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Academic Affairs for Athletics Research Guide: Research/Writing

This research guide features resources and strategies for finding research information for our athletes.

Background for Reseach

Remember that you can use a Dictionary and Encyclopedia to assist with getting more information about your topic. Please refer to the Encyclopedias and Dictionaries tab for more background resources.

The Research Process

Developing a Research Question

Retrieved 8/26/2018 at https://youtu.be/LWLYCYeCFak.

Avoid Plagiarism

Remember the importance of plagiarism.  If you use someone else's work, cite it.  Review the Plagiarism tutorial for more information. 

  • When using an image for a paper or PowerPoint, always give the photographer/creator credit. This will avoid plagiarism. 
  • For instance, when citing in APA use the below example.

Image citation when you are the author/creator is the following:

Author. (Year it was created). Title of Work (or Type of work).

Example:

Potts, Barbara. (2021). Levi Jeans (own photo)

 

Electronic Image is the following:

Author (Role of Author). (Year image was created). Title of work [Type of work], Retrieved from URL
(address of the website)

Example: 

Kulbis, M. (Photographer). (2006). Men pray [Photograph], Retrieved from
http://accuweather.ap.org/cgi-bin/aplaunch.pl

 

Electronic Image (No Author)

Title of work [Type of work]. (Year image was created). Retrieved from URL (address of the website)

Electronic Image (No Author, No Title, No Date)

[Subject and type of work]. Retrieved from URL (address of the website)

Example: 

[Untitled photograph of a baby chimpanzee]. Retrieved from
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jdtr/struc/chimp3.htm

 

  • The image in the paper should have a caption under it. Review the guidelines of whichever formatting style you are using within your work.

Citation Help

Depending on the course, your professor may require you to use MLA, APA, or Turabian formatting. See the links below for citation assistance. For further help, contact the Undergraduate Writing Center or the Online Writing Center

For all formats, check out Liberty University's Writing Aids.

MLA

APA

Turabian

There are two styles of Chicago/Turabian formatting. Liberty prefers the Notes/Bibliography style, which has you place a footnote at the bottom of each page where a resource is quoted or paraphrased, and then have an alphabetically organized bibliography at the end of your paper. The Notes/Bibliography style is found in chapters 16 and 17 of the Turabian Manual, and is also called Chicago/Turabian: Humanities style by some databases (such as Ebsco) that provide suggested citations. Whenever you use suggested citations from a database, be sure to check that they are properly capitalized, etc.

The other Chicago/Turabian Author/Date style is much more like APA formatting.  Do not use this style for Liberty University papers. Examples for this style are found in chapters 18 and 19 of the Turabian manual. This style uses "in text" parenthetical citations and has a reference list at the end of the paper.

 

Writing Center Information

The Writing Center is available to assist with your writing needs.  You may schedule an appointment with a writing coach to assist with questions you may have.  

  • Formatting assistance in Turabian, AMA, APA, and MLA. 
  • Writing Aids
  • Video Tutorials
  • Web Resources 
  • LUO Academic Support

Highlights in APA 7th Updates at LU

This information contains updates for the new APA 7th Edition (APA-7) formatting style. These are highlights of the changes to APA 7th Edition for undergraduate students. This does not serve as a comprehensive list of all the changes. Please refer to the Academic Success Center Writing Center APA Format Quick Guide for additional guidance. The sections listed are from the APA-7 book for reference and location.

  • As listed in the APA-7, Student Version guidelines will be used for undergraduate students.  Professional Version guidelines will be used for graduate/doctoral students.
  • The third person must be used in most student papers.  Students should refrain from using first person (I, me, we, us, our) and second person (you, yours) in academic papers unless the assignment clearly permits it such as a reflection paper (section 4.16)
  • No running head or abstract is needed in undergraduate papers (section 2.3 and 2.8)
  • If the Bible is used in a paper, the writer must now include the Bible in the reference and its citations must include the editor's details and year (section 8.28).
  • Hyperlinks should be live but they can either be blue or black text if going to be read online (section 9.35). 
  • Annotated Bibliography sample (section 9.51)
  • For the Font, LU recommends that students use 12-point Times New Romans font for the body of all academic papers. 
  • Five heading levels. All levels are now bold and in title case (capitalize each major word, usually those with four or more letters).  Start with level 1 and work down from that. Under Level 1, you would either have two+ Level 2 headings or none at all (just one big section in paragraphs before the next Level 1 section) (section 2.27).

Example of headings:

                                                      Level 1 Heading (centered, bold)

Level 2 Heading (left-justified, bold)

Level 3 Heading (left-justified, italicized, bold)

                   Level 4 Heading (indented 1/2 inch, bold, not used very often)

                   Level 5 Heading (indented 1/2 inch, italicized, bold, not used very often)

All highlights are taken from UG Sample Paper.  Please refer to the Writing Center webpage for the LU edition to APA 7th Edition.  Please review assignments, your professor will advise you on the requirements they prefer for the assignment.