research writing headings

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13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

• Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

• AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
• APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
• Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
• MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
• Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

• Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
• Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
• Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

• Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
• In-text citations of research sources
• References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

• Title of the paper
• Author’s name
• Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
• Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

• Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
• Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
• Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
• Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
• Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

• Your title page
• The abstract you created in Note 13.8 “Exercise 1”
• Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

• Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
• Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
• The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
• The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
• The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

• MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
• Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
• Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

• The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
• The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
• The full title of the source
• For books, the city of publication
• For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
• For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
• For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

• Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
• Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
• APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
• APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
• In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
• In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

• Comprehensive Guide to Headings and Subheadings in APA 7.0

Section 1: Introduction to Headings and Subheadings in APA 7.0-

In academic writing, the use of headings and subheadings is crucial for organizing and structuring a paper. APA (American Psychological Association) style, specifically in its 7th edition, provides clear guidelines on how to effectively use headings and subheadings to enhance readability and comprehensibility of research papers, essays, and other scholarly works. This section will provide a comprehensive introduction to the importance, purpose, and benefits of using headings and subheadings in APA 7.0 format.

Purpose of Headings and Subheadings

Headings and subheadings serve as visual cues to help readers navigate through the content of a paper. They create a hierarchical structure, indicating the relationships between different sections and subsections, and aid in organizing ideas and presenting information in a logical manner. By using headings and subheadings, writers can effectively divide their work into manageable and coherent sections, making it easier for readers to comprehend and follow the main arguments and supporting details.

Importance of Headings and Subheadings

Clear and well-structured headings and subheadings are essential in academic writing for several reasons. First and foremost, they enhance the overall readability of the paper by breaking down the text into smaller, digestible chunks. This organization allows readers to quickly identify and locate specific information, especially when they are scanning or skimming through the document.

Secondly, headings and subheadings contribute to the coherence and flow of the paper. By providing a clear roadmap, they guide the reader through the main ideas, supporting evidence, and key points presented in each section. This not only improves the overall structure of the paper but also helps maintain the logical progression of thoughts and arguments.

Additionally, headings and subheadings assist both readers and writers in comprehending complex topics. They enable writers to organize their thoughts, ensuring that each section focuses on a specific aspect or theme. This organization facilitates a deeper understanding of the subject matter for both the writer during the drafting process and the reader during the consumption of the paper.

Formatting Guidelines for Headings and Subheadings

APA 7.0 provides specific rules and formatting guidelines for using headings and subheadings. These guidelines include the use of different levels of headings, capitalization rules, and placement within the paper. Understanding and adhering to these guidelines is crucial for maintaining consistency and conformity with APA style.

The APA 7.0 formatting guidelines for headings and subheadings are based on a five-level hierarchy, with each level indicating the level of importance and hierarchy of information. Level 1 headings are the highest level, followed by Level 2, Level 3, and so on. Each level has a specific formatting style, such as font size, boldness, and indentation, to differentiate it from the other levels. Furthermore, APA 7.0 also provides guidance on the appropriate use of sentence case, title case, and capitalization in headings and subheadings. For instance, Level 1 headings are typically written in sentence case and are centered and bolded. Level 2 headings are aligned to the left margin, bolded, and written in title case. To maintain clarity and consistency, APA 7.0 also provides recommendations on the number of headings to use within a paper. It suggests that at least two headings should be used in any given section, as a single heading alone may not adequately represent the content covered.

Section 2: The Purpose and Importance of Headings and Subheadings in APA 7.0

Facilitating information retrieval.

One of the primary purposes of headings and subheadings in APA 7.0 is to facilitate information retrieval for readers. When faced with a lengthy document, readers often engage in scanning or skimming techniques to locate specific information or sections of interest. Well-structured headings and subheadings act as signposts, allowing readers to quickly identify the content they are seeking without having to read the entire text. By providing a clear and organized hierarchy, headings guide readers to the main sections of a paper, while subheadings further break down the content into more specific subsections. This hierarchical structure enables readers to navigate the document with ease, locating relevant information efficiently. Thus, headings and subheadings in APA 7.0 contribute significantly to the overall accessibility and user-friendliness of academic papers.

