
Yes, besides is a preposition meaning “apart from” (e.g., “Laura doesn’t like hot drinks besides cocoa”). It can also be used to mean “as well as” (e.g., “Besides traveling, Angie enjoys cooking”).
Beside and besides are related words, but they don’t have the same meaning.
There are different synonyms for the various meanings of besides.
| Except | In addition to | As well | Furthermore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apart from | As well as | Also | Additionally |
| But | Along with | Too | Further |
| Other than | Together with | Moreover |
Let’s touch base is an expression used to suggest to someone that you touch base or briefly reconnect. It’s rarely used in formal or academic writing.
“Touch bases” is sometimes mistakenly used instead of the expression touch base, meaning “reconnect briefly.” In the expression, the word “base” can’t be pluralized—the idea is more that you’re both touching the same “base.”
“Touch basis” is a misspelling of “touch bases” and is also incorrect.
Some synonyms for touch base include:
The names of up to six authors should be listed for each source on your AMA reference page, separated by commas. For a source with seven or more authors, you should list the first three followed by “et al”: “Isidore, Gilbert, Gunvor, et al.”
In the text, mentioning author names is optional (as they aren’t an official part of AMA in-text citations). If you do mention them, though, you should use the first author’s name followed by “et al” when there are three or more: “Isidore et al argue that …”
Note that according to AMA’s rather minimalistic punctuation guidelines, there’s no period after “et al” unless it appears at the end of a sentence. This is different from most other styles, where there is normally a period.
Convergent validity shows how much a measure of one construct aligns with other measures of the same or related constructs.
On the other hand, concurrent validity is about how a measure matches up to some known criterion or gold standard, which can be another measure.
Although both types of validity are established by calculating the association or correlation between a test score and another variable, they represent distinct validation methods.
Validity tells you how accurately a method measures what it was designed to measure. There are four main types of validity:
Criterion validity evaluates how well a test measures the outcome it was designed to measure. An outcome can be, for example, the onset of a disease.
Criterion validity consists of two subtypes depending on the time at which the two measures (the criterion and your test) are obtained:
Some well-known examples of terms that are or have been viewed as misnomers, but are still widely used, include:
In AMA citation format, if you cite the same source more than once in your paper, it still only has one entry on your AMA reference page, numbered based on the first time you cite it.
This means you’ll always use the same number for the AMA in-text citation for that source, not a different number each time. You can add different page numbers to the citations to talk about specific parts of the source in each case, e.g. 1(pp13–15)
Attrition refers to participants leaving a study. It always happens to some extent—for example, in randomized controlled trials for medical research.
Differential attrition occurs when attrition or dropout rates differ systematically between the intervention and the control group. As a result, the characteristics of the participants who drop out differ from the characteristics of those who stay in the study. Because of this, study results may be biased.
“Bare with me” is a common misspelling of the phrase bear with me. While “bare” can be used as a verb meaning “uncover,” it doesn’t make sense in this phrase. The verb you need is “bear,” meaning “carry” or “endure.”
Some synonyms for bear with me include:
Please bear with me is a more polite version of the expression bear with me, meaning “have patience with me.”
It’s typically used along with a conjunction (e.g., “while”), to explain why you’re asking for patience (e.g., “please bear with me while I try to find the correct file”).
The standard spelling is copacetic. The variant spellings copasetic and copesetic are also listed as acceptable by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but they’re less common.
The origin of the word is unclear (it’s thought to have originated as slang in the 20th century), which is why various spellings are deemed acceptable.
Copacetic has four syllables. It’s pronounced with emphasis on the third syllable: [koh-pah-set-ik].
Some synonyms for copacetic include:
The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation should include the following:
The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation shouldn’t take up more than 5–7% of your overall word count.
For a stronger dissertation conclusion, avoid including:
Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.
While it may be tempting to present new arguments or evidence in your thesis or disseration conclusion, especially if you have a particularly striking argument you’d like to finish your analysis with, you shouldn’t. Theses and dissertations follow a more formal structure than this.
All your findings and arguments should be presented in the body of the text (more specifically in the discussion section and results section.) The conclusion is meant to summarize and reflect on the evidence and arguments you have already presented, not introduce new ones.
Some antonyms (opposites) for “callous” include:
Some synonyms for “callous” include:
Some antonyms (opposites) for “presumptuous” include:
Some synonyms for “presumptuous” include:
Verbiage has three syllables. It’s pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable: [ver-bee-ij].
There are numerous synonyms for the two meanings of verbiage.
| Excessive use of language | Manner/style of language |
|---|---|
| Circumlocution | Diction |
| Diffuseness | Language |
| Long-windedness | Phrasing |
| Redundancy | Style |
| Verboseness | Syntax |
| Verbosity | Turn of phrase |
| Windiness | Wording |
| Wordage | |
| Wordiness |
An AMA reference usually includes the author’s last name and initials, the title of the source, information about the publisher or the publication it’s contained in, and the publication date. The specific details included, and the formatting, depend on the source type.
References in AMA style are presented in numerical order (numbered by the order in which they were first cited in the text) on your reference page. A source that’s cited repeatedly in the text still only appears once on the reference page.
An AMA in-text citation consists of the number of the relevant reference on your AMA reference page, written in superscript1 at the point in the text where the source is used.
It may also include the page number or range of the relevant material in the source (e.g., the part you quoted2(p46)). Multiple sources can be cited at one point, presented as a range or list (with no spaces3,5–9).
AMA citation format is a citation style designed by the American Medical Association. It’s frequently used in the field of medicine.
You may be told to use AMA style for your student papers. You will also have to follow this style if you’re submitting a paper to a journal published by the AMA.
Some synonyms for “loquacious” include:
Mea culpa has four syllables. It’s pronounced with emphasis on the first and third syllables: [May-uh-kuul-puh].
Mea maxima culpa is a term of Latin origin meaning “through my most grievous fault.” It is used to acknowledge a mistake or wrongdoing. Mea maxima culpa is a stronger version of mea culpa, which means “through my fault.”
Mea maxima culpa is traditionally used in a prayer of confession in the Catholic Church as the third and most emphatic expression of guilt (“mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa”). Unlike mea culpa, mea maxima culpa is rarely used outside of a religious context.
Criterion validity and construct validity are both types of measurement validity. In other words, they both show you how accurately a method measures something.
While construct validity is the degree to which a test or other measurement method measures what it claims to measure, criterion validity is the degree to which a test can predictively (in the future) or concurrently (in the present) measure something.
Construct validity is often considered the overarching type of measurement validity. You need to have face validity, content validity, and criterion validity in order to achieve construct validity.
Convergent validity and discriminant validity are both subtypes of construct validity. Together, they help you evaluate whether a test measures the concept it was designed to measure.
You need to assess both in order to demonstrate construct validity. Neither one alone is sufficient for establishing construct validity.
Some words with a similar or identical meaning to albeit (depending on context) include:
Albeit has three syllables. It’s pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable: [awl-bee-it].
Because some people pronounce “I’ll” in a similar way to the first syllable, they sometimes mistakenly write “I’ll be it” in place of “albeit.” This is incorrect and should be avoided.
Vice versa is the only correct spelling (not “vice a versa” or “vice-versa”), but the phrase can be pronounced both ways: [vice–vur-suh] or [vice-uh-vur-suh].
There are two ways to pronounce vice versa:
Both pronunciations are considered acceptable, but “vice versa” is the only correct spelling.
Some synonyms of vice versa include:
Some synonyms for “indubitably” include:
“Indubitably” has five syllables. It is pronounced with an emphasis on the second syllable: [in-doo-bit-uh-blee].
“Eponymous” has four syllables. It’s pronounced with an emphasis on the second syllable: [i-pon-uh-muss].
Some words that are synonyms or near synonyms of “eponymous” include:
Convergent validity and discriminant validity are both subtypes of construct validity. Together, they help you evaluate whether a test measures the concept it was designed to measure.
You need to assess both in order to demonstrate construct validity. Neither one alone is sufficient for establishing construct validity.
Facetious has three syllables. It’s pronounced with an emphasis on the second syllable: [fuh-see-shuss].
Some antonyms (opposites) for facetious include:
Some synonyms for facetious include:
Regular verbs are verbs whose simple past and past participle are formed by adding the suffix “-ed” (e.g., “walked”).
Irregular verbs are verbs that form their simple past and past participles in some way other than by adding the suffix “-ed” (e.g., “sat”).
There are many ways to categorize verbs into various types. A verb can fall into one or more of these categories depending on how it is used.
Some of the main types of verbs are:
A collective noun is any noun that is used to name a group of something (people, animals, things, etc.). “Group” is one very common collective noun. Collective nouns can be common nouns (like “group”) or proper nouns (like “Google” and other company names).
Collective nouns are most commonly treated as singular (e.g., “the herd is grazing”), but usage differs between US and UK English:
The correct spelling of the term meaning “to a sickening degree” is ad nauseam, with an “a.” The common misspelling “ad nauseum,” with a “u,” is never correct.
Ad nauseam is usually used to refer to something going on for too long. Some rough synonyms of ad nauseam are:
In fiction, the opposite of a protagonist is an antagonist, meaning someone who opposes the protagonist.
More generally, some antonyms for “protagonist” include:
There are numerous synonyms for the various meanings of protagonist.
| Main character in a story | Main participant in an event | Leader or supporter of a cause |
| Central figure | Actor | Advocate |
| Hero(ine) | Key figure | Champion |
| Lead(ing) character | Main figure | Exponent |
| Main character | Principal player | Promoter |
| Proponent | ||
| Supporter | ||
| Upholder |
Content validity shows you how accurately a test or other measurement method taps into the various aspects of the specific construct you are researching.
In other words, it helps you answer the question: “does the test measure all aspects of the construct I want to measure?” If it does, then the test has high content validity.
The higher the content validity, the more accurate the measurement of the construct.
If the test fails to include parts of the construct, or irrelevant parts are included, the validity of the instrument is threatened, which brings your results into question.
Face validity and content validity are similar in that they both evaluate how suitable the content of a test is. The difference is that face validity is subjective, and assesses content at surface level.
When a test has strong face validity, anyone would agree that the test’s questions appear to measure what they are intended to measure.
For example, looking at a 4th grade math test consisting of problems in which students have to add and multiply, most people would agree that it has strong face validity (i.e., it looks like a math test).
On the other hand, content validity evaluates how well a test represents all the aspects of a topic. Assessing content validity is more systematic and relies on expert evaluation. of each question, analyzing whether each one covers the aspects that the test was designed to cover.
A 4th grade math test would have high content validity if it covered all the skills taught in that grade. Experts(in this case, math teachers), would have to evaluate the content validity by comparing the test to the learning objectives.
Cardinal numbers (e.g., one, two, three) can be placed before a noun to indicate quantity (e.g., one apple). While these are sometimes referred to as “numeral adjectives,” they are more accurately categorized as determiners or quantifiers.
There are many ways to categorize adjectives into various types. An adjective can fall into one or more of these categories depending on how it is used.
Some of the main types of adjectives are:
No, as a general rule, academic concepts, disciplines, theories, models, etc. are treated as common nouns, not proper nouns, and therefore not capitalized. For example, “five-factor model of personality” or “analytic philosophy.”
However, proper nouns that appear within the name of an academic concept (such as the name of the inventor) are capitalized as usual. For example, “Darwin’s theory of evolution” or “Student’s t table.”
The names of seasons (e.g., “spring”) are treated as common nouns in English and therefore not capitalized. People often assume they are proper nouns, but this is an error.
The names of days and months, however, are capitalized since they’re treated as proper nouns in English (e.g., “Wednesday,” “January”).
A proper adjective is an adjective that was derived from a proper noun and is therefore capitalized.
Proper adjectives include words for nationalities, languages, and ethnicities (e.g., “Japanese,” “Inuit,” “French”) and words derived from people’s names (e.g., “Bayesian,” “Orwellian”).
Common nouns are words for types of things, people, and places, such as “dog,” “professor,” and “city.” They are not capitalized and are typically used in combination with articles and other determiners.
Proper nouns are words for specific things, people, and places, such as “Max,” “Dr. Prakash,” and “London.” They are always capitalized and usually aren’t combined with articles and other determiners.
Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling method. Unlike probability sampling (which involves some form of random selection), the initial individuals selected to be studied are the ones who recruit new participants.
Because not every member of the target population has an equal chance of being recruited into the sample, selection in snowball sampling is non-random.
Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling method, where there is not an equal chance for every member of the population to be included in the sample.
This means that you cannot use inferential statistics and make generalizations—often the goal of quantitative research. As such, a snowball sample is not representative of the target population and is usually a better fit for qualitative research.
Snowball sampling relies on the use of referrals. Here, the researcher recruits one or more initial participants, who then recruit the next ones.
Participants share similar characteristics and/or know each other. Because of this, not every member of the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample, giving rise to sampling bias.
Snowball sampling is best used in the following cases:
The reproducibility and replicability of a study can be ensured by writing a transparent, detailed method section and using clear, unambiguous language.
Reproducibility and replicability are related terms.
Reproducibility and replicability are related terms.
Pronouns are words like “I,” “she,” and “they” that are used in a similar way to nouns. They stand in for a noun that has already been mentioned or refer to yourself and other people.
Pronouns can function just like nouns as the head of a noun phrase and as the subject or object of a verb. However, pronouns change their forms (e.g., from “I” to “me”) depending on the grammatical context they’re used in, whereas nouns usually don’t.
There are many ways to categorize nouns into various types, and the same noun can fall into multiple categories or even change types depending on context.
Some of the main types of nouns are:
A noun is a word that represents a person, thing, concept, or place (e.g., “John,” “house,” “affinity,” “river”). Most sentences contain at least one noun or pronoun.
Nouns are often, but not always, preceded by an article (“the,” “a,” or “an”) and/or another determiner such as an adjective.
Response bias is a general term used to describe a number of different conditions or factors that cue respondents to provide inaccurate or false answers during surveys or interviews. These factors range from the interviewer’s perceived social position or appearance to the the phrasing of questions in surveys.
Nonresponse bias occurs when the people who complete a survey are different from those who did not, in ways that are relevant to the research topic. Nonresponse can happen because people are either not willing or not able to participate.
Observer bias occurs when the researcher’s assumptions, views, or preconceptions influence what they see and record in a study, while actor–observer bias refers to situations where respondents attribute internal factors (e.g., bad character) to justify other’s behavior and external factors (difficult circumstances) to justify the same behavior in themselves.
