Academic Affairs for Athletics Research Guide: Writing

Chat with a research consultant by clicking on the link or using the red "Ask Us" box on the right side of the screen.

Email your question to research@liberty.edu.

Schedule a research appointment for the time that best fits your schedule.

Call (434) 582-2220.

Explore our FAQs for additional help.

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

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

• MLA Formatting - Quick Guide from the Liberty University Writing Center 

APA

• APA Formatting - Quick Guide from the Liberty University Writing Center
• APA Style from the American Psychological Association - This site is from the American Psychological Association and includes tutorials for learning the basics of APA style. A helpful feature of the tutorials are samples of the various sections of an APA formatted paper. For infrequently asked questions (such as citing things like the Federal Register, etc.) you can search this site by keywords.

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.

• Turabian Formatting - Quick Guide from the Liberty University Writing Center
• Turabian Quick Guide

Using sources appropriately when writing in an academic setting, such as for a class assignment, is necessary in order to communicate clearly and avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism can take numerous forms. It is important to develop a set of tools so you can avoid making common mistakes that can diminish the effect of your writing and potentially your grade.

Properly citing sources is important to the process of research as it clearly shows how you arrived at your conclusions. Properly using sources is very similar to showing your work when doing math problems. It allows the reader to see the steps and trace the development of thinking and argumentation made in your paper.