Enhancing Readability and Comprehensibility

Headings and subheadings play a vital role in enhancing the readability and comprehensibility of academic writing. They help break up large blocks of text into smaller, digestible sections, preventing the overwhelming feeling that dense paragraphs can create. By visually separating different sections and subsections, headings and subheadings allow readers to mentally prepare for the content they are about to encounter. Additionally, headings and subheadings improve the flow and coherence of a paper. They provide a roadmap for readers, helping them understand the organization and structure of the author's arguments and supporting evidence. Well-crafted headings and subheadings enable readers to follow the logical progression of ideas and maintain a clear understanding of the paper's main points. Finally, headings and subheadings aid in the comprehension of complex topics. By breaking down the content into smaller, focused sections, readers can grasp the material more easily. Headings act as cognitive cues, preparing readers for the information presented in each section. This approach not only facilitates understanding but also allows readers to engage with the content at a deeper level, promoting knowledge retention.

Organizing and Structuring Ideas

Headings and subheadings in APA 7.0 serve as valuable tools for organizing and structuring ideas within a paper. They help writers divide their work into meaningful sections, each addressing a specific aspect or theme related to the overall topic. This organization ensures that information is presented in a coherent and logical manner, making it easier for both the writer and the reader to navigate the paper.

By using headings and subheadings, writers can create a clear outline for their work, ensuring that each section has a distinct focus. This outline acts as a framework, guiding the writer in presenting their arguments and supporting evidence in a systematic and organized way. Writers can use headings to delineate major sections or main ideas, while subheadings allow for further subcategorization and exploration of subtopics.

Furthermore, headings and subheadings assist writers in structuring their thoughts during the writing process. By providing a visual representation of the paper's organization, headings help writers maintain a coherent flow of ideas and prevent the inclusion of irrelevant or tangential information. This structured approach not only improves the overall quality of the paper but also enhances the writer's ability to communicate their ideas effectively.

Conveying the Hierarchical Relationship of Information

Another important purpose of headings and subheadings in APA 7.0 is to convey the hierarchical relationship of information. By assigning different levels to headings, the writer can indicate the relative importance and order of ideas within the paper. Higher-level headings represent broader themes or major sections, while lower-level headings address more specific subtopics or subsections. This hierarchical structure helps readers understand the organization and logical flow of the paper at a glance. It allows them to grasp the overall structure and the relationships between different sections without having to read the entire document. Additionally, the use of indentation and formatting styles for each level of heading further reinforces the hierarchical relationship and aids in visual differentiation.

Section 3: Formatting Guidelines for Headings and Subheadings in APA 7.0

Proper formatting of headings and subheadings is crucial in APA 7.0 style to ensure consistency, clarity, and readability in academic writing. This section will delve into the specific formatting guidelines provided by APA 7.0 for headings and subheadings, including the use of different levels, capitalization rules, and placement within the paper.

Levels of Headings

APA 7.0 introduces a five-level hierarchy for headings, each denoting a different level of importance and significance within the paper. These levels provide a structured framework for organizing the content and help readers understand the organization and flow of ideas. Here are the five headings in APA 7.0:

Level 1: Centered, Bold and Title Case

            Text begins here.

Level 2: Left-Aligned, Bold and Title Case

Level 3: Left-Aligned, Bold, Italics, and Title Case

Level 4: Left-Aligned, Bold, Title Case, and Period. Text begins here.

Level 5: Left-Aligned, Bold, Title Case, Italics, and Period . Text begins here.

Section 4: Organizing and Structuring Your Paper

Using headings and subheadings in apa 7.0.

Organizing and structuring your paper effectively is crucial for presenting your ideas in a logical and coherent manner. Headings and subheadings in APA 7.0 play a vital role in achieving this goal by providing a clear framework for organizing your content. This section will delve into strategies and best practices for utilizing headings and subheadings to organize and structure your paper in accordance with APA 7.0 guidelines.