Research bias affects the validity and reliability of your research findings, leading to false conclusions and a misinterpretation of the truth. This can have serious implications in areas like medical research where, for example, a new form of treatment may be evaluated.
Stratified sampling and quota sampling both involve dividing the population into subgroups and selecting units from each subgroup. The purpose in both cases is to select a representative sample and/or to allow comparisons between subgroups.
The main difference is that in stratified sampling, you draw a random sample from each subgroup (probability sampling). In quota sampling you select a predetermined number or proportion of units, in a non-random manner (non-probability sampling).
On the IEEE reference page, you should abbreviate the names of publishers (in IEEE book citations), journals (in IEEE journal article citations), universities, companies, conferences, and months. Authors’ first and middle names should also be presented as initials.
A list of the standard abbreviations for many common words can be found here. Note that these words are not abbreviated when they appear in the title of the source (e.g., the book or article title).
Purposive and convenience sampling are both sampling methods that are typically used in qualitative data collection.
A convenience sample is drawn from a source that is conveniently accessible to the researcher. Convenience sampling does not distinguish characteristics among the participants. On the other hand, purposive sampling focuses on selecting participants possessing characteristics associated with the research study.
The findings of studies based on either convenience or purposive sampling can only be generalized to the (sub)population from which the sample is drawn, and not to the entire population.
Random sampling or probability sampling is based on random selection. This means that each unit has an equal chance (i.e., equal probability) of being included in the sample.
On the other hand, convenience sampling involves stopping people at random, which means that not everyone has an equal chance of being selected depending on the place, time, or day you are collecting your data.
Convenience sampling and quota sampling are both non-probability sampling methods. They both use non-random criteria like availability, geographical proximity, or expert knowledge to recruit study participants.
However, in convenience sampling, you continue to sample units or cases until you reach the required sample size.
In quota sampling, you first need to divide your population of interest into subgroups (strata) and estimate their proportions (quota) in the population. Then you can start your data collection, using convenience sampling to recruit participants, until the proportions in each subgroup coincide with the estimated proportions in the population.
You can cite specific pages from a source in your IEEE in-text citations by including them within the brackets along with the number of the reference. A single page is preceded by “p.”, multiple pages by “pp.”: [11, p. 36].
To cite different pages from the same source, use the same reference number followed by different page numbers. Don’t include multiple references for the same source on your IEEE reference page, and don’t include the page numbers there.
When a whole book is written by the same author (or group of authors), you should list information about the whole book in your IEEE book citation. This applies even if you only refer to one chapter of the book.
When different chapters of a book are written by different authors, you should include a reference for the chapter you cite, with the chapter author at the start and the editor of the whole book mentioned late in the reference. If you cite multiple chapters, include a separate reference for each.
In an IEEE book citation, you should mention the edition of the book (e.g., second edition, revised edition) when this information is provided on the cover or title page of the book. Otherwise, you can assume it’s the first or only edition and omit this part.
Editions are written in abbreviated form (e.g., “11th ed.”).
If you cite the same source more than once in your writing, use the same number for all of the IEEE in-text citations for that source, and only include it on the IEEE reference page once. The source is numbered based on the first time you cite it.
For example, the fourth source you cite in your paper is numbered [4]. If you cite it again later, you still cite it as [4]. You can cite different parts of the source each time by adding page numbers [4, p. 15]. Don’t use “ibid.”
You should include an IEEE in-text citation whenever you integrate a source into your text by quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing it. The citation appears in the sentence where the source is integrated, often after the author name or after any quoted text:
Narayana [15, p. 22] describes the encounter as “copacetic.”
In IEEE citation format, you should list the names of up to six authors in a reference on your IEEE reference page. If the source has seven or more authors, just list the first author’s name followed by “et al.” (in italics): “F. Gupta et al., …”
In the main text, if you mention a source with three or more authors, you should use “et al.”: “Fowler et al. [11] argue that …”
Note that you’re not required to mention author names at all in the text though—just the IEEE in-text citation number is enough, in which case “et al.” isn’t needed: “[11] argues that …”
A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement, before your research objectives.
Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.
Once you’ve decided on your research objectives, you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement.
Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.
I will compare …
I will calculate …
Your research objectives indicate how you’ll try to address your research problem and should be specific:
Research objectives describe what you intend your research project to accomplish.
They summarize the approach and purpose of the project and help to focus your research.
Your objectives should appear in the introduction of your research paper, at the end of your problem statement.
The IEEE reference page consists of a list of references numbered in the order they were cited in the text. The title “References” appears in bold at the top, either left-aligned or centered.
The numbers appear in square brackets on the left-hand side of the page. The reference entries are indented consistently to separate them from the numbers. Entries are single-spaced, with a normal paragraph break between them.
An IEEE in-text citation consists of a number in brackets at the relevant point in the text, which points the reader to the right entry in the numbered IEEE reference page at the end of the research paper. For example, “Smith [1] states that a new protocol will indubitably pay off.”
A location marker such as a page number is also included within the brackets when needed: “Smith [1, p. 13] argues that the poet made facetious comments.”
IEEE citation format is defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and used in their publications.
It’s also a widely used citation style for students in technical fields like electrical and electronic engineering, computer science, telecommunications, and computer engineering.
As the degrees of freedom increase, Student’s t distribution becomes less leptokurtic, meaning that the probability of extreme values decreases. The distribution becomes more and more similar to a standard normal distribution.
A sampling frame is a list of every member in the entire population. It is important that the sampling frame is as complete as possible, so that your sample accurately reflects your population.
Stratified and cluster sampling may look similar, but bear in mind that groups created in cluster sampling are heterogeneous, so the individual characteristics in the cluster vary. In contrast, groups created in stratified sampling are homogeneous, as units share characteristics.
Relatedly, in cluster sampling you randomly select entire groups and include all units of each group in your sample. However, in stratified sampling, you select some units of all groups and include them in your sample. In this way, both methods can ensure that your sample is representative of the target population.
When your population is large in size, geographically dispersed, or difficult to contact, it’s necessary to use a sampling method.
This allows you to gather information from a smaller part of the population (i.e., the sample) and make accurate statements by using statistical analysis. A few sampling methods include simple random sampling, convenience sampling, and snowball sampling.
Synthesizing sources means comparing and contrasting the work of other scholars to provide new insights.
It involves analyzing and interpreting the points of agreement and disagreement among sources.
You might synthesize sources in your literature review to give an overview of the field of research or throughout your paper when you want to contribute something new to existing research.
A theoretical framework can sometimes be integrated into a literature review chapter, but it can also be included as its own chapter or section in your dissertation. As a rule of thumb, if your research involves dealing with a lot of complex theories, it’s a good idea to include a separate theoretical framework chapter.
A literature review and a theoretical framework are not the same thing and cannot be used interchangeably. While a theoretical framework describes the theoretical underpinnings of your work, a literature review critically evaluates existing research relating to your topic. You’ll likely need both in your dissertation.
While a theoretical framework describes the theoretical underpinnings of your work based on existing research, a conceptual framework allows you to draw your own conclusions, mapping out the variables you may use in your study and the interplay between them.
The three categories of kurtosis are:
A scientific citation style is a system of source citation that is used in scientific disciplines. Some commonly used scientific citation styles are:
There are many different citation styles used across different academic disciplines, but they fall into three basic approaches to citation:
A systematic review is secondary research because it uses existing research. You don’t collect new data yourself.
A source annotation in an annotated bibliography fulfills a similar purpose to an abstract: they’re both intended to summarize the approach and key points of a source.
However, an annotation may also evaluate the source, discussing the validity and effectiveness of its arguments. Even if your annotation is purely descriptive, you may have a different perspective on the source from the author and highlight different key points.
You should never just copy text from the abstract for your annotation, as doing so constitutes plagiarism.
You can find sources online using databases and search engines like Google Scholar. Use Boolean operators or advanced search functions to narrow or expand your search.
For print sources, you can use your institution’s library database. This will allow you to explore the library’s catalog and to search relevant keywords.
Most academics agree that you shouldn’t cite Wikipedia as a source in your academic writing, and universities often have rules against doing so.
This is partly because of concerns about its reliability, and partly because it’s a tertiary source. Tertiary sources are things like encyclopedias and databases that collect information from other sources rather than presenting their own evidence or analysis. Usually, only primary and secondary sources are cited in academic papers.
A Wikipedia citation usually includes the title of the article, “Wikipedia” and/or “Wikimedia Foundation,” the date the article was last updated, and the URL.
In APA Style, you’ll give the URL of the current revision of the article so that you’re sure the reader accesses the same version as you.
There’s some disagreement about whether Wikipedia can be considered a reliable source. Because it can be edited by anyone, many people argue that it’s easy for misleading information to be added to an article without the reader knowing.
Others argue that because Wikipedia articles cite their sources, and because they are worked on by so many editors, misinformation is generally removed quickly.
However, most universities state that you shouldn’t cite Wikipedia in your writing.
Probability distributions belong to two broad categories: discrete probability distributions and continuous probability distributions. Within each category, there are many types of probability distributions.
Probability is the relative frequency over an infinite number of trials.
For example, the probability of a coin landing on heads is .5, meaning that if you flip the coin an infinite number of times, it will land on heads half the time.
Since doing something an infinite number of times is impossible, relative frequency is often used as an estimate of probability. If you flip a coin 1000 times and get 507 heads, the relative frequency, .507, is a good estimate of the probability.
Categorical variables can be described by a frequency distribution. Quantitative variables can also be described by a frequency distribution, but first they need to be grouped into interval classes.
A histogram is an effective way to tell if a frequency distribution appears to have a normal distribution.
Plot a histogram and look at the shape of the bars. If the bars roughly follow a symmetrical bell or hill shape, like the example below, then the distribution is approximately normally distributed.
A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical first steps in your writing process. It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding what kind of research you’d like to undertake.
Generally, an outline contains information on the different sections included in your thesis or dissertation, such as:
When you mention different chapters within your text, it’s considered best to use Roman numerals for most citation styles. However, the most important thing here is to remain consistent whenever using numbers in your dissertation.
APA footnotes use superscript numbers and should appear in numerical order. You can place footnotes at the bottom of the relevant pages, or on a separate footnotes page at the end:
For both approaches, place a space between the superscript number and the footnote text.
APA Style requires you to use APA in-text citations, not footnotes, to cite sources.
However, you can use APA footnotes sparingly for two purposes:
Hanging indents are used in reference lists in various citation styles to allow the reader to easily distinguish between entries.
You should apply a hanging indent to your reference entries in APA, MLA, and Chicago style.
A hanging indent is used to indent all lines of a paragraph except the first.
When you create a hanging indent, the first line of the paragraph starts at the border. Each subsequent line is indented 0.5 inches (1.27 cm).
APA and MLA style both use parenthetical in-text citations to cite sources and include a full list of references at the end, but they differ in other ways:
Lateral reading is the act of evaluating the credibility of a source by comparing it with other sources. This allows you to:
As you cannot possibly read every source related to your topic, it’s important to evaluate sources to assess their relevance. Use preliminary evaluation to determine whether a source is worth examining in more depth.
This involves:
In most styles, the title page is used purely to provide information and doesn’t include any images. Ask your supervisor if you are allowed to include an image on the title page before doing so. If you do decide to include one, make sure to check whether you need permission from the creator of the image.
Include a note directly beneath the image acknowledging where it comes from, beginning with the word “Note.” (italicized and followed by a period). Include a citation and copyright attribution. Don’t title, number, or label the image as a figure, since it doesn’t appear in your main text.
You can use the CHISQ.INV.RT() function to find a chi-square critical value in Excel.
For example, to calculate the chi-square critical value for a test with df = 22 and α = .05, click any blank cell and type:
=CHISQ.INV.RT(0.05,22)
You can use the qchisq() function to find a chi-square critical value in R.
For example, to calculate the chi-square critical value for a test with df = 22 and α = .05:
qchisq(p = .05, df = 22, lower.tail = FALSE)
An abstract concisely explains all the key points of an academic text such as a thesis, dissertation or journal article. It should summarize the whole text, not just introduce it.
An abstract is a type of summary, but summaries are also written elsewhere in academic writing. For example, you might summarize a source in a paper, in a literature review, or as a standalone assignment.
You might have to write a summary of a source:
You can assess information and arguments critically by asking certain questions about the source. You can use the CRAAP test, focusing on the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose of a source of information.
Ask questions such as:
Critical thinking skills include the ability to:
Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.
Like information literacy, it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.
You can use the chisq.test() function to perform a chi-square test of independence in R. Give the contingency table as a matrix for the “x” argument. For example:
m = matrix(data = c(89, 84, 86, 9, 8, 24), nrow = 3, ncol = 2)
chisq.test(x = m)
You can use the CHISQ.TEST() function to perform a chi-square test of independence in Excel. It takes two arguments, CHISQ.TEST(observed_range, expected_range), and returns the p value.
Definitional terms often fall into the category of common knowledge, meaning that they don’t necessarily have to be cited. This guidance can apply to your thesis or dissertation glossary as well.
However, if you’d prefer to cite your sources, you can follow guidance for citing dictionary entries in MLA or APA style for your glossary.
A glossary is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader. In contrast, an index is a list of the contents of your work organized by page number.
The title page of your thesis or dissertation goes first, before all other content or lists that you may choose to include.
The title page of your thesis or dissertation should include your name, department, institution, degree program, and submission date.
Glossaries are not mandatory, but if you use a lot of technical or field-specific terms, it may improve readability to add one to your thesis or dissertation. Your educational institution may also require them, so be sure to check their specific guidelines.
A glossary or “glossary of terms” is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader. Your glossary only needs to include terms that your reader may not be familiar with, and is intended to enhance their understanding of your work.
A glossary is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader. In contrast, dictionaries are more general collections of words.
Chi-square goodness of fit tests are often used in genetics. One common application is to check if two genes are linked (i.e., if the assortment is independent). When genes are linked, the allele inherited for one gene affects the allele inherited for another gene.
Suppose that you want to know if the genes for pea texture (R = round, r = wrinkled) and color (Y = yellow, y = green) are linked. You perform a dihybrid cross between two heterozygous (RY / ry) pea plants. The hypotheses you’re testing with your experiment are:
You observe 100 peas:
To calculate the expected values, you can make a Punnett square. If the two genes are unlinked, the probability of each genotypic combination is equal.
| RY | ry | Ry | rY | |
| RY | RRYY | RrYy | RRYy | RrYY |
| ry | RrYy | rryy | Rryy | rrYy |
| Ry | RRYy | Rryy | RRyy | RrYy |
| rY | RrYY | rrYy | RrYy | rrYY |
The expected phenotypic ratios are therefore 9 round and yellow: 3 round and green: 3 wrinkled and yellow: 1 wrinkled and green.
