What's the standard format for a research paper?

Antonio

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Mar 15, 2026
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I'm writing my first real research paper and the formatting rules are driving me crazy. My professor said "use APA" but when I looked it up, there are a million rules. Margins, fonts, headings, citations, references — it never ends.

A guide from SJSU says a research paper typically includes: abstract, introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and references . But that's for scientific papers. My history paper is different.

Do I really need all those sections? What's optional? What's required? I just want to write my paper without getting points off for stupid formatting mistakes. 📋
 
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