Preparing an Outline

Before you begin writing your paper, it is helpful to create an outline that outlines the main sections and subsections you intend to cover. An outline acts as a roadmap, allowing you to visualize the overall structure and flow of your paper. It serves as a foundation for developing meaningful headings and subheadings that accurately represent the content and facilitate logical organization. Start by identifying the major sections that your paper will include, such as introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. These major sections will serve as Level 1 headings in APA 7.0. Next, break down each major section into subsections that address specific subtopics or aspects related to the main theme. These subsections will be represented by Level 2 headings. Depending on the complexity and depth of your paper, you may further divide the subsections into sub-subsections using Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 headings. Creating a comprehensive outline not only helps you organize your thoughts but also ensures that you cover all the necessary components of your paper. It allows you to see the relationships between different sections and subsections, enabling you to present your arguments and evidence in a logical and coherent sequence.

Maintaining Consistency and Parallelism

Consistency is key when it comes to organizing and structuring your paper using headings and subheadings. It is important to establish a consistent framework that is followed throughout the entire document. Consistency ensures that readers can easily understand the hierarchy and relationships between different sections and subsections. When creating headings and subheadings, aim for parallelism in terms of grammatical structure and formatting. Parallelism means that headings at the same level should have a similar grammatical structure and formatting style. For instance, if you choose to use noun phrases for Level 2 headings, maintain this pattern consistently across all Level 2 headings in your paper. This helps readers navigate through the content smoothly and maintain a sense of coherence. Furthermore, parallelism extends to the use of punctuation and capitalization within headings and subheadings. Maintain consistent capitalization rules, such as sentence case for Level 1 headings and title case for Level 2 headings. This uniformity enhances the visual hierarchy and clarity of your paper.

Balancing Depth and Granularity

Effective organization and structuring involve finding the right balance between depth and granularity in your headings and subheadings. Level 1 headings represent major sections and should encapsulate broad themes or concepts, providing an overview of what will be discussed within each section. Level 2 headings, as subsections, delve into more specific topics or aspects related to the main theme of the major section.

Reviewing and Revising the Organization

Organizing and structuring your paper using headings and subheadings is not a one-time task. It is an iterative process that requires regular review and revision to ensure optimal clarity and coherence. Once you have completed the initial draft of your paper, review the organization of your headings and subheadings. Ask yourself if the structure effectively reflects the flow of your ideas and supports your main argument. Consider whether the headings accurately represent the content of each section and subsection. During the review process, pay attention to transitions between sections and subsections. Ensure that the headings and subheadings create a smooth transition from one topic to another, guiding readers through the logical progression of your paper. If you notice any gaps or inconsistencies, revise and refine the organization accordingly. Additionally, seek feedback from peers, mentors, or instructors. Their fresh perspective can provide valuable insights into the clarity and effectiveness of your headings and subheadings. Incorporate their feedback and make necessary adjustments to improve the overall organization and structure of your paper.

Section 5: Common Mistakes to Avoid in Using Headings and Subheadings in APA 7.0

While using headings and subheadings in APA 7.0 can greatly improve the organization and readability of your paper, it's important to be aware of common mistakes that can compromise the effectiveness of your headings. By understanding and avoiding these mistakes, you can ensure that your headings enhance the clarity and coherence of your academic writing. This section will explore some common mistakes to avoid when using headings and subheadings in APA 7.0.

Inconsistent Formatting

One of the most common mistakes is inconsistent formatting of headings and subheadings. In APA 7.0, it is crucial to maintain consistency in capitalization, alignment, and formatting styles across headings at the same level. Inconsistencies can confuse readers and disrupt the visual hierarchy of your paper. Ensure that all Level 1 headings have the same formatting, all Level 2 headings have the same formatting, and so on. Consistency in formatting contributes to the overall professionalism and readability of your work.

Poor Alignment and Spacing

Another mistake to avoid is incorrect alignment and spacing of headings and subheadings. In APA 7.0, Level 1 headings are centered and typically start on a new page or a new line with an extra line space before and after the heading. Level 2 headings and lower-level headings, however, are left-aligned and generally require an extra line space before the heading but not after. Failure to align and space headings correctly can create confusion and disrupt the logical flow of your paper. Review APA 7.0 guidelines carefully to ensure proper alignment and spacing of your headings.