From this, you can calculate the expected phenotypic frequencies for 100 peas:
| Phenotype | Observed | Expected |
| Round and yellow | 78 | 100 * (9/16) = 56.25 |
| Round and green | 6 | 100 * (3/16) = 18.75 |
| Wrinkled and yellow | 4 | 100 * (3/16) = 18.75 |
| Wrinkled and green | 12 | 100 * (1/16) = 6.21 |
| Phenotype | Observed | Expected | O − E | (O − E)2 | (O − E)2 / E |
| Round and yellow | 78 | 56.25 | 21.75 | 473.06 | 8.41 |
| Round and green | 6 | 18.75 | −12.75 | 162.56 | 8.67 |
| Wrinkled and yellow | 4 | 18.75 | −14.75 | 217.56 | 11.6 |
| Wrinkled and green | 12 | 6.21 | 5.79 | 33.52 | 5.4 |
Χ2 = 8.41 + 8.67 + 11.6 + 5.4 = 34.08
Since there are four groups (round and yellow, round and green, wrinkled and yellow, wrinkled and green), there are three degrees of freedom.
For a test of significance at α = .05 and df = 3, the Χ2 critical value is 7.82.
Χ2 = 34.08
Critical value = 7.82
The Χ2 value is greater than the critical value.
The Χ2 value is greater than the critical value, so we reject the null hypothesis that the population of offspring have an equal probability of inheriting all possible genotypic combinations. There is a significant difference between the observed and expected genotypic frequencies (p < .05).
The data supports the alternative hypothesis that the offspring do not have an equal probability of inheriting all possible genotypic combinations, which suggests that the genes are linked
You can use the chisq.test() function to perform a chi-square goodness of fit test in R. Give the observed values in the “x” argument, give the expected values in the “p” argument, and set “rescale.p” to true. For example:
chisq.test(x = c(22,30,23), p = c(25,25,25), rescale.p = TRUE)
You can use the CHISQ.TEST() function to perform a chi-square goodness of fit test in Excel. It takes two arguments, CHISQ.TEST(observed_range, expected_range), and returns the p value.
An abbreviation is a shortened version of an existing word, such as Dr. for Doctor. In contrast, an acronym uses the first letter of each word to create a wholly new word, such as UNESCO (an acronym for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).
As a rule of thumb, write the explanation in full the first time you use an acronym or abbreviation. You can then proceed with the shortened version. However, if the abbreviation is very common (like PC, USA, or DNA), then you can use the abbreviated version from the get-go.
Be sure to add each abbreviation in your list of abbreviations!
If you only used a few abbreviations in your thesis or dissertation, you don’t necessarily need to include a list of abbreviations.
If your abbreviations are numerous, or if you think they won’t be known to your audience, it’s never a bad idea to add one. They can also improve readability, minimizing confusion about abbreviations unfamiliar to your reader.
A list of abbreviations is a list of all the abbreviations that you used in your thesis or dissertation. It should appear at the beginning of your document, with items in alphabetical order, just after your table of contents.
Both correlations and chi-square tests can test for relationships between two variables. However, a correlation is used when you have two quantitative variables and a chi-square test of independence is used when you have two categorical variables.
Both chi-square tests and t tests can test for differences between two groups. However, a t test is used when you have a dependent quantitative variable and an independent categorical variable (with two groups). A chi-square test of independence is used when you have two categorical variables.
The two main chi-square tests are the chi-square goodness of fit test and the chi-square test of independence.
A chi-square distribution is a continuous probability distribution. The shape of a chi-square distribution depends on its degrees of freedom, k. The mean of a chi-square distribution is equal to its degrees of freedom (k) and the variance is 2k. The range is 0 to ∞.
As the degrees of freedom (k) increases, the chi-square distribution goes from a downward curve to a hump shape. As the degrees of freedom increases further, the hump goes from being strongly right-skewed to being approximately normal.
To find the quartiles of a probability distribution, you can use the distribution’s quantile function.
You can use the quantile() function to find quartiles in R. If your data is called “data”, then “quantile(data, prob=c(.25,.5,.75), type=1)” will return the three quartiles.
You can use the QUARTILE() function to find quartiles in Excel. If your data is in column A, then click any blank cell and type “=QUARTILE(A:A,1)” for the first quartile, “=QUARTILE(A:A,2)” for the second quartile, and “=QUARTILE(A:A,3)” for the third quartile.
It is important to find credible sources and use those that you can be sure are sufficiently scholarly.
In academic writing, the sources you cite should be credible and scholarly. Some of the main types of sources used are:
Scholarly sources are written by experts in their field and are typically subjected to peer review. They are intended for a scholarly audience, include a full bibliography, and use scholarly or technical language. For these reasons, they are typically considered credible sources.
Popular sources like magazines and news articles are typically written by journalists. These types of sources usually don’t include a bibliography and are written for a popular, rather than academic, audience. They are not always reliable and may be written from a biased or uninformed perspective, but they can still be cited in some contexts.
There are many types of sources commonly used in research. These include:
You’ll likely use a variety of these sources throughout the research process, and the kinds of sources you use will depend on your research topic and goals.
You usually shouldn’t cite tertiary sources as evidence in your research paper, but you can use them in the beginning stages of the research process to:
Use tertiary sources in your preliminary research to find relevant primary and secondary sources that you will engage with in more depth during the writing process.
What constitutes a tertiary source depends on your research question and how you use the source.
To determine whether a source is tertiary, ask:
Primary sources provide direct evidence about your research topic (photographs, personal letters, etc.).
Secondary sources interpret and comment on information from primary sources (academic books, journal articles, etc.).
Tertiary sources are reference works that identify and provide background information on primary and secondary sources. They do not provide original insights or analysis.
A tertiary source may list, summarize, or index primary and secondary sources or provide general information from a variety of sources. But it does not provide original interpretations or analysis.
Some examples of tertiary sources include:
Your list of tables and figures should go directly after your table of contents in your thesis or dissertation.
Lists of figures and tables are often not required, and aren’t particularly common. They specifically aren’t required for APA-Style, though you should be careful to follow their other guidelines for figures and tables.
If you have many figures and tables in your thesis or dissertation, include one may help you stay organized. Your educational institution may require them, so be sure to check their guidelines.
A list of figures and tables compiles all of the figures and tables that you used in your thesis or dissertation and displays them with the page number where they can be found.
The table of contents in a thesis or dissertation always goes between your abstract and your introduction.
You can use the PEARSON() function to calculate the Pearson correlation coefficient in Excel. If your variables are in columns A and B, then click any blank cell and type “PEARSON(A:A,B:B)”.
There is no function to directly test the significance of the correlation.
You can use the cor() function to calculate the Pearson correlation coefficient in R. To test the significance of the correlation, you can use the cor.test() function.
You should use the Pearson correlation coefficient when (1) the relationship is linear and (2) both variables are quantitative and (3) normally distributed and (4) have no outliers.
The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) is the most common way of measuring a linear correlation. It is a number between –1 and 1 that measures the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables.
This table summarizes the most important differences between normal distributions and Poisson distributions:
| Characteristic | Normal | Poisson |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous or discrete | Continuous | Discrete |
| Parameter | Mean (µ) and standard deviation (σ) | Lambda (λ) |
| Shape | Bell-shaped | Depends on λ |
| Symmetry | Symmetrical | Asymmetrical (right-skewed). As λ increases, the asymmetry decreases. |
| Range | −∞ to ∞ | 0 to ∞ |
When the mean of a Poisson distribution is large (>10), it can be approximated by a normal distribution.
In the Poisson distribution formula, lambda (λ) is the mean number of events within a given interval of time or space. For example, λ = 0.748 floods per year.
The e in the Poisson distribution formula stands for the number 2.718. This number is called Euler’s constant. You can simply substitute e with 2.718 when you’re calculating a Poisson probability. Euler’s constant is a very useful number and is especially important in calculus.
It can sometimes be hard to distinguish accurate from inaccurate sources, especially online. Published articles are not always credible and can reflect a biased viewpoint without providing evidence to support their conclusions.
Information literacy is important because it helps you to be aware of such unreliable content and to evaluate sources effectively, both in an academic context and more generally.
Information literacy refers to a broad range of skills, including the ability to find, evaluate, and use sources of information effectively.
Being information literate means that you:
The three types of skewness are:
Skewness and kurtosis are both important measures of a distribution’s shape.
A parenthetical citation in Chicago author-date style includes the author’s last name, the publication date, and, if applicable, the relevant page number or page range in parentheses. Include a comma after the year, but not after the author’s name.
For example: (Swan 2003, 6)
To automatically generate accurate Chicago references, you can use Scribbr’s free Chicago reference generator.
APA Style distinguishes between parenthetical and narrative citations.
In parenthetical citations, you include all relevant source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence or clause: “Parts of the human body reflect the principles of tensegrity (Levin, 2002).”
In narrative citations, you include the author’s name in the text itself, followed by the publication date in parentheses: “Levin (2002) argues that parts of the human body reflect the principles of tensegrity.”
In a parenthetical citation in MLA style, include the author’s last name and the relevant page number or range in parentheses.
For example: (Eliot 21)
A parenthetical citation gives credit in parentheses to a source that you’re quoting or paraphrasing. It provides relevant information such as the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number(s) cited.
How you use parenthetical citations will depend on your chosen citation style. It will also depend on the type of source you are citing and the number of authors.
APA does not permit the use of ibid. This is because APA in-text citations are parenthetical and there’s no need to shorten them further.
Ibid. may be used in Chicago footnotes or endnotes.
Write “Ibid.” alone when you are citing the same page number and source as the previous citation.
When you are citing the same source, but a different page number, use ibid. followed by a comma and the relevant page number(s). For example:
Only use ibid. if you are directing the reader to a previous full citation of a source.
Ibid. only refers to the previous citation. Therefore, you should only use ibid. directly after a citation that you want to repeat.
A research hypothesis is your proposed answer to your research question. The research hypothesis usually includes an explanation (“x affects y because …”).
A statistical hypothesis, on the other hand, is a mathematical statement about a population parameter. Statistical hypotheses always come in pairs: the null and alternative hypotheses. In a well-designed study, the statistical hypotheses correspond logically to the research hypothesis.
The alternative hypothesis is often abbreviated as Ha or H1. When the alternative hypothesis is written using mathematical symbols, it always includes an inequality symbol (usually ≠, but sometimes < or >).
The null hypothesis is often abbreviated as H0. When the null hypothesis is written using mathematical symbols, it always includes an equality symbol (usually =, but sometimes ≥ or ≤).
You may acknowledge God in your dissertation acknowledgements, but be sure to follow academic convention by also thanking the members of academia, as well as family, colleagues, and friends who helped you.
When searching for sources in databases, think of specific keywords that are relevant to your topic, and consider variations on them or synonyms that might be relevant.
Once you have a clear idea of your research parameters and key terms, choose a database that is relevant to your research (e.g., Medline, JSTOR, Project MUSE).
Find out if the database has a “subject search” option. This can help to refine your search. Use Boolean operators to combine your keywords, exclude specific search terms, and search exact phrases to find the most relevant sources.
Proximity operators are specific words used alongside your chosen keywords that let you specify the proximity of one keyword in relation to another.
The most common proximity operators include NEAR (Nx), WITHIN (Wx), and SENTENCE.
Each proximity operator has a unique function. For example, Nx allows you to find sources that contain the specified keywords within a set number of words (x) of each other.
Boolean operators are specific words and symbols that you can use to expand or narrow your search parameters when using a database or search engine.
The most common Boolean operators are AND, OR, NOT or AND NOT, quotation marks “”, parentheses (), and asterisks *.
Each Boolean operator has a unique function. For example, the Boolean operator AND will provide search results containing both/all of your keywords.
A Boolean search uses specific words and symbols known as Boolean operators (e.g., AND, OR) alongside keywords to limit or expand search results. Boolean searches allow you to:
The t distribution was first described by statistician William Sealy Gosset under the pseudonym “Student.”
To calculate a confidence interval of a mean using the critical value of t, follow these four steps:
To test a hypothesis using the critical value of t, follow these four steps:
You can use the T.INV() function to find the critical value of t for one-tailed tests in Excel, and you can use the T.INV.2T() function for two-tailed tests.
=T.INV.2T(0.05,29)
You can use the qt() function to find the critical value of t in R. The function gives the critical value of t for the one-tailed test. If you want the critical value of t for a two-tailed test, divide the significance level by two.
qt(p = .025, df = 29)
Indirect quotation means reporting what someone said (or wrote) but not using their exact words. It’s similar to paraphrasing, but it only involves changing enough words to fit the statement into your sentence grammatically (e.g., changing the tense or the pronouns).
Since some of the words have changed, indirect quotations are not enclosed in quotation marks.
Quotes within quotes are punctuated differently to distinguish them from the surrounding quote.
Make sure to close both sets of quotes!
The use of single and double quotation marks when quoting differs between US and UK English. In US English, you must use double quotation marks. Single quotation marks are used for quotes within quotes.
In UK English, it’s most common to use single quotation marks, with double quotation marks for quotes within quotes, although the other way around is acceptable too.
Signal phrases can be used in various ways and can be placed at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.
To use signal phrases effectively, include:
Different citation styles require you to use specific verb tenses when using signal phrases.
Signal phrases allow you to give credit for an idea or quote to its author or originator. This helps you to:
A signal phrase is a group of words that ascribes a quote or idea to an outside source.
Signal phrases distinguish the cited idea or argument from your own writing and introduce important information including the source of the material that you are quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing. For example:
“Cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker (1994) insists that humans possess an innate faculty for comprehending grammar.”
You can use the RSQ() function to calculate R² in Excel. If your dependent variable is in column A and your independent variable is in column B, then click any blank cell and type “RSQ(A:A,B:B)”.
You can use the summary() function to view the R² of a linear model in R. You will see the “R-squared” near the bottom of the output.
There are two formulas you can use to calculate the coefficient of determination (R²) of a simple linear regression.
Formula 1: 
Formula 2: 
The coefficient of determination (R²) is a number between 0 and 1 that measures how well a statistical model predicts an outcome. You can interpret the R² as the proportion of variation in the dependent variable that is predicted by the statistical model.
