Introduction
Research is a way to study a particular problem in detail. It is an organised way to investigate a specific topic. At a higher level of education, every student should do research in their defined field. At the bachelor’s level, you have to work in the form of a group. As this is your first time, there are great chances that you would not be able to perform well individually. All institutes prefer group projects for research work. The number of group members can vary as per the institute’s requirements. Even in the same institute, different departments go for different policies. The most important thing related to research is the use of material. Until now, you may have made assignments with the help of non-academic material. In research, you have to make sure that all of the material is of academic nature. Non-academic material is primarily informal and does not have a compulsion to use evidence. In contrast, educational materials include authentic evidence and formal structure. As per its importance, this article aims to discuss different aspects of academic materials in research.
1. Define Academic Material
Academic materials are the formal writings by professionals. At the time of research, you have to collect all the information relevant to your topic of discussion. This information needs to be academic. You can find bundles of data on the internet that can address your research problem. The main issue is to sort out accurate and precise data. For research, data availability does not matter much, but its validity matters a lot.
2. What is the Importance of Academic Material in Research?
The use of academic materials is a fundamental demand of research. You have to use these materials to provide support to your claim. In simple words, these materials work as a reference to your ideas. The facts and figures from reliable sources are also necessary. The technology is not evolving based on assumptions. It is highly dependent on research. All of the innovations face practical implementations after proper research on that topic. You can complete your research without using academic materials. In other words, you can say that you would not get approval from a senior researcher. The experts providing research paper writing help will always ask you to develop authentic details and support.
3. What are the qualities of academic material?
When collecting academic material relevant to your research topic, you have to focus on its quality. Let’s briefly discuss the qualities of academic material that are best to use in research.
-
Credibility
In research work, the quality of the material is measured through its credibility. The credibility of data saves you from unpleasant end results.
First of all, read the material and get its core concept. Go for the details of the writer. The record and reputation of that writer work well to identify if his material is credible or not. Although it requires some time to evaluate things, it can save you from huge blunders.
At the start of the research, you have to design a lot for such tasks. It does not require random time and techniques. You need to be very clear about your schedule to easily cite the academic materials used in your research.
-
Up-to-Date
All academic materials must be up-to-date. No one would like to read old techniques and discoveries. The audience and scholars are always interested in innovations. You can bring innovation with the help of up-to-date data. The latest material provides you awareness about what has already happened and what the current or future demand of the audience for a particular problem is.
-
Websites for Academic Material
Another way to ensure the quality of the material is by using scholarly websites. For research work, you cannot use Wikipedia and other incredible sources. So, you have to go for Google Scholar, journals and Statista.
4. How do you List Academic Material in Research?
There are two main formatting styles to list academic materials used in research. These two formatting styles include APA style and MLA style. These styles are described below:
- In MLA formatting, the paper size is as per the standards of the US. The standard size is 8.5 x 11″. Also, the page margin needs to be equal from all sides. It is 1″ from the top, bottom, right, and left sides. Furthermore, you need to consider the font size and spacing of the text. In the case of font size, it should be 12 with Times New Roman style. In the end, the spacing text should be double spaced. This text covers the whole document, including captions and references. Alignment is on the left side, and the page number is on the upper top section.
- The second way to list down academic materials is APA style. As per APA style guidelines, you do not get any hard and fast rules for paper size. On the other hand, the page margin is the same as MLA styles. It remains 1″ from all four sides of a page. In the case of font, the size is 12, but you can go for Times New Roman and Ariel. Do for double-spaced text with left flush alignment. Furthermore, the page number is in the upper right section, including the running head.
Final Thoughts
You may think that collecting academic materials is a difficult task, but it is not in reality. You just have to clear the niche of material type, and you find it easily. It includes books, journals and academic documents. Furthermore, you can take research articles as academic material. The credibility of the author matters a lot in all such writings. At an organisational level, much data is available to address real-life problems. You can use that data in your research. The reports made on such data also work as academic material. Ask your advisor about listing style and ensure the proper formatting.