Lack of Parallelism

Parallelism, or consistent grammatical structure, is crucial when using headings and subheadings. Headings at the same level should follow a similar structure to maintain coherence and readability. For example, if you use noun phrases for Level 2 headings, ensure that all Level 2 headings follow this pattern. Lack of parallelism can make your headings appear disjointed and may confuse readers. Consistently apply parallel structure within each level of headings to create a smooth and organized flow of information.

Overcomplicating the Heading Structure

While it is important to provide a clear and hierarchical structure to your paper, overcomplicating the heading structure can lead to confusion and excessive fragmentation. Strive to find a balance between providing enough detail to cover your content effectively and avoiding an excessive number of headings and subheadings. Each heading should represent a meaningful subdivision and contribute to the overall organization and coherence of your paper. Aim for a clear and concise heading structure that guides readers without overwhelming them with excessive levels or overly specific subdivisions.

Lack of Descriptiveness

Headings and subheadings should be descriptive and informative to accurately represent the content covered within each section. Avoid using generic or ambiguous headings that do not provide a clear indication of what readers can expect to find. Vague headings can leave readers uncertain about the content or make it challenging to locate specific information within your paper. Ensure that your headings succinctly capture the main ideas or themes of each section, guiding readers through your content effectively.

Ignoring the Reader's Perspective

When creating headings and subheadings, it's important to consider the perspective of your readers. Put yourself in their shoes and think about how your headings will facilitate their understanding and navigation through your paper. Consider whether your headings effectively communicate the main points, guide readers through the logical flow of your arguments, and enable them to locate specific information easily. Ignoring the reader's perspective can result in headings that are unclear, unhelpful, or inconsistent, hindering the overall readability and comprehension of your work.

Neglecting to Revise and Edit Headings

Headings should not be an afterthought or treated as static elements in your paper. Neglecting to revise and edit your headings can lead to inaccuracies, lack of clarity, or poor alignment with the final content of your paper. As you progress through the writing process, continuously review and refine your headings to ensure they accurately represent the content and flow of your arguments. Make necessary adjustments, reword headings for better clarity, and ensure that they align with the finalized structure and organization of your paper.

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APA 7th Edition Style Guide: Headings in APA

• About In-text Citations
• In-Text Examples
• What to Include
• Volume/Issue
• Bracketed Descriptions
• URLs and DOIs
• Book with Editor(s)
• Book with No Author
• Book with Organization as Author
• Book with Personal Author(s)
• Chapters and Parts of Books
• Classical Works
• Course Materials
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Multi-Volume Works
• Newspaper Article
• Patents & Laws
• Personal Communication
• Physicians' Desk Reference
• Social Media
• Unpublished Manuscripts/Informal Publications (i.e. course packets and dissertations)
• Formatting Your Paper
• Formatting Your References
• Annotated Bibliography
• Headings in APA
• APA Quick Guide
• NEW!* Submit your Paper for APA Review

What are headings?

Headings, sections, subsections, or levels of subordination are a style of dividing your research paper into major parts, then minor subsections. Most college papers do not need headings, especially if you are only producing two to five pages. However, if your professor requests you use headings or your are writing an especially long or detailed paper, then use headings to help readers navigate your text. Follow the APA style rules for creating the correct level of heading. Always start with a level one heading and drill down to the last subsection possible (five) in order as seen below. Instructions and examples for headings are available on p. 47- 49 of the new APA 7th Edition manual.

Levels of Headings

Additional headings resources.

• APA Style: Headings This page of the APA Style Blog provides more details about styling paper section headings in APA style.
• Heading Levels Template: Student Paper APA Style 7th Edition This example student paper clearly illustrates how to style section headings including the paper title and the Introduction section (which should not be labeled Introduction as APA assumes all papers begin with an introduction section).