If you’re quoting from a text that paraphrases or summarizes other sources and cites them in parentheses, APA and Chicago both recommend retaining the citations as part of the quote. However, MLA recommends omitting citations within a quote:
Footnote or endnote numbers that appear within quoted text should be omitted in all styles.
If you want to cite an indirect source (one you’ve only seen quoted in another source), either locate the original source or use the phrase “as cited in” in your citation.
In scientific subjects, the information itself is more important than how it was expressed, so quoting should generally be kept to a minimum. In the arts and humanities, however, well-chosen quotes are often essential to a good paper.
In social sciences, it varies. If your research is mainly quantitative, you won’t include many quotes, but if it’s more qualitative, you may need to quote from the data you collected.
As a general guideline, quotes should take up no more than 5–10% of your paper. If in doubt, check with your instructor or supervisor how much quoting is appropriate in your field.
A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations, theses, and research papers. Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other academic texts, with an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion.
An annotated bibliography is a list of source references that has a short description (called an annotation) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper.
To present information from other sources in academic writing, it’s best to paraphrase in most cases. This shows that you’ve understood the ideas you’re discussing and incorporates them into your text smoothly.
It’s appropriate to quote when:
To paraphrase effectively, don’t just take the original sentence and swap out some of the words for synonyms. Instead, try:
The main point is to ensure you don’t just copy the structure of the original text, but instead reformulate the idea in your own words.
“Et al.” is an abbreviation of the Latin term “et alia,” which means “and others.” It’s used in source citations to save space when there are too many authors to name them all.
Guidelines for using “et al.” differ depending on the citation style you’re following:
The key difference between observational studies and experimental designs is that a well-done observational study does not influence the responses of participants, while experiments do have some sort of treatment condition applied to at least some participants by random assignment.
An observational study is a great choice for you if your research question is based purely on observations. If there are ethical, logistical, or practical concerns that prevent you from conducting a traditional experiment, an observational study may be a good choice. In an observational study, there is no interference or manipulation of the research subjects, as well as no control or treatment groups.
To insert endnotes in Microsoft Word, follow the steps below:
If you need to change the type of notes used in a Word document from footnotes to endnotes, or the other way around, follow these steps:
To insert a footnote automatically in a Word document:
Footnotes are notes indicated in your text with numbers and placed at the bottom of the page. They’re used to provide:
Be sparing in your use of footnotes (other than citation footnotes), and consider whether the information you’re adding is relevant for the reader.
Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page they refer to. This is convenient for the reader but may cause your text to look cluttered if there are a lot of footnotes.
Endnotes appear all together at the end of the whole text. This may be less convenient for the reader but reduces clutter.
Both footnotes and endnotes are used in the same way: to cite sources or add extra information. You should usually choose one or the other to use in your text, not both.
An in-text citation is an acknowledgement you include in your text whenever you quote or paraphrase a source. It usually gives the author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page number of the relevant text. In-text citations allow the reader to look up the full source information in your reference list and see your sources for themselves.
Academic integrity means being honest, ethical, and thorough in your academic work. To maintain academic integrity, you should avoid misleading your readers about any part of your research and refrain from offenses like plagiarism and contract cheating, which are examples of academic misconduct.
Proofreading rates can be calculated in several different ways. You can set your rate:
A per-word rate is generally the most precise, since it closely reflects the amount of work you’ll have to do. But it can be confusing for clients to parse at a glance; one solution is to quote per 1,000 words so the numbers involved are clearer.
It’s often best to ask a variety of people to review your measurements. You can ask experts, such as other researchers, or laypeople, such as potential participants, to judge the face validity of tests.
While experts have a deep understanding of research methods, the people you’re studying can provide you with valuable insights you may have missed otherwise.
Face validity is important because it’s a simple first step to measuring the overall validity of a test or technique. It’s a relatively intuitive, quick, and easy way to start checking whether a new measure seems useful at first glance.
Good face validity means that anyone who reviews your measure says that it seems to be measuring what it’s supposed to. With poor face validity, someone reviewing your measure may be left confused about what you’re measuring and why you’re using this method.
Face validity is about whether a test appears to measure what it’s supposed to measure. This type of validity is concerned with whether a measure seems relevant and appropriate for what it’s assessing only on the surface.
Statistical analyses are often applied to test validity with data from your measures. You test convergent validity and discriminant validity with correlations to see if results from your test are positively or negatively related to those of other established tests.
You can also use regression analyses to assess whether your measure is actually predictive of outcomes that you expect it to predict theoretically. A regression analysis that supports your expectations strengthens your claim of construct validity.
When designing or evaluating a measure, construct validity helps you ensure you’re actually measuring the construct you’re interested in. If you don’t have construct validity, you may inadvertently measure unrelated or distinct constructs and lose precision in your research.
Construct validity is often considered the overarching type of measurement validity, because it covers all of the other types. You need to have face validity, content validity, and criterion validity to achieve construct validity.
Construct validity is about how well a test measures the concept it was designed to evaluate. It’s one of four types of measurement validity, which includes construct validity, face validity, and criterion validity.
There are two subtypes of construct validity.
Naturalistic observation is a valuable tool because of its flexibility, external validity, and suitability for topics that can’t be studied in a lab setting.
The downsides of naturalistic observation include its lack of scientific control, ethical considerations, and potential for bias from observers and subjects.
Naturalistic observation is a qualitative research method where you record the behaviors of your research subjects in real world settings. You avoid interfering or influencing anything in a naturalistic observation.
You can think of naturalistic observation as “people watching” with a purpose.
A dependent variable is what changes as a result of the independent variable manipulation in experiments. It’s what you’re interested in measuring, and it “depends” on your independent variable.
In statistics, dependent variables are also called:
An independent variable is the variable you manipulate, control, or vary in an experimental study to explore its effects. It’s called “independent” because it’s not influenced by any other variables in the study.
Independent variables are also called:
As a rule of thumb, questions related to thoughts, beliefs, and feelings work well in focus groups. Take your time formulating strong questions, paying special attention to phrasing. Be careful to avoid leading questions, which can bias your responses.
Overall, your focus group questions should be:
A structured interview is a data collection method that relies on asking questions in a set order to collect data on a topic. They are often quantitative in nature. Structured interviews are best used when:
More flexible interview options include semi-structured interviews, unstructured interviews, and focus groups.
The interviewer effect is a type of bias that emerges when a characteristic of an interviewer (race, age, gender identity, etc.) influences the responses given by the interviewee.
There is a risk of an interviewer effect in all types of interviews, but it can be mitigated by writing really high-quality interview questions.
A semi-structured interview is a blend of structured and unstructured types of interviews. Semi-structured interviews are best used when:
An unstructured interview is the most flexible type of interview, but it is not always the best fit for your research topic.
Unstructured interviews are best used when:
The four most common types of interviews are:
Deductive reasoning is commonly used in scientific research, and it’s especially associated with quantitative research.
In research, you might have come across something called the hypothetico-deductive method. It’s the scientific method of testing hypotheses to check whether your predictions are substantiated by real-world data.
Deductive reasoning is a logical approach where you progress from general ideas to specific conclusions. It’s often contrasted with inductive reasoning, where you start with specific observations and form general conclusions.
Deductive reasoning is also called deductive logic.
Plagiarism is a form of theft, since it involves taking the words and ideas of others and passing them off as your own. As such, it’s academically dishonest and can have serious consequences.
Plagiarism also hinders the learning process, obscuring the sources of your ideas and usually resulting in bad writing. Even if you could get away with it, plagiarism harms your own learning.
There are many different types of inductive reasoning that people use formally or informally.
Here are a few common types:
Inductive reasoning is a bottom-up approach, while deductive reasoning is top-down.
Inductive reasoning takes you from the specific to the general, while in deductive reasoning, you make inferences by going from general premises to specific conclusions.
In inductive research, you start by making observations or gathering data. Then, you take a broad scan of your data and search for patterns. Finally, you make general conclusions that you might incorporate into theories.
Inductive reasoning is a method of drawing conclusions by going from the specific to the general. It’s usually contrasted with deductive reasoning, where you proceed from general information to specific conclusions.
Inductive reasoning is also called inductive logic or bottom-up reasoning.
A hypothesis states your predictions about what your research will find. It is a tentative answer to your research question that has not yet been tested. For some research projects, you might have to write several hypotheses that address different aspects of your research question.
A hypothesis is not just a guess — it should be based on existing theories and knowledge. It also has to be testable, which means you can support or refute it through scientific research methods (such as experiments, observations and statistical analysis of data).
Triangulation can help:
But triangulation can also pose problems:
There are four main types of triangulation:
Yes, APA language guidelines state that you should always use the serial comma (aka Oxford comma) in your writing.
This means including a comma before the word “and” at the end of a list of three or more items: “spelling, grammar, and punctuation.” Doing this consistently tends to make your lists less ambiguous.
Yes, it’s perfectly valid to write sentences in the passive voice. The APA language guidelines do caution against overusing the passive voice, because it can obscure your meaning or be needlessly long-winded. For this reason, default to the active voice in most cases.
The passive voice is most useful when the point of the sentence is just to state what was done, not to emphasize who did it. For example, “The projector was mounted on the wall” is better than “James and I mounted the projector on the wall” if it’s not particularly important who mounted the projector.
Yes, APA language guidelines encourage you to use the first-person pronouns “I” or “we” when referring to yourself or a group including yourself in your writing.
In APA Style, you should not refer to yourself in the third person. For example, do not refer to yourself as “the researcher” or “the author” but simply as “I” or “me.” Referring to yourself in the third person is still common practice in some academic fields, but APA Style rejects this convention.
Many academic fields use peer review, largely to determine whether a manuscript is suitable for publication. Peer review enhances the credibility of the published manuscript.
However, peer review is also common in non-academic settings. The United Nations, the European Union, and many individual nations use peer review to evaluate grant applications. It is also widely used in medical and health-related fields as a teaching or quality-of-care measure.
Peer assessment is often used in the classroom as a pedagogical tool. Both receiving feedback and providing it are thought to enhance the learning process, helping students think critically and collaboratively.
Peer review can stop obviously problematic, falsified, or otherwise untrustworthy research from being published. It also represents an excellent opportunity to get feedback from renowned experts in your field. It acts as a first defense, helping you ensure your argument is clear and that there are no gaps, vague terms, or unanswered questions for readers who weren’t involved in the research process.
Peer-reviewed articles are considered a highly credible source due to this stringent process they go through before publication.
In general, the peer review process follows the following steps:
Most online plagiarism checkers only have access to public databases, whose software doesn’t allow you to compare two documents for plagiarism.
However, in addition to our Plagiarism Checker, Scribbr also offers an Self-Plagiarism Checker. This is an add-on tool that lets you compare your paper with unpublished or private documents. This way you can rest assured that you haven’t unintentionally plagiarized or self-plagiarized.
Compare two sources for plagiarism
The observer-expectancy effect occurs when researchers influence the results of their own study through interactions with participants.
Researchers’ own beliefs and expectations about the study results may unintentionally influence participants through demand characteristics.
The observer-expectancy effect is often used synonymously with the Pygmalion or Rosenthal effect.
You can use several tactics to minimize observer bias.
It’s impossible to completely avoid observer bias in studies where data collection is done or recorded manually, but you can take steps to reduce this type of bias in your research.
Observer bias occurs when a researcher’s expectations, opinions, or prejudices influence what they perceive or record in a study. It usually affects studies when observers are aware of the research aims or hypotheses. This type of research bias is also called detection bias or ascertainment bias.
There are three main types of missing data.
Missing completely at random (MCAR) data are randomly distributed across the variable and unrelated to other variables.
Missing at random (MAR) data are not randomly distributed but they are accounted for by other observed variables.
Missing not at random (MNAR) data systematically differ from the observed values.
To tidy up your missing data, your options usually include accepting, removing, or recreating the missing data.
Missing data are important because, depending on the type, they can sometimes bias your results. This means your results may not be generalizable outside of your study because your data come from an unrepresentative sample.
Missing data, or missing values, occur when you don’t have data stored for certain variables or participants.
In any dataset, there’s usually some missing data. In quantitative research, missing values appear as blank cells in your spreadsheet.
Exploratory research is often used when the issue you’re studying is new or when the data collection process is challenging for some reason.
You can use exploratory research if you have a general idea or a specific question that you want to study but there is no preexisting knowledge or paradigm with which to study it.
Exploratory research is a methodology approach that explores research questions that have not previously been studied in depth. It is often used when the issue you’re studying is new, or the data collection process is challenging in some way.
Explanatory research is used to investigate how or why a phenomenon occurs. Therefore, this type of research is often one of the first stages in the research process, serving as a jumping-off point for future research.
Exploratory research aims to explore the main aspects of an under-researched problem, while explanatory research aims to explain the causes and consequences of a well-defined problem.
Explanatory research is a research method used to investigate how or why something occurs when only a small amount of information is available pertaining to that topic. It can help you increase your understanding of a given topic.
There are two steps to calculating the geometric mean:
Before calculating the geometric mean, note that:
The arithmetic mean is the most commonly used type of mean and is often referred to simply as “the mean.” While the arithmetic mean is based on adding and dividing values, the geometric mean multiplies and finds the root of values.
Even though the geometric mean is a less common measure of central tendency, it’s more accurate than the arithmetic mean for percentage change and positively skewed data. The geometric mean is often reported for financial indices and population growth rates.
The geometric mean is an average that multiplies all values and finds a root of the number. For a dataset with n numbers, you find the nth root of their product.
Outliers are extreme values that differ from most values in the dataset. You find outliers at the extreme ends of your dataset.
It’s best to remove outliers only when you have a sound reason for doing so.
Some outliers represent natural variations in the population, and they should be left as is in your dataset. These are called true outliers.
Other outliers are problematic and should be removed because they represent measurement errors, data entry or processing errors, or poor sampling.
You can choose from four main ways to detect outliers:
Outliers can have a big impact on your statistical analyses and skew the results of any hypothesis test if they are inaccurate.
These extreme values can impact your statistical power as well, making it hard to detect a true effect if there is one.
Clean data are valid, accurate, complete, consistent, unique, and uniform. Dirty data include inconsistencies and errors.
Dirty data can come from any part of the research process, including poor research design, inappropriate measurement materials, or flawed data entry.
Data cleaning takes place between data collection and data analyses. But you can use some methods even before collecting data.
