You can’t just sit down and write an essay airing only your own opinion. Any academic assignment (including essays) should be formatted correctly. Otherwise stated, except for structuring, you should format your writing in accordance with a definite writing guide. In this review, we’ll discern about the most popular one – Harvard Style Formatting.
Our mission is to analyze the main characteristic features of this writing guide and help students understand what they should do if their professor asks them to use it.
Harvard Writing Style Format – What Should Students Know about It?
This guide is frequently used at different higher educational establishments. Firstly, Harvard style essay writing guide was just a form of a referencing style. When academicians use it in their papers, in all likelihood, they will be cited by other scholars.
Experts consider this format to be very peculiar and students need to be very attentive while using it. As a result, all your Harvard style essays will be better organized and get better grades. There are certain requirements as for the title page, outline and paragraph formatting.
Peculiarities of Formatting a Cover Page
You know that a cover page is the “face” of your essay or paper. Thus, it should be properly organized:
You should locate the title halfway down the page.
The author’s name should be written after the title.
The name of the class and the professor’s name should be placed four lines down.
Below, you should indicate the school’s name.
Now it is high time to indicate the city and university.
Don’t miss anything while writing. Otherwise, your grade will be decreased.
What about the Main Paragraphs?
Using the Harvard writing style format, you shouldn’t forget that all your body paragraphs should be properly structured.
Analyzing the body part, we need to add that it comprises several paragraphs where you should cover the major ideas (one idea per one paragraph). Writing the first paragraph, you should begin with a short sentence which should warn the reader about the main idea which is going to be discussed here.
You should finish one idea and gradually proceed to another one. All ideas should be linked between each other. As for the introductory part, it should be catching and interesting for the readers. The best thing you can do is to embark on writing with a lively quotation, funny story, shocking statistical data, etc. Besides, you shouldn’t also forget about your thesis statement which is the main part of your introduction.
If there are any subheadings or subtopics, you should make them italicized.
You should try to be concise and laconic. Your essay is not just a list of your thoughts or ideas. This task is a small research which makes you process the literature and cover all aspects correctly.
Harvard Format APA Style Which You Should Follow
Some academicians really can’t understand the rules of bibliographic references Harvard format APA style. In some instances, they spend more time citing the resources than writing the whole essay or paper. This task is time-sapping because there are specific requirements as for the citation rules.
Writing a bibliography can be easier if you are aware of the rules. A bibliography is a short list of all sources a student used while writing an essay. Today, students use not only books but journals, magazines and online resources as well.
You should present a bibliography list at the end of your essay.
All references should be listed alphabetically. If you use two or three books written by the same author, you start with the one you used earlier.
If you can’t find the information about the author or the date of publication, the rest of the information should be recorded.
The style also varies and depends on the type of a resource (whether it is a book, magazine, online article, etc.).
If you use books, your bibliography will look like this:
Author’s name, Date of Publication, Name of the book, Information about a Publisher.
In some instances, academicians also use the in-text references. They do this with the aim to avoid the accusation of plagiarism. Besides, if you don’t cite them correctly, it can influence your general grade. All these references can be presented differently:
Appear in brackets
As a footnote
As an endnote
You just need to add them in the text of your article, essay or paper.
Learning the citation rules, you’ll avoid all difficulties related to essay writing. Furthermore, you’ll avoid poor grades because you may get them because of your inadvertence. Firstly, your professor checks the way how you format the list of references and the general essay or paper structure. After that, they start reading your research. Thus, to get out of the rain, you should be attentive and learn the rules of Harvard format APA style!