Proper Title Case vs. lowercase paragraph heading

Proper title case is using both uppercase and lowercase letters in a title. It calls for the major words to be capitalized while any small conjunctions are made smaller, i.e., 

The Title of this Paper is Lengthy

Lowercase paragraph heading calls for the first word to be capitalized along with any proper nouns contained within the heading, i.e., 

        The title of this heading is much shorter and all lowercase except for the first word.

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Note: The APA Publication Manual, 7 th Edition specifies different formatting conventions for student  and  professional  papers (i.e., papers written for credit in a course and papers intended for scholarly publication). These differences mostly extend to the title page and running head. Crucially, citation practices do not differ between the two styles of paper.

However, for your convenience, we have provided two versions of our APA 7 sample paper below: one in  student style and one in  professional  style.

Note: For accessibility purposes, we have used "Track Changes" to make comments along the margins of these samples. Those authored by [AF] denote explanations of formatting and [AWC] denote directions for writing and citing in APA 7. 

APA 7 Student Paper:

Apa 7 professional paper:.

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Formatting Research Paper Headings and Subheadings

Different style guides have different rules regarding the formatting of headings and subheadings in a paper, but what information you should actually put into your subheadings is a different question and often up to personal taste. Here we quickly summarize general guidelines, different approaches, and what not to do when choosing headings for a research paper.

Does it matter how I name my sections and subsections?

The main sections of a research paper have general headers and are often journal-specific, but some (e.g., the methods and discussion section) can really benefit from subsections with clear and informative headers. The things to keep in mind are thus the general style your paper is supposed to follow (e.g., APA, MLA), the specific guidelines the journal you want to submit to lists in their author instructions , and your personal style (e.g., how much information you want the reader to get from just reading your subsection headers). 

Table of Contents:

• Style Guides: Rules on Headings and Subheadings
• What Sections and Subsections Do You Need? 
• How Should You Name Your Sections and Subsections?
• Avoid These Common Mistakes

Style Guides: Research Paper Heading and Subheading Format

Headers identify the content within the different sections of your paper and should be as descriptive and concise as possible. That is why the main sections of research articles always have the same or very similar headers ( Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion ), with no or only small differences between journals. However, you also need to divide the content of some of these sections (e.g., the method section) into smaller subsections (e.g., Participants, Experimental Design, and Statistical Analysis ), and make sure you follow specific journal formatting styles when doing so. 

If the journal you submit to follows APA style , for example, you are allowed to use up to five levels of headings, depending on the length of your paper, the complexity of your work, and your personal preference. To clearly indicate how each subsection fits into the rest of the text, every header level has a different format – but note that headers are usually not numbered because the different formatting already reflects the text hierarchy.

APA style headings example structure

Level 1 Centered, Bold, Title Case

Text begins as a new paragraph.

Level 2 Left-aligned, Bold, Title Case

Level 3 Left-aligned, Bold Italic, Title Case

Level 4     Indented, Bold, Title Case, Period . Text begins on the same                    

                                 line and continues as a regular paragraph.

Level 5     Indented, Bold Italic, Title Case, Period. Text begins on the                           

                                 same line and continues as a regular paragraph.

If you only need one section header (e.g. Methods ) and one level of subsection headers (e.g., Participants, Experimental Design, and Statistical Analysis ), use Level 1 and Level 2 headers. If you need three levels of headings, use Levels 1, 2, and 3 (and so on). Do not skip levels or combine them in a different way. 

If you write a paper in Chicago style or MLA style , then you don’t need to follow such exact rules for headings and subheadings. Your structure just has to be consistent with the general formatting guidelines of both styles (12-pts Times New Roman font, double-spaced text, 0.5-inch indentation for every new paragraph) and consistent throughout your paper. Make sure the different formatting levels indicate a hierarchy (e.g., boldface for level 1 and italics for level 2, or a larger font size for level 1 and smaller font size for level 2). The main specifics regarding Chicago and MLA headings and subheadings are that they should be written in title case (major words capitalized, most minor words lowercase) and not end in a period. Both styles allow you, however, to number your sections and subsections, for example with an Arabic number and a period, followed by a space and then the section name. 