For clean data, you should start by designing measures that collect valid data. Data validation at the time of data entry or collection helps you minimize the amount of data cleaning you’ll need to do.
After data collection, you can use data standardization and data transformation to clean your data. You’ll also deal with any missing values, outliers, and duplicate values.
Every dataset requires different techniques to clean dirty data, but you need to address these issues in a systematic way. You focus on finding and resolving data points that don’t agree or fit with the rest of your dataset.
These data might be missing values, outliers, duplicate values, incorrectly formatted, or irrelevant. You’ll start with screening and diagnosing your data. Then, you’ll often standardize and accept or remove data to make your dataset consistent and valid.
Data cleaning is necessary for valid and appropriate analyses. Dirty data contain inconsistencies or errors, but cleaning your data helps you minimize or resolve these.
Without data cleaning, you could end up with a Type I or II error in your conclusion. These types of erroneous conclusions can be practically significant with important consequences, because they lead to misplaced investments or missed opportunities.
Data cleaning involves spotting and resolving potential data inconsistencies or errors to improve your data quality. An error is any value (e.g., recorded weight) that doesn’t reflect the true value (e.g., actual weight) of something that’s being measured.
In this process, you review, analyze, detect, modify, or remove “dirty” data to make your dataset “clean.” Data cleaning is also called data cleansing or data scrubbing.
When writing your Common App essay, choose a prompt that sparks your interest and that you can connect to a unique personal story.
No matter which prompt you choose, admissions officers are more interested in your ability to demonstrate personal development, insight, or motivation for a certain area of study.
The Common App essay is your primary writing sample within the Common Application, a college application portal accepted by more than 900 schools. All your prospective schools that accept the Common App will read this essay to understand your character, background, and value as a potential student.
Since this essay is read by many colleges, avoid mentioning any college names or programs; instead, save tailored answers for the supplementary school-specific essays within the Common App.
Most importantly, your essay should be about you, not another person or thing. An insightful college admissions essay requires deep self-reflection, authenticity, and a balance between confidence and vulnerability.
Your essay shouldn’t be a résumé of your experiences but instead should tell a story that demonstrates your most important values and qualities.
Most institutions have an internal database of previously submitted student papers. Turnitin can check for self-plagiarism by comparing your paper against this database. If you’ve reused parts of an assignment you already submitted, it will flag any similarities as potential plagiarism.
Online plagiarism checkers don’t have access to your institution’s database, so they can’t detect self-plagiarism of unpublished work. If you’re worried about accidentally self-plagiarizing, you can use Scribbr’s Self-Plagiarism Checker to upload your unpublished documents and check them for similarities.
When revising your college essay, first check for big-picture issues regarding your message and content. Then, check for flow, tone, style, and clarity. Finally, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors.
If your college essay goes over the word count limit, cut any sentences with tangents or irrelevant details. Delete unnecessary words that clutter your essay.
If you’re struggling to reach the word count for your college essay, add vivid personal stories or share your feelings and insight to give your essay more depth and authenticity.
If you’ve got to write your college essay fast, don’t panic. First, set yourself deadlines: you should spend about 10% of your remaining time on brainstorming, 10% on outlining, 40% writing, 30% revising, and 10% taking breaks in between stages.
Second, brainstorm stories and values based on your essay prompt.
Third, outline your essay based on the montage or narrative essay structure.
Fourth, write specific, personal, and unique stories that would be hard for other students to replicate.
Fifth, revise your essay and make sure it’s clearly written.
Last, if possible, get feedback from an essay coach. Scribbr essay editors can help you revise your essay in 12 hours or less.
If you have a small amount of attrition bias, you can use some statistical methods to try to make up for it.
Multiple imputation involves using simulations to replace the missing data with likely values. Alternatively, you can use sample weighting to make up for the uneven balance of participants in your sample.
To avoid attrition, applying some of these measures can help you reduce participant dropout by making it easy and appealing for participants to stay.
Attrition bias can skew your sample so that your final sample differs significantly from your original sample. Your sample is biased because some groups from your population are underrepresented.
With a biased final sample, you may not be able to generalize your findings to the original population that you sampled from, so your external validity is compromised.
Attrition bias is a threat to internal validity. In experiments, differential rates of attrition between treatment and control groups can skew results.
This bias can affect the relationship between your independent and dependent variables. It can make variables appear to be correlated when they are not, or vice versa.
Some attrition is normal and to be expected in research. However, the type of attrition is important because systematic bias can distort your findings. Attrition bias can lead to inaccurate results because it affects internal and/or external validity.
Attrition bias is the selective dropout of some participants who systematically differ from those who remain in the study.
Some groups of participants may leave because of bad experiences, unwanted side effects, or inadequate incentives for participation, among other reasons. Attrition is also called subject mortality, but it doesn’t always refer to participants dying!
Avoid swearing in a college essay, since admissions officers’ opinions of profanity will vary. In some cases, it might be okay to use a vulgar word, such as in dialogue or quotes that make an important point in your essay. However, it’s safest to try to make the same point without swearing.
If you have bad grades on your transcript, you may want to use your college admissions essay to explain the challenging circumstances that led to them. Make sure to avoid dwelling on the negative aspects and highlight how you overcame the situation or learned an important lesson.
However, some college applications offer an additional information section where you can explain your bad grades, allowing you to choose another meaningful topic for your college essay.
Here’s a brief list of college essay topics that may be considered cliché:
It’s easier to write a standout essay with a unique topic. However, it’s possible to make a common topic compelling with interesting story arcs, uncommon connections, and an advanced writing style.
Yes. The college application essay is less formal than other academic writing—though of course it’s not mandatory to use contractions in your essay.
In a college essay, you can be creative with your language. When writing about the past, you can use the present tense to make the reader feel as if they were there in the moment with you. But make sure to maintain consistency and when in doubt, default to the correct verb tense according to the time you’re writing about.
The college admissions essay gives admissions officers a different perspective on you beyond your academic achievements, test scores, and extracurriculars. It’s your chance to stand out from other applicants with similar academic profiles by telling a unique, personal, and specific story.
Use a standard font such as Times New Roman or Arial to avoid distracting the reader from your college essay’s content.
A college application essay is less formal than most academic writing. Instead of citing sources formally with in-text citations and a reference list, you can cite them informally in your text.
For example, “In her research paper on genetics, Quinn Roberts explores …”
There is no set number of paragraphs in a college admissions essay. College admissions essays can diverge from the traditional five-paragraph essay structure that you learned in English class. Just make sure to stay under the specified word count.
Most topics are acceptable for college essays if you can use them to demonstrate personal growth or a lesson learned. However, there are a few difficult topics for college essays that should be avoided. Avoid topics that are:
To write an effective diversity essay, include vulnerable, authentic stories about your unique identity, background, or perspective. Provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your outlook, activities, and goals. If relevant, you should also mention how your background has led you to apply for this university and why you’re a good fit.
Many universities believe a student body composed of different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.
Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community, which is why they assign a diversity essay.
In addition to your main college essay, some schools and scholarships may ask for a supplementary essay focused on an aspect of your identity or background. This is sometimes called a diversity essay.
You can use humor in a college essay, but carefully consider its purpose and use it wisely. An effective use of humor involves unexpected, keen observations of the everyday, or speaks to a deeper theme. Humor shouldn’t be the main focus of the essay, but rather a tool to improve your storytelling.
Get a second opinion from a teacher, counselor, or essay coach on whether your essay’s humor is appropriate.
Though admissions officers are interested in hearing your story, they’re also interested in how you tell it. An exceptionally written essay will differentiate you from other applicants, meaning that admissions officers will spend more time reading it.
You can use literary devices to catch your reader’s attention and enrich your storytelling; however, focus on using just a few devices well, rather than trying to use as many as possible.
To decide on a good college essay topic, spend time thoughtfully answering brainstorming questions. If you still have trouble identifying topics, try the following two strategies:
You can also ask family, friends, or mentors to help you brainstorm topics, give feedback on your potential essay topics, or recall key stories that showcase your qualities.
Yes—admissions officers don’t expect everyone to have a totally unique college essay topic. But you must differentiate your essay from others by having a surprising story arc, an interesting insight, and/or an advanced writing style.
There are no foolproof college essay topics—whatever your topic, the key is to write about it effectively. However, a good topic
You can control demand characteristics by taking a few precautions in your research design and materials.
Use these measures:
Demand characteristics are a type of extraneous variable that can affect the outcomes of the study. They can invalidate studies by providing an alternative explanation for the results.
These cues may nudge participants to consciously or unconsciously change their responses, and they pose a threat to both internal and external validity. You can’t be sure that your independent variable manipulation worked, or that your findings can be applied to other people or settings.
In research, demand characteristics are cues that might indicate the aim of a study to participants. These cues can lead to participants changing their behaviors or responses based on what they think the research is about.
Demand characteristics are common problems in psychology experiments and other social science studies because they can cause a bias in your research findings.
Unlike a five-paragraph essay, your admissions essay should not end by summarizing the points you’ve already made. It’s better to be creative and aim for a strong final impression.
You should also avoid stating the obvious (for example, saying that you hope to be accepted).
There are a few strategies you can use for a memorable ending to your college essay:
The best technique will depend on your topic choice, essay outline, and writing style. You can write several endings using different techniques to see which works best.
Research misconduct means making up or falsifying data, manipulating data analyses, or misrepresenting results in research reports. It’s a form of academic fraud.
These actions are committed intentionally and can have serious consequences; research misconduct is not a simple mistake or a point of disagreement but a serious ethical failure.
Anonymity means you don’t know who the participants are, while confidentiality means you know who they are but remove identifying information from your research report. Both are important ethical considerations.
You can only guarantee anonymity by not collecting any personally identifying information—for example, names, phone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses, physical characteristics, photos, or videos.
You can keep data confidential by using aggregate information in your research report, so that you only refer to groups of participants rather than individuals.
Research ethics matter for scientific integrity, human rights and dignity, and collaboration between science and society. These principles make sure that participation in studies is voluntary, informed, and safe.
Ethical considerations in research are a set of principles that guide your research designs and practices. These principles include voluntary participation, informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, potential for harm, and results communication.
Scientists and researchers must always adhere to a certain code of conduct when collecting data from others.
These considerations protect the rights of research participants, enhance research validity, and maintain scientific integrity.
College deadlines vary depending on the schools you’re applying to and your application plan:
Depending on your prospective schools’ requirements, you may need to submit scores for the SAT or ACT as part of your college application.
Some schools now no longer require students to submit test scores; however, you should still take the SAT or ACT and aim to get a high score to strengthen your application package.
Aim to take the SAT or ACT in the spring of your junior year to give yourself enough time to retake it in the fall of your senior year if necessary.
Apply early for federal student aid and application fee waivers. You can also look for scholarships from schools, corporations, and charitable foundations.
To maximize your options, you should aim to apply to about eight schools:
The college admissions essay accounts for roughly 25% of the weight of your application.
At highly selective schools, there are four qualified candidates for every spot. While your academic achievements are important, your college admissions essay can help you stand out from other applicants with similar profiles.
In general, for your college application you will need to submit all of the following:
Different colleges may have specific requirements, so make sure you check exactly what’s expected in the application guidance.
You should start thinking about your college applications the summer before your junior year to give you sufficient time for college visits, taking standardized tests, applying for financial aid, writing essays, and collecting application material.
Yes, but make sure your essay directly addresses the prompt, respects the word count, and demonstrates the organization’s values.
If you plan ahead, you can save time by writing one scholarship essay for multiple prompts with similar questions. In a scholarship tracker spreadsheet, you can group or color-code overlapping essay prompts; then, write a single essay for multiple scholarships. Sometimes, you can even reuse or adapt your main college essay.
You can start applying for scholarships as early as your junior year. Continue applying throughout your senior year.
Invest time in applying for various scholarships, especially local ones with small dollar amounts, which are likely easier to win and more reflective of your background and interests. It will be easier for you to write an authentic and compelling essay if the scholarship topic is meaningful to you.
You can find scholarships through your school counselor, community network, or an internet search.
A scholarship essay requires you to demonstrate your values and qualities while answering the prompt’s specific question.
After researching the scholarship organization, identify a personal experience that embodies its values and exemplifies how you will be a successful student.
A standout college essay has several key ingredients:
While timelines will differ depending on the student, plan on spending at least 1–3 weeks brainstorming and writing the first draft of your college admissions essay, and at least 2–4 weeks revising across multiple drafts. Don’t forget to save enough time for breaks between each writing and editing stage.
You should already begin thinking about your essay the summer before your senior year so that you have plenty of time to try out different topics and get feedback on what works.
Your college essay accounts for about 25% of your application’s weight. It may be the deciding factor in whether you’re accepted, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurricular track records.
In most cases, quoting other people isn’t a good way to start your college essay. Admissions officers want to hear your thoughts about yourself, and quotes often don’t achieve that. Unless a quote truly adds something important to your essay that it otherwise wouldn’t have, you probably shouldn’t include it.
Cliché openers in a college essay introduction are usually general and applicable to many students and situations. Most successful introductions are specific: they only work for the unique essay that follows.
The key to a strong college essay introduction is not to give too much away. Try to start with a surprising statement or image that raises questions and compels the reader to find out more.
The introduction of your college essay is the first thing admissions officers will read and therefore your most important opportunity to stand out. An excellent introduction will keep admissions officers reading, allowing you to tell them what you want them to know.
Yes, reusing your own work without acknowledgment is considered self-plagiarism. This can range from re-submitting an entire assignment to reusing passages or data from something you’ve turned in previously without citing them.
Self-plagiarism often has the same consequences as other types of plagiarism. If you want to reuse content you wrote in the past, make sure to check your university’s policy or consult your professor.
If you are reusing content or data you used in a previous assignment, make sure to cite yourself. You can cite yourself just as you would cite any other source: simply follow the directions for that source type in the citation style you are using.
Keep in mind that reusing your previous work can be considered self-plagiarism, so make sure you ask your professor or consult your university’s handbook before doing so.
If your college essay goes over the word count limit, cut any sentences with tangents or irrelevant details. Delete unnecessary words that clutter your essay.
If you’re struggling to reach the word count for your college essay, add vivid personal stories or share your feelings and insight to give your essay more depth and authenticity.
Most college application portals specify a word count range for your essay, and you should stay within 10% of the upper limit to write a developed and thoughtful essay.
You should aim to stay under the specified word count limit to show you can follow directions and write concisely. However, don’t write too little, as it may seem like you are unwilling or unable to write a detailed and insightful narrative about yourself.