MLA paper headings example structure

1. Introduction

2. Material and Methods

2.1 Subject Recruitment

2.2 Experimental Procedure

2.3 Statistical Analysis

3.1 Experiment 1

3.2 Experiment 2

4. Discussion

5. Conclusion

What research paper headings do you need?

Your paper obviously needs to contain the main sections ( Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and maybe Conclusion ) and you need to make sure that you name them according to the target journal style (have a look at the author guidelines if you are unsure what the journal style is). The differences between journals are subtle, but some want you to combine the results and discussion sections, for example, while others don’t want you to have a separate conclusion section. You also need to check whether the target journal has specific rules on subsections (or no subsections) within these main sections. The introduction section should usually not be subdivided (but some journals do not mind), while the method section, for example, always needs to have clear subsections.

How to Name Your Sections and Subsections

The method section subheadings should be short and descriptive, but how you subdivide this section depends on the structure you choose to present your work – which can be chronological (e.g., Experiment 1, Experiment 2 ) or follow your main topics (e.g., Visual Experiment, Behavioral Experiment, Questionnaire ). Have a look at this article on how to write the methods for a research paper if you need input on what the best structure for your work is. The method subheadings should only be keywords that tell the reader what information is following, not summaries or conclusions. That means that “ Subject Recruitment ” is a good methods section subheading, but “ Subjects Were Screened Using Questionnaires ” is not.  

The subheadings for the result section should then follow the general structure of your method section, but here you can choose what information you want to put in every subheading. Some authors keep it simple and just subdivide their result section into experiments or measures like the method section, but others use the headings to summarize their findings so that the reader is prepared for the details that follow. You could, for example, simply name your subsections “ Anxiety Levels ” and “ Social Behavior ,” if those are the measures you studied and explained in the method section. 

Or, you could provide the reader with a glimpse into the results of the analyses you are going to describe, and instead name these subsections “ Anxiety-Like Behaviors in Mutant Mice ” and “ Normal Social Behaviors in Mutant Mice .” While keeping headings short and simple is always a good idea, such mini-summaries can make your result section much clearer and easier to follow. Just make sure that the target journal you want to submit to does not have a rule against that. 

Common Heading and Subheading Mistakes 

Subheadings are not sentences.

If your heading reads like a full sentence, then you can most probably omit the verb or generally rephrase to shorten it. That also means a heading should not contain punctuation except maybe colons or question marks – definitely don’t put a period at the end, except when you have reached heading level 4 in the APA formatting style (see above) and the rules say so.  

Be consistent

Always check your numbering, for example for spaces and periods before and after numbers (e.g., 3.2. vs 3.2 ), because readability depends on such features. But also make sure that your headings are consistent in structure and content: Switching between short keyword headings (e.g., “ Experiment 2 ”) and summary headings (e.g., “ Mice Do not Recognize People ”) is confusing and never a good idea. Ideally, subheadings within a section all have a similar structure. If your first subsection is called “ Mice Do not Recognize People ,” then “ People Do not Recognize Mice” is a better subheader for the next subsection than “Do People Recognize Mice? ”, because consistency is more important in a research paper than creativity. 

Don’t overdo it

Not every paragraph or every argument needs a subheading. Only use subheadings within a bigger section if you have more than one point to make per heading level, and if subdividing the section really makes the structure clearer overall.

Before submitting your journal manuscript to academic publishers, be sure to get English editing services , including manuscript editing or paper editing from a trusted source. And receive instant proofreading with Wordvice AI, our AI online text editor , which provides unlimited editing while drafting your research work.

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The Liberty University Writing Center is available to provide writing coaching to students. Residential students should contact the  On-Campus Writing Center  for assistance. Online students should contact the  Online Writing Center  for assistance. 

The Jerry Falwell Library has a physical and eBook edition of the AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors .  The AMA Manual contains exhaustive guidance for students needing more detailed information about ethical and legal considerations, correct and preferred usage, abbreviations, nomenclature, units of measure, numbers and percentages, study design and statistics, and mathematical composition,

If you need assistance in developing your qualitative or quantitative methodology, the SAGE Research Methods database provides resources for researchers conducting research in the social sciences. 

General Rules

Liberty University Students will either write AMA 11 style papers using the Non-structured Abstract format, or using the Practicum Class or Other Papers Requiring Structured Abstract format. To assist you in formatting, Liberty University's Writing Center provides a template and a sample paper for each formatting style. 

Papers with Non-Structured Abstract 

• Sample AMA 11 paper 
• Template AMA 11 paper  

Papers Using Structured Abstract 

• Template AMA 11 paper 

Additionally, the Writing Center also has a sample AMA 11 style annotated bibliography .

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you format your paper : 

• Title Page : The title page should include the report's title, student's name, and student ID number, date, and word count. A sample title page is found on the Liberty University's Writing Center's sample papers . 
• Margins/Alignment : Your papers should use 1-inch margins on standard-sized paper (8.5' X 11'). Make sure that you use Align left (CTRL + L) throughout the paper, except for the title page.  
• Spacing : The AMA does not have a standard for line spacing. Double-spaced lines are recommended throughout the body of your work, excluding block quotations. Block quotations are single-spaced, left-justified, with the entire left margin indented 1/2 inch. 
• Indentation : The first sentence in each new paragraph in the body of the paper should be indented 1/2 inch. AMA style references are listed in numerical order and do not receive any indentation. 
• Fonts : The AMA does not have a standard font or font size. Liberty University recommends that you write your papers in 12-point Times New Roman font for the body, and for all elements other than the title of the paper and headings. 
• Headings : The AMA Manual outlines four different heading levels. The title of your report and Level 1 headings must be in bold Arial 14-point font. Level 2 headings are in bold Arial 12-point font. Level 3 headings are in bold Arial 12-point font and underlined. Level 4 headings are in bold Arial 12-point font and italicized. 
• Tables and Figures:  In AMA-style papers, tables and figures are included in the body of the report. Section 4.0 of the AMA Manual of Style outlines how to format tables, figures, and multimedia. Tables and figures are numbered consecutively: Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. 
• Formatting Your References : Section 3.0 of the AMA Manual of Style outlines how to cite sources in text and how to format the references list found at the end of the work. The AMA style uses an endnote citation system, with references being provided in order of first use. 
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Organizing Your Research Paper with Headings

Organizing a research paper is an important skill for both students and professionals alike. By establishing clear headings, readers can quickly identify the purpose of each section and make connections between topics more easily. In this article, we will discuss how to effectively organize your research paper with informative headings that are easy to follow and convey key information about the content within.

I. Introduction to Headings for Research Papers

Ii. benefits of using headings in research papers, iii. types of section heading formats, iv. guidelines for writing structured and descriptive headings, v. developing consistent numbering systems for subheadings, vi. best practices on how to organize your paper with different levels of heading hierarchy.

• VII. Conclusion: Utilizing an Effective Organization Structure When Crafting a Research Paper

Headings are an important element in writing a research paper as they provide structure and organizational hierarchy. They allow readers to quickly identify the main points of a document and understand what it is about. Headings should be used consistently throughout the paper, from introduction to conclusion.

• Level 1 Heading: This heading typically serves as the title for your entire research paper.
• Level 2 Headings: These headings divide up each section of your research paper into subsections. Level two headings can be further divided by level three or four headings if necessary.

“Organizing” content under distinct headings helps to create clarity, establish relationships between ideas, highlight themes, break down large chunks of information into smaller parts that make it easier to process and evaluate; In this way many aspects of written communication such as coherence, conciseness (i.e., succinctness), logical flow/sequence can be improved significantly with proper use of well-designed subhead within a broader topic area.

Structured Layout for Clear Writing Organizing your research paper into headings is an effective way to structure the content in a clear and concise manner. It allows readers to quickly identify what information can be found in each section, making it easier to follow along. Additionally, by using heading styles appropriately (i.e., Heading 1, Heading 2 etc.) you enable search engines like Google Scholar or academic library databases to more easily index your work which increases its discoverability online.