If no word count is specified, we advise keeping your essay between 400 and 600 words.
In your application essay, admissions officers are looking for particular features: they want to see context on your background, positive traits that you could bring to campus, and examples of you demonstrating those qualities.
Colleges want to be able to differentiate students who seem similar on paper. In the college application essay, they’re looking for a way to understand each applicant’s unique personality and experiences.
You don’t need a title for your college admissions essay, but you can include one if you think it adds something important.
Your college essay’s format should be as simple as possible:
There are no set rules for how to structure a college application essay, but these are two common structures that work:
Avoid the five-paragraph essay structure that you learned in high school.
Campus visits are always helpful, but if you can’t make it in person, the college website will have plenty of information for you to explore. You should look through the course catalog and even reach out to current faculty with any questions about the school.
Colleges set a “Why this college?” essay because they want to see that you’ve done your research. You must prove that you know what makes the school unique and can connect that to your own personal goals and academic interests.
Depending on your writing, you may go through several rounds of revision. Make sure to put aside your essay for a little while after each editing stage to return with a fresh perspective.
Teachers and guidance counselors can help you check your language, tone, and content. Ask for their help at least one to two months before the submission deadline, as many other students will also want their help.
Friends and family are a good resource to check for authenticity. It’s best to seek help from family members with a strong writing or English educational background, or from older siblings and cousins who have been through the college admissions process.
If possible, get help from an essay coach or editor; they’ll have specialized knowledge of college admissions essays and be able to give objective expert feedback.
When revising your college essay, first check for big-picture issues regarding message, flow, tone, style, and clarity. Then, focus on eliminating grammar and punctuation errors.
Include specific, personal details and use your authentic voice to shed a new perspective on a common human experience.
Through specific stories, you can weave your achievements and qualities into your essay so that it doesn’t seem like you’re bragging from a resume.
When writing about yourself, including difficult experiences or failures can be a great way to show vulnerability and authenticity, but be careful not to overshare, and focus on showing how you matured from the experience.
First, spend time reflecting on your core values and character. You can start with these questions:
However, you should do a comprehensive brainstorming session to fully understand your values. Also consider how your values and goals match your prospective university’s program and culture. Then, brainstorm stories that illustrate the fit between the two.
In a college application essay, you can occasionally bend grammatical rules if doing so adds value to the storytelling process and the essay maintains clarity.
However, use standard language rules if your stylistic choices would otherwise distract the reader from your overall narrative or could be easily interpreted as unintentional errors.
Write concisely and use the active voice to maintain a quick pace throughout your essay and make sure it’s the right length. Avoid adding definitions unless they provide necessary explanation.
Use first-person “I” statements to speak from your perspective. Use appropriate word choices that show off your vocabulary but don’t sound like you used a thesaurus. Avoid using idioms or cliché expressions by rewriting them in a creative, original way.
If you’re an international student applying to a US college and you’re comfortable using American idioms or cultural references, you can. But instead of potentially using them incorrectly, don’t be afraid to write in detail about yourself within your own culture.
Provide context for any words, customs, or places that an American admissions officer might be unfamiliar with.
College application essays are less formal than other kinds of academic writing. Use a conversational yet respectful tone, as if speaking with a teacher or mentor. Be vulnerable about your feelings, thoughts, and experiences to connect with the reader.
Aim to write in your authentic voice, with a style that sounds natural and genuine. You can be creative with your word choice, but don’t use elaborate vocabulary to impress admissions officers.
Admissions officers use college admissions essays to evaluate your character, writing skills, and ability to self-reflect. The essay is your chance to show what you will add to the academic community.
The college essay may be the deciding factor in your application, especially for competitive schools where most applicants have exceptional grades, test scores, and extracurriculars.
Some colleges also require supplemental essays about specific topics, such as why you chose that specific college. Scholarship essays are often required to obtain financial aid.
Common knowledge does not need to be cited. However, you should be extra careful when deciding what counts as common knowledge.
Common knowledge encompasses information that the average educated reader would accept as true without needing the extra validation of a source or citation.
Common knowledge should be widely known, undisputed and easily verified. When in doubt, always cite your sources.
Plagiarism has serious consequences, and can indeed be illegal in certain scenarios.
While most of the time plagiarism in an undergraduate setting is not illegal, plagiarism or self-plagiarism in a professional academic setting can lead to legal action, including copyright infringement and fraud. Many scholarly journals do not allow you to submit the same work to more than one journal, and if you do not credit a co-author, you could be legally defrauding them.
Even if you aren’t breaking the law, plagiarism can seriously impact your academic career. While the exact consequences of plagiarism vary by institution and severity, common consequences include: a lower grade, automatically failing a course, academic suspension or probation, or even expulsion.
Accidental plagiarism is one of the most common examples of plagiarism. Perhaps you forgot to cite a source, or paraphrased something a bit too closely. Maybe you can’t remember where you got an idea from, and aren’t totally sure if it’s original or not.
These all count as plagiarism, even though you didn’t do it on purpose. When in doubt, make sure you’re citing your sources. Also consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.
Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.
Self-plagiarism means recycling work that you’ve previously published or submitted as an assignment. It’s considered academic dishonesty to present something as brand new when you’ve already gotten credit and perhaps feedback for it in the past.
If you want to refer to ideas or data from previous work, be sure to cite yourself.
If you’re concerned that you may have self-plagiarized, Scribbr’s Self-Plagiarism Checker can help you turn in your paper with confidence. It compares your work to unpublished or private documents that you upload, so you can rest assured that you haven’t unintentionally plagiarized.
Incremental plagiarism means inserting quotes, passages, or excerpts from other works into your assignment without properly citing the original source.
Even if the vast majority of the text is yours, including any content that isn’t without citing it is plagiarism.
Consider using a plagiarism checker yourself before submitting your work. Plagiarism checkers work by scanning your document, comparing it to a database of webpages and publications, and highlighting passages that appear similar to other texts.
Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.
Patchwork plagiarism (aka mosaic plagiarism) means copying phrases, passages, or ideas from various existing sources and combining them to create a new text. While this type of plagiarism is more insidious than simply copy-pasting directly from a source, plagiarism checkers like Turnitin’s can still easily detect it.
To avoid plagiarism in any form, remember to cite your sources. Also consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.
Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.
Verbatim plagiarism means copying text from a source and pasting it directly into your own document without giving proper credit.
Even if you delete a few words or replace them with synonyms, it still counts as verbatim plagiarism.
To use an author’s exact words, quote the original source by putting the copied text in quotation marks and including an in-text citation.
If you’re worried abotu plagiarism, consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.
Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.
Global plagiarism means taking an entire work written by someone else and passing it off as your own. This can mean getting someone else to write an essay or assignment for you, or submitting a text you found online as your own work.
Global plagiarism is the most serious type of plagiarism because it involves deliberately and directly lying about the authorship of a work. It can have severe consequences.
To ensure you aren’t accidentally plagiarizing, consider running your work through plagiarism checker tool prior to submission. These tools work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.
Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.
Plagiarism can be detected by your professor or readers if the tone, formatting, or style of your text is different in different parts of your paper, or if they’re familiar with the plagiarized source.
Many universities also use plagiarism detection software like Turnitin’s, which compares your text to a large database of other sources, flagging any similarities that come up.
It can be easier than you think to commit plagiarism by accident. Consider using a plagiarism checker prior to submitting your paper to ensure you haven’t missed any citations.
Some examples of plagiarism include:
The most surefire way to avoid plagiarism is to always cite your sources. When in doubt, cite!
If you’re concerned about plagiarism, consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission. Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.
Plagiarism means presenting someone else’s work as your own without giving proper credit to the original author. In academic writing, plagiarism involves using words, ideas, or information from a source without including a citation.
Plagiarism can have serious consequences, even when it’s done accidentally. To avoid plagiarism, it’s important to keep track of your sources and cite them correctly.
A credible source should pass the CRAAP test and follow these guidelines:
The CRAAP test is an acronym to help you evaluate the credibility of a source you are considering using. It is an important component of information literacy.
The CRAAP test has five main components:
Peer review is a process of evaluating submissions to an academic journal. Utilizing rigorous criteria, a panel of reviewers in the same subject area decide whether to accept each submission for publication. For this reason, academic journals are often considered among the most credible sources you can use in a research project– provided that the journal itself is trustworthy and well-regarded.
Academic dishonesty can be intentional or unintentional, ranging from something as simple as claiming to have read something you didn’t to copying your neighbor’s answers on an exam.
You can commit academic dishonesty with the best of intentions, such as helping a friend cheat on a paper. Severe academic dishonesty can include buying a pre-written essay or the answers to a multiple-choice test, or falsifying a medical emergency to avoid taking a final exam.
Consequences of academic dishonesty depend on the severity of the offense and your institution’s policy. They can range from a warning for a first offense to a failing grade in a course to expulsion from your university.
For those in certain fields, such as nursing, engineering, or lab sciences, not learning fundamentals properly can directly impact the health and safety of others. For those working in academia or research, academic dishonesty impacts your professional reputation, leading others to doubt your future work.
Academic dishonesty refers to deceitful or misleading behavior in an academic setting. Academic dishonesty can occur intentionally or unintentionally, and varies in severity.
It can encompass paying for a pre-written essay, cheating on an exam, or committing plagiarism. It can also include helping others cheat, copying a friend’s homework answers, or even pretending to be sick to miss an exam.
Academic dishonesty doesn’t just occur in a classroom setting, but also in research and other academic-adjacent fields.
In multistage sampling, you can use probability or non-probability sampling methods.
For a probability sample, you have to conduct probability sampling at every stage.
You can mix it up by using simple random sampling, systematic sampling, or stratified sampling to select units at different stages, depending on what is applicable and relevant to your study.
Multistage sampling can simplify data collection when you have large, geographically spread samples, and you can obtain a probability sample without a complete sampling frame.
But multistage sampling may not lead to a representative sample, and larger samples are needed for multistage samples to achieve the statistical properties of simple random samples.
These are four of the most common mixed methods designs:
Triangulation in research means using multiple datasets, methods, theories and/or investigators to address a research question. It’s a research strategy that can help you enhance the validity and credibility of your findings.
Triangulation is mainly used in qualitative research, but it’s also commonly applied in quantitative research. Mixed methods research always uses triangulation.
In multistage sampling, or multistage cluster sampling, you draw a sample from a population using smaller and smaller groups at each stage.
This method is often used to collect data from a large, geographically spread group of people in national surveys, for example. You take advantage of hierarchical groupings (e.g., from state to city to neighborhood) to create a sample that’s less expensive and time-consuming to collect data from.
No, the steepness or slope of the line isn’t related to the correlation coefficient value. The correlation coefficient only tells you how closely your data fit on a line, so two datasets with the same correlation coefficient can have very different slopes.
To find the slope of the line, you’ll need to perform a regression analysis.
Correlation coefficients always range between -1 and 1.
The sign of the coefficient tells you the direction of the relationship: a positive value means the variables change together in the same direction, while a negative value means they change together in opposite directions.
The absolute value of a number is equal to the number without its sign. The absolute value of a correlation coefficient tells you the magnitude of the correlation: the greater the absolute value, the stronger the correlation.
These are the assumptions your data must meet if you want to use Pearson’s r:
In MLA style, footnotes or endnotes can be used to provide additional information that would interrupt the flow of your text.
This can be further examples or developments of ideas you only briefly discuss in the text. You can also use notes to provide additional sources or explain your citation practice.
You don’t have to use any notes at all; only use them to provide relevant information that complements your arguments or helps the reader to understand them.
No, you should use parenthetical MLA in-text citations to cite sources. Footnotes or endnotes can be used to add extra information that doesn’t fit into your main text, but they’re not needed for citations.
If you need to cite a lot of sources at the same point in the text, though, placing these citations in a note can be a good way to avoid cluttering your text.
Quantitative research designs can be divided into two main categories:
Qualitative research designs tend to be more flexible. Common types of qualitative design include case study, ethnography, and grounded theory designs.
A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research aims, that you collect high-quality data, and that you use the right kind of analysis to answer your questions, utilizing credible sources. This allows you to draw valid, trustworthy conclusions.
The priorities of a research design can vary depending on the field, but you usually have to specify:
A research design is a strategy for answering your research question. It defines your overall approach and determines how you will collect and analyze data.
To apply a hanging indent to your reference list or Works Cited list in Word or Google Docs, follow the steps below.
Microsoft Word:
Google Docs:
When the hanging indent is applied, for each reference, every line except the first is indented. This helps the reader see where one entry ends and the next begins.
According to MLA format guidelines, the Works Cited page(s) should look like this:
The MLA Works Cited lists every source that you cited in your paper. Each entry contains the author, title, and publication details of the source.
Questionnaires can be self-administered or researcher-administered.
Self-administered questionnaires can be delivered online or in paper-and-pen formats, in person or through mail. All questions are standardized so that all respondents receive the same questions with identical wording.
Researcher-administered questionnaires are interviews that take place by phone, in-person, or online between researchers and respondents. You can gain deeper insights by clarifying questions for respondents or asking follow-up questions.
You can organize the questions logically, with a clear progression from simple to complex, or randomly between respondents. A logical flow helps respondents process the questionnaire easier and quicker, but it may lead to bias. Randomization can minimize the bias from order effects.
Closed-ended, or restricted-choice, questions offer respondents a fixed set of choices to select from. These questions are easier to answer quickly.
Open-ended or long-form questions allow respondents to answer in their own words. Because there are no restrictions on their choices, respondents can answer in ways that researchers may not have otherwise considered.
A questionnaire is a data collection tool or instrument, while a survey is an overarching research method that involves collecting and analyzing data from people using questionnaires.
No, in an MLA annotated bibliography, you can write short phrases instead of full sentences to keep your annotations concise. You can still choose to use full sentences instead, though.
Use full sentences in your annotations if your instructor requires you to, and always use full sentences in the main text of your paper.
Usually, no title page is needed in an MLA paper. A header is generally included at the top of the first page instead. The exceptions are when:
In those cases, you should use a title page instead of a header, listing the same information but on a separate page.
The third variable and directionality problems are two main reasons why correlation isn’t causation.
The third variable problem means that a confounding variable affects both variables to make them seem causally related when they are not.
The directionality problem is when two variables correlate and might actually have a causal relationship, but it’s impossible to conclude which variable causes changes in the other.
Correlation describes an association between variables: when one variable changes, so does the other. A correlation is a statistical indicator of the relationship between variables.
Causation means that changes in one variable brings about changes in the other; there is a cause-and-effect relationship between variables. The two variables are correlated with each other, and there’s also a causal link between them.
Controlled experiments establish causality, whereas correlational studies only show associations between variables.
In general, correlational research is high in external validity while experimental research is high in internal validity.
A correlation is usually tested for two variables at a time, but you can test correlations between three or more variables.
A correlation coefficient is a single number that describes the strength and direction of the relationship between your variables.
Different types of correlation coefficients might be appropriate for your data based on their levels of measurement and distributions. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r) is commonly used to assess a linear relationship between two quantitative variables.
A correlational research design investigates relationships between two variables (or more) without the researcher controlling or manipulating any of them. It’s a non-experimental type of quantitative research.
A correlation reflects the strength and/or direction of the association between two or more variables.
When an online source (e.g. web page, blog post) doesn’t list a publication date, you should instead list an access date.
Unlike a publication date, this appears at the end of your MLA Works Cited entry, after the URL, e.g. “A Complete Guide to MLA Style.” Scribbr, www.scribbr.com/category/mla/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2021.
For offline sources with no publication date shown, don’t use an access date—just leave out the date.
The level of detail you provide in a publication date in your Works Cited list depends on the type of source and the information available. Generally, follow the lead of the source—if it gives the full date, give the full date; if it gives just the year, so should you.
Books usually list the year, whereas web pages tend to give a full date. For journal articles, give the year, month and year, or season and year, depending on what information is available. Check our citation examples if you’re unsure about a particular source type.
In an MLA Works Cited list, the names of months with five or more letters are abbreviated to the first three letters, followed by a period. For example, abbreviate Feb., Mar., Apr., but not June, July.
In the main text, month names should never be abbreviated.
In your MLA Works Cited list, dates are always written in day-month-year order, with the month abbreviated if it’s five or more letters long, e.g. 5 Mar. 2018.
In the main text, you’re free to use either day-month-year or month-day-year order, as long as you use one or the other consistently. Don’t abbreviate months in the main text, and use numerals for dates, e.g. 5 March 2018 or March 5, 2018.
In the US, most graduate school applications require you to include:
Some programs may ask you to write a personal statement in addition to, or instead of, a statement of purpose. You may also be asked to an interview.
Always carefully read the application instructions for the specific program you’re applying to.
Some source types, such as books and journal articles, may contain footnotes (or endnotes) with additional information. The following rules apply when citing information from a note in an MLA in-text citation:
The director should always be listed in the author position in a Chicago film citation, followed by the label “director.” Other contributors to the film (actors, cinematographers, writers, composers, producers, etc.) may be listed after the film title, e.g., “Featuring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. Cinematography by Jarin Blaschke.”
Only the contributors relevant to your discussion of the film should be added. You might mention actors whose performances are discussed in detail, or the composer if the use of music in the film is examined. It’s also fine to mention no contributors other than the director, if none are relevant to your discussion.
In Chicago style, when a source does not include page numbers but you still want to point the reader to a specific point within it, an alternative locator should be used in your Chicago footnote or Chicago in-text citation. With audiovisual sources (e.g., films, videos, podcasts, songs), this is a timestamp, e.g. 1:15:28.
Webpages are usually short enough that no specific locator is needed. However, for a particularly long web page, you can use a subheading from the page, in quotation marks, e.g., “Citing Sources with Notes.”
Note that page numbers should be left out of newspaper citations, even when they are available. This is because page numbers can vary between different editions of a newspaper.
To automatically generate accurate Chicago references, you can use Scribbr’s free Chicago reference generator.
The purpose of a lab report is to demonstrate your understanding of the scientific method with a hands-on lab experiment. Course instructors will often provide you with an experimental design and procedure. Your task is to write up how you actually performed the experiment and evaluate the outcome.
In contrast, a research paper requires you to independently develop an original argument. It involves more in-depth research and interpretation of sources and data.
A lab report is usually shorter than a research paper.
The sections of a lab report can vary between scientific fields and course requirements, but it usually contains the following:
A lab report conveys the aim, methods, results, and conclusions of a scientific experiment. Lab reports are commonly assigned in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Random error is almost always present in scientific studies, even in highly controlled settings. While you can’t eradicate it completely, you can reduce random error by taking repeated measurements, using a large sample, and controlling extraneous variables.
You can avoid systematic error through careful design of your sampling, data collection, and analysis procedures. For example, use triangulation to measure your variables using multiple methods; regularly calibrate instruments or procedures; use random sampling and random assignment; and apply masking (blinding) where possible.
Systematic error is generally a bigger problem in research.
With random error, multiple measurements will tend to cluster around the true value. When you’re collecting data from a large sample, the errors in different directions will cancel each other out.
Systematic errors are much more problematic because they can skew your data away from the true value. This can lead you to false conclusions (Type I and II errors) about the relationship between the variables you’re studying.
Random and systematic error are two types of measurement error.
Random error is a chance difference between the observed and true values of something (e.g., a researcher misreading a weighing scale records an incorrect measurement).
Systematic error is a consistent or proportional difference between the observed and true values of something (e.g., a miscalibrated scale consistently records weights as higher than they actually are).
On graphs, the explanatory variable is conventionally placed on the x-axis, while the response variable is placed on the y-axis.
The term “explanatory variable” is sometimes preferred over “independent variable” because, in real world contexts, independent variables are often influenced by other variables. This means they aren’t totally independent.
Multiple independent variables may also be correlated with each other, so “explanatory variables” is a more appropriate term.
The difference between explanatory and response variables is simple:
In a controlled experiment, all extraneous variables are held constant so that they can’t influence the results. Controlled experiments require:
Depending on your study topic, there are various other methods of controlling variables.
In Chicago style, when you don’t just refer to an image but actually include it in your (research) paper, the image should be formatted as a figure. Place the figure before or after the first paragraph where it is mentioned. Refer to figures by their numbers in the text (e.g., “see fig. 1”).
Below the figure, place a caption providing the figure number followed by a period (e.g., “Figure 1.”), a reference to the source (if you didn’t create the image yourself), and any relevant information to help the reader understand the image (if needed).
The caption is single-spaced and left-aligned, and followed by a blank line before the continuation of the main text.
To automatically generate accurate Chicago references, you can use Scribbr’s free Chicago reference generator.
There are 4 main types of extraneous variables:
An extraneous variable is any variable that you’re not investigating that can potentially affect the dependent variable of your research study.
A confounding variable is a type of extraneous variable that not only affects the dependent variable, but is also related to the independent variable.
According to the APA guidelines, you should report enough detail on inferential statistics so that your readers understand your analyses.
Report the following for each hypothesis test:
You should also present confidence intervals and estimates of effect sizes where relevant.
The number of decimal places to report depends on what you’re reporting. Generally, you should aim to round numbers while retaining precision. It’s best to present fewer decimal digits to aid easy understanding.
Use one decimal place for:
Use two decimal places for:
For a published interview (whether in video, audio, or print form), you should always include a citation, just as you would for any other source.
For an interview you conducted yourself, formally or informally, you often don’t need a citation and can just refer to it in the text or in a footnote, since the reader won’t be able to look them up anyway. MLA, however, still recommends including citations for your own interviews.
The main elements included in a newspaper interview citation across APA, MLA, and Chicago style are the names of the interviewer and interviewee, the interview title, the publication date, the name of the newspaper, and a URL (for online sources).
The information is presented differently in different citation styles. One key difference is that APA advises listing the interviewer in the author position, while MLA and Chicago advise listing the interviewee first.
In a factorial design, multiple independent variables are tested.
If you test two variables, each level of one independent variable is combined with each level of the other independent variable to create different conditions.
Within-subjects designs have many potential threats to internal validity, but they are also very statistically powerful.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Most medical school programs interview candidates, as do many (though not all) leading law and business schools.
In research programs, it depends—PhDs in business usually do, while those in economics normally do not, for example.
Some schools interview everyone, while others only interview their top candidates. Look at the websites of the schools you’re applying to for more information on whether they conduct interviews.
In addition to thinking about your answers for the most commonly asked grad school interview questions, you should reach out to former and current students to ask their advice on preparing and what sort of questions will be asked.
Look back through your resume and come up with anecdotes that you could use for common questions, particularly those that ask about obstacles that you overcame. If you’re applying for a research program, ensure that you can talk about the previous research experience you’ve had.
You should also read as much research in your field as possible. Research the faculty at the schools you’re applying to and read some of their papers. Come up with a few questions that you could ask them.
Graduate schools often ask questions about why you are interested in this particular program and what you will contribute.
Try to stay away from cliche answers like “this is a good program” or “I got good grades in undergrad” and focus instead on the unique strengths of the program or what you will bring to the table. Understand what the program is looking for and come up with anecdotes that demonstrate why you are a good fit for them.
Different types of programs may also focus on different questions:
The elements included in a newspaper article citation across APA, MLA, and Chicago style are the author name, the article title, the publication date, the newspaper name, and the URL if the article was accessed online.
In APA and MLA, the page numbers of the article appear in place of the URL if the article was accessed in print. No page numbers are used in Chicago newspaper citations.
Untitled sources (e.g. some images) are usually cited using a short descriptive text in place of the title. In APA Style, this description appears in brackets: [Chair of stained oak]. In MLA and Chicago styles, no brackets are used: Chair of stained oak.
For social media posts, which are usually untitled, quote the initial words of the post in place of the title: the first 160 characters in Chicago, or the first 20 words in APA. E.g. Biden, J. [@JoeBiden]. “The American Rescue Plan means a $7,000 check for a single mom of four. It means more support to safely.”
MLA recommends quoting the full post for something short like a tweet, and just describing the post if it’s longer.
The main elements included in image citations across APA, MLA, and Chicago style are the name of the image’s creator, the image title, the year (or more precise date) of publication, and details of the container in which the image was found (e.g. a museum, book, website).
In APA and Chicago style, it’s standard to also include a description of the image’s format (e.g. “Photograph” or “Oil on canvas”). This sort of information may be included in MLA too, but is not mandatory.
The main elements included in a lecture citation across APA, MLA, and Chicago style are the name of the speaker, the lecture title, the date it took place, the course or event it was part of, and the institution it took place at.
For transcripts or recordings of lectures/speeches, other details like the URL, the name of the book or website, and the length of the recording may be included instead of information about the event and institution.
The main elements included in a YouTube video citation across APA, MLA, and Chicago style are the name of the author/uploader, the title of the video, the publication date, and the URL.
The format in which this information appears is different for each style.
All styles also recommend using timestamps as a locator in the in-text citation or Chicago footnote.
While a between-subjects design has fewer threats to internal validity, it also requires more participants for high statistical power than a within-subjects design.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Yes. Between-subjects and within-subjects designs can be combined in a single study when you have two or more independent variables (a factorial design). In a mixed factorial design, one variable is altered between subjects and another is altered within subjects.
In a between-subjects design, every participant experiences only one condition, and researchers assess group differences between participants in various conditions.
In a within-subjects design, each participant experiences all conditions, and researchers test the same participants repeatedly for differences between conditions.
The word “between” means that you’re comparing different conditions between groups, while the word “within” means you’re comparing different conditions within the same group.
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Each annotation in an annotated bibliography is usually between 50 and 200 words long. Longer annotations may be divided into paragraphs.
The content of the annotation varies according to your assignment. An annotation can be descriptive, meaning it just describes the source objectively; evaluative, meaning it assesses its usefulness; or reflective, meaning it explains how the source will be used in your own research.
Any credible sources on your topic can be included in an annotated bibliography. The exact sources you cover will vary depending on the assignment, but you should usually focus on collecting journal articles and scholarly books. When in doubt, utilize the CRAAP test!
An annotated bibliography is an assignment where you collect sources on a specific topic and write an annotation for each source. An annotation is a short text that describes and sometimes evaluates the source.
The elements included in journal article citations across APA, MLA, and Chicago style are the name(s) of the author(s), the title of the article, the year of publication, the name of the journal, the volume and issue numbers, the page range of the article, and, when accessed online, the DOI or URL.
In MLA and Chicago style, you also include the specific month or season of publication alongside the year, when this information is available.
Random assignment is used in experiments with a between-groups or independent measures design. In this research design, there’s usually a control group and one or more experimental groups. Random assignment helps ensure that the groups are comparable.
In general, you should always use random assignment in this type of experimental design when it is ethically possible and makes sense for your study topic.
To implement random assignment, assign a unique number to every member of your study’s sample.
Then, you can use a random number generator or a lottery method to randomly assign each number to a control or experimental group. You can also do so manually, by flipping a coin or rolling a dice to randomly assign participants to groups.
Random selection, or random sampling, is a way of selecting members of a population for your study’s sample.
In contrast, random assignment is a way of sorting the sample into control and experimental groups.
Random sampling enhances the external validity or generalizability of your results, while random assignment improves the internal validity of your study.
In experimental research, random assignment is a way of placing participants from your sample into different groups using randomization. With this method, every member of the sample has a known or equal chance of being placed in a control group or an experimental group.
The main elements included in website citations across APA, MLA, and Chicago style are the author, the date of publication, the page title, the website name, and the URL. The information is presented differently in each style.
“Controlling for a variable” means measuring extraneous variables and accounting for them statistically to remove their effects on other variables.
Researchers often model control variable data along with independent and dependent variable data in regression analyses and ANCOVAs. That way, you can isolate the control variable’s effects from the relationship between the variables of interest.
Control variables help you establish a correlational or causal relationship between variables by enhancing internal validity.
If you don’t control relevant extraneous variables, they may influence the outcomes of your study, and you may not be able to demonstrate that your results are really an effect of your independent variable.
A control variable is any variable that’s held constant in a research study. It’s not a variable of interest in the study, but it’s controlled because it could influence the outcomes.
Including mediators and moderators in your research helps you go beyond studying a simple relationship between two variables for a fuller picture of the real world. They are important to consider when studying complex correlational or causal relationships.
Mediators are part of the causal pathway of an effect, and they tell you how or why an effect takes place. Moderators usually help you judge the external validity of your study by identifying the limitations of when the relationship between variables holds.
If something is a mediating variable:
A confounder is a third variable that affects variables of interest and makes them seem related when they are not. In contrast, a mediator is the mechanism of a relationship between two variables: it explains the process by which they are related.
A mediator variable explains the process through which two variables are related, while a moderator variable affects the strength and direction of that relationship.