For example, if you are writing a literature review that compares multiple studies on the same topic then providing separate subheadings for each study will help make it simpler for readers – and computers –to locate relevant information at-a-glance instead of having them scroll through long blocks of text looking for answers they need fast! This also helps authors avoid unintentional omissions when covering various topics within their research paper with headings such as ‘Findings’, ‘Implications’ or ‘Limitations’ being included as needed throughout the document’s body content.

In the third section of our exploration into types of heading formats, we turn to research papers. When writing a research paper, it is imperative that one presents their work in an organized and structured manner for clear comprehension by readers. To do this effectively, headings are employed throughout the text to allow for easier navigation and demarcation between different areas of discussion.

The most common approach used with these types of documents is known as APA style , where five levels can be distinguished using various font sizes and formatting techniques such as italicized or bolded words: level 1 (most significant), then 2-5 (in decreasing order). For example; a Level 1 header might read “ Introduction” , while its corresponding subsections could have titles like ‘Background’, ‘Literature Review’ etc at Level 3. Moreover, within those sections you may choose to add bullet points (

) which help further divide topics when discussing them briefly – something often seen in conclusion sections.

As mentioned previously there are other less widely adopted methods for indicating structure through headers; two examples being MLA style which has fewer distinctions among subheadings than APA does – just three instead of five–and Oxford style where all divisions start from left-aligned rather than centered alignments.

No matter what particular format you opt for though, having some form of organization via distinctive headings will always be necessary if you want your reader to gain maximum understanding out of your document!

An effective heading structure should be descriptive and organized, giving readers a comprehensive overview of your paper. Many types of documents, from research papers to blog posts, benefit from structured headings that make them easier to scan quickly.

For example, when writing a research paper with headings you might include the following: I. Introduction; II. Literature Review; III. Methodology; IV. Results & Analysis . Each heading should concisely explain the topic of its corresponding section in language that’s easy to understand at first glance. Your headings shouldn’t contain more than 10-12 words each – anything longer may become too cumbersome for reader comprehension.

Organizing a research paper in an orderly manner can be difficult. Therefore, creating consistent numbering systems for subheadings is important to help readers understand the material being presented. Developing Numbered Subheading Systems

One way to ensure that all headings and subheadings are numbered consistently is by creating a hierarchical system of labels. Labels should indicate which heading or subsection they refer to, allowing readers easily find related content within the document. Additionally, these labels should include numbers indicating how deep into the hierarchy they go: The main section would be labeled with “1,” while subsections under it will have increasing number values (e.g., 1a). This allows everyone reading your paper to immediately know where one idea ends and another begins in relation to its parent topic(s).

The same system can also be applied when incorporating sources within research papers; each source citation should clearly indicate what type of information it contains as well as which major/subtopic it falls under if necessary (i.e., “2c” for a book referenced from Section 2 subsection c). This makes navigating long documents much easier by enabling readers quickly jump between different topics without having sift through many pages just trying figure out where each piece of evidence fits in contextually.

• This creates greater cohesion among ideas.
• It ensures you don’t miss any key points.

Using Headers Effectively When writing a research paper, it’s important to use headers to indicate different levels of the document’s hierarchy. By doing this, readers are able to quickly identify and refer back to key points in your work. The following best practices will help you utilize headers effectively when organizing your paper:

• Use headings at different levels. When creating a heading hierarchy for your paper, make sure that you’re using headings on various levels throughout the document. For example, if you’re submitting an essay or article for publication purposes, consider using one main header followed by several subheaders beneath it.
• Utilize clear language. Your headers should be descriptive and succinct – avoid complex phrasing or jargon that may confuse readers. Aim for clarity and accuracy so as not to distract from the overall message of your piece.

In addition, create specific titles based on each section’s content rather than generic labels like “Conclusion” or “Introduction” – this adds more context and enables easier navigation while reading through the text.

For instance, let us assume we need 4 sections which include introduction/abstract (Level 1 Heading), background (Level 2 Heading), methods (level 3) & results & discussion(level 3). Then our final output