When you want to cite a specific passage in a source without page numbers (e.g. an e-book or website), all the main citation styles recommend using an alternate locator in your in-text citation. You might use a heading or chapter number, e.g. (Smith, 2016, ch. 1)
In APA Style, you can count the paragraph numbers in a text to identify a location by paragraph number. MLA and Chicago recommend that you only use paragraph numbers if they’re explicitly marked in the text.
For audiovisual sources (e.g. videos), all styles recommend using a timestamp to show a specific point in the video when relevant.
The abbreviation “et al.” (Latin for “and others”) is used to shorten citations of sources with multiple authors.
“Et al.” is used in APA in-text citations of sources with 3+ authors, e.g. (Smith et al., 2019). It is not used in APA reference entries.
Use “et al.” for 3+ authors in MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries.
Use “et al.” for 4+ authors in a Chicago in-text citation, and for 10+ authors in a Chicago bibliography entry.
Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.
Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.
The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.
The main elements included in all book citations across APA, MLA, and Chicago style are the author, the title, the year of publication, and the name of the publisher. A page number is also included in in-text citations to highlight the specific passage cited.
In Chicago style and in the 6th edition of APA Style, the location of the publisher is also included, e.g. London: Penguin.
There are various ways to improve power:
A power analysis is a calculation that helps you determine a minimum sample size for your study. It’s made up of four main components. If you know or have estimates for any three of these, you can calculate the fourth component.
Some students apply to graduate school straight from undergrad, but it’s also common to go back to school later in life. The ideal time to do so depends on various financial, personal, and career considerations. Graduate school is a big commitment, so you should apply at a time when you can devote your full attention to it.
Your career path may also determine when you should apply. In some career fields, you can easily progress without a graduate degree, while in others—such as medicine, business, and law—it’s virtually impossible to move up the career ladder without a specific graduate degree.
Most graduate school applications for American graduate programs are due in December or January for a September start.
Some types of programs, especially law school, are rolling applications, meaning that the earlier you apply, the earlier you’ll hear back. In this case, you should aim to apply as early as possible to maximize your chances.
Medical school follows a completely separate timeline with much earlier deadlines. If you’re applying for medical school, you should speak to advisors at your university for more information.
A good starting point to aim for is about 18 months before you would start the program, or 6–9 months before the applications are due.
In the first few months of the process, research programs and study for any standardized exams you might need.
You can then begin writing your personal statements and statements of purpose, as well as contacting people to write your letters of recommendation. Ensure that you give recommenders plenty of time to complete their letters (ideally around 2–4 months).
Null and alternative hypotheses are used in statistical hypothesis testing. The null hypothesis of a test always predicts no effect or no relationship between variables, while the alternative hypothesis states your research prediction of an effect or relationship.
Statistical analysis is the main method for analyzing quantitative research data. It uses probabilities and models to test predictions about a population from sample data.
No, including a URL is optional in APA Style reference entries for legal sources (e.g. court cases, laws). It can be useful to do so to aid the reader in retrieving the source, but it’s not required, since the other information included should be enough to locate it.
Generally, you should identify a law in an APA reference entry by its location in the United States Code (U.S.C.).
But if the law is either spread across various sections of the code or not featured in the code at all, include the public law number in addition to information on the source you accessed the law in, e.g.:
You should report methods using the past tense, even if you haven’t completed your study at the time of writing. That’s because the methods section is intended to describe completed actions or research.
In your APA methods section, you should report detailed information on the participants, materials, and procedures used.
For a stronger conclusion paragraph, avoid including:
Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.
Your essay’s conclusion should contain:
The conclusion may also reflect on the broader implications of your argument, showing how your ideas could applied to other contexts or debates.
The conclusion paragraph of an essay is usually shorter than the introduction. As a rule, it shouldn’t take up more than 10–15% of the text.
With APA legal citations, it’s recommended to cite all the reporters (publications reporting cases) in which a court case appears. To cite multiple reporters, just separate them with commas in your reference entry. This is called parallel citation.
Don’t repeat the name of the case, court, or year; just list the volume, reporter, and page number for each citation. For example:
In APA Style, when you’re citing a recent court case that has not yet been reported in print and thus doesn’t have a specific page number, include a series of three underscores (___) where the page number would usually appear:
If you cite multiple Shakespeare plays throughout your paper, the MLA in-text citation begins with an abbreviated version of the title (as shown here), e.g. (Oth. 1.2.4). Each play should have its own Works Cited entry (even if they all come from the same collection).
If you cite only one Shakespeare play in your paper, you should include a Works Cited entry for that play, and your in-text citations should start with the author’s name, e.g. (Shakespeare 1.1.4).
No, do not use page numbers in your MLA in-text citations of Shakespeare plays. Instead, specify the act, scene, and line numbers of the quoted material, separated by periods, e.g. (Shakespeare 3.2.20–25).
This makes it easier for the reader to find the relevant passage in any edition of the text.
The risk of making a Type II error is inversely related to the statistical power of a test. Power is the extent to which a test can correctly detect a real effect when there is one.
To (indirectly) reduce the risk of a Type II error, you can increase the sample size or the significance level to increase statistical power.
The risk of making a Type I error is the significance level (or alpha) that you choose. That’s a value that you set at the beginning of your study to assess the statistical probability of obtaining your results (p value).
The significance level is usually set at 0.05 or 5%. This means that your results only have a 5% chance of occurring, or less, if the null hypothesis is actually true.
To reduce the Type I error probability, you can set a lower significance level.
In statistics, a Type I error means rejecting the null hypothesis when it’s actually true, while a Type II error means failing to reject the null hypothesis when it’s actually false.
When an article (e.g. in a newspaper) appears on non-consecutive pages (e.g. starting on page 1 and continuing on page 6), you should use “pp.” in your Works Cited entry, since it’s on multiple pages, but MLA recommends just listing the first page followed by a plus sign, e.g. pp. 1+.
In an MLA style Works Cited entry for a newspaper, you can cite a local newspaper in the same way as you would a national one, except that you may have to add the name of the city in square brackets to clarify what newspaper you mean, e.g. The Gazette [Montreal].
Do not add the city name in brackets if it’s already part of the newspaper’s name, e.g. Dallas Observer.
In statistics, power refers to the likelihood of a hypothesis test detecting a true effect if there is one. A statistically powerful test is more likely to reject a false negative (a Type II error).
If you don’t ensure enough power in your study, you may not be able to detect a statistically significant result even when it has practical significance. Your study might not have the ability to answer your research question.
While statistical significance shows that an effect exists in a study, practical significance shows that the effect is large enough to be meaningful in the real world.
Statistical significance is denoted by p-values whereas practical significance is represented by effect sizes.
There are dozens of measures of effect sizes. The most common effect sizes are Cohen’s d and Pearson’s r. Cohen’s d measures the size of the difference between two groups while Pearson’s r measures the strength of the relationship between two variables.
Effect size tells you how meaningful the relationship between variables or the difference between groups is.
A large effect size means that a research finding has practical significance, while a small effect size indicates limited practical applications.
In APA style, statistics can be presented in the main text or as tables or figures. To decide how to present numbers, you can follow APA guidelines:
Since these are general guidelines, use your own judgment and feedback from others for effective presentation of numbers.
In an APA results section, you should generally report the following:
Using descriptive and inferential statistics, you can make two types of estimates about the population: point estimates and interval estimates.
Both types of estimates are important for gathering a clear idea of where a parameter is likely to lie.
Standard error and standard deviation are both measures of variability. The standard deviation reflects variability within a sample, while the standard error estimates the variability across samples of a population.
The standard error of the mean, or simply standard error, indicates how different the population mean is likely to be from a sample mean. It tells you how much the sample mean would vary if you were to repeat a study using new samples from within a single population.
Like most style guides, APA recommends listing the book of the Bible you’re citing in your APA in-text citation, in combination with chapter and verse numbers. For example:
Books of the Bible may be abbreviated to save space; a list of standard abbreviations can be found here. Page numbers are not used in Bible citations.
Yes, in the 7th edition of APA Style, versions of the Bible are treated much like other books; you should include the edition you used in your reference list.
Previously, in the 6th edition of the APA manual, it was recommended to just use APA 6 in-text citations to refer to the Bible, and omit it from the reference list.
MLA recommends citing the original source wherever possible, rather than the source in which it is quoted or reproduced.
If this isn’t possible, cite the secondary source and use “qtd. in” (quoted in) in your MLA in-text citation. For example: (qtd. in Smith 233)
If a source is reproduced in full within another source (e.g. an image within a PowerPoint or a poem in an article), give details of the original source first, then include details of the secondary source as a container. For example:
When you want to cite a PowerPoint or lecture notes from a lecture you viewed in person in MLA, check whether they can also be accessed online; if so, this is the best version to cite, as it allows the reader to access the source.
If the material is not available online, use the details of where and when the presentation took place.
When you need to highlight a specific moment in a video or audio source, use a timestamp in your APA in-text citation. Just include the timestamp from the start of the part you’re citing. For example:
In an MLA song citation, you need to give some sort of container to indicate how you accessed the song. If this is a physical or downloaded album, the Works Cited entry should list the album name, distributor, year, and format.
However, if you listened to the song on a streaming service, you can just list the site as a container, including a URL. In this case, including the album details is optional; you may add this information if it is relevant to your discussion or if it will help the reader access the song.
To figure out whether a given number is a parameter or a statistic, ask yourself the following:
If the answer is yes to both questions, the number is likely to be a parameter. For small populations, data can be collected from the whole population and summarized in parameters.
If the answer is no to either of the questions, then the number is more likely to be a statistic.
In the US, the graduate school application process is similar whether you’re applying for a master’s or a PhD. Both require letters of recommendation, a statement of purpose or personal statement, a resume or CV, and transcripts. Programs in the US and Canada usually also require a certain type of standardized test—often the GRE.
Outside the US, PhD programs usually also require applicants to write a research proposal, because students are expected to begin dissertation research in the first year of their PhD.
A master’s degree usually has a higher upfront cost, but it also allows you to start earning a higher salary more quickly. The exact cost depends on the country and the school: private universities usually cost more than public ones, and European degrees usually cost less than North American ones. There are limited possibilities for financial aid.
PhDs often waive tuition fees and offer a living stipend in exchange for a teaching or research assistantship. However, they take many years to complete, during which time you earn very little.
This depends on the country. In the United States, you can generally go directly to a PhD with only a bachelor’s degree, as a master’s program is included as part of the doctoral program.
Elsewhere, you generally need to graduate from a research-intensive master’s degree before continuing to the PhD.
This varies by country. In the United States, PhDs usually take between 5–7 years: 2 years of coursework followed by 3–5 years of independent research work to produce a dissertation.
In the rest of the world, students normally have a master’s degree before beginning the PhD, so they proceed directly to the research stage and complete a PhD in 3–5 years.
A PhD, which is short for philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy in Latin), is the highest university degree that can be obtained. In a PhD, students spend 3–5 years writing a dissertation, which aims to make a significant, original contribution to current knowledge.
A PhD is intended to prepare students for a career as a researcher, whether that be in academia, the public sector, or the private sector.
A master’s is a 1- or 2-year graduate degree that can prepare you for a variety of careers.
All master’s involve graduate-level coursework. Some are research-intensive and intend to prepare students for further study in a PhD; these usually require their students to write a master’s thesis. Others focus on professional training for a specific career.
To avoid plagiarism when summarizing an article or other source, follow these two rules:
A summary is always much shorter than the original text. The length of a summary can range from just a few sentences to several paragraphs; it depends on the length of the article you’re summarizing, and on the purpose of the summary.
A summary is a short overview of the main points of an article or other source, written entirely in your own words.
Whenever you refer to an image created by someone else in your text, you should include a citation leading the reader to the image you’re discussing.
If you include the image directly in your text as a figure, the details of the source appear in the figure’s caption. If you don’t, just include an MLA in-text citation wherever you mention the image, and an entry in the Works Cited list giving full details.
The main guidelines for formatting a paper in Chicago style are to:
To automatically generate accurate Chicago references, you can use Scribbr’s free Chicago reference generator.
The main guidelines for formatting a paper in MLA style are as follows:
To format a paper in APA Style, follow these guidelines:
To include a direct quote in APA, follow these rules:
A block quote is a long quote formatted as a separate “block” of text. Instead of using quotation marks, you place the quote on a new line, and indent the entire quote to mark it apart from your own words.
The rules for when to apply block quote formatting depend on the citation style:
In academic writing, there are three main situations where quoting is the best choice:
Don’t overuse quotes; your own voice should be dominant. If you just want to provide information from a source, it’s usually better to paraphrase or summarize.
Every time you quote a source, you must include a correctly formatted in-text citation. This looks slightly different depending on the citation style.
For example, a direct quote in APA is cited like this: “This is a quote” (Streefkerk, 2020, p. 5).
Every in-text citation should also correspond to a full reference at the end of your paper.
A quote is an exact copy of someone else’s words, usually enclosed in quotation marks and credited to the original author or speaker.
APA doesn’t require you to include a list of tables or a list of figures. However, it is advisable to do so if your text is long enough to feature a table of contents and it includes a lot of tables and/or figures.
A list of tables and list of figures appear (in that order) after your table of contents, and are presented in a similar way.
Copyright information can usually be found wherever the table or figure was published. For example, for a diagram in a journal article, look on the journal’s website or the database where you found the article. Images found on sites like Flickr are listed with clear copyright information.
If you find that permission is required to reproduce the material, be sure to contact the author or publisher and ask for it.
If you adapt or reproduce a table or figure from another source, you should include that source in your APA reference list. You should also include copyright information in the note for the table or figure, and include an APA in-text citation when you refer to it.
Tables and figures you created yourself, based on your own data, are not included in the reference list.
An APA in-text citation is placed before the final punctuation mark in a sentence.
In an APA in-text citation, you use the phrase “as cited in” if you want to cite a source indirectly (i.e., if you cannot find the original source).
Parenthetical citation: (Brown, 1829, as cited in Mahone, 2018)
Narrative citation: Brown (1829, as cited in Mahone, 2018) states that…
On the reference page, you only include the secondary source (Mahone, 2018).
Popular word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs can order lists in alphabetical order, but they don’t follow the APA Style alphabetization guidelines.
If you use Scribbr’s APA Citation Generator to create citations, references are ordered automatically based on the APA guidelines, taking into account all the exceptions.
Order numerals as though they were spelled out:
Read more about alphabetizing the APA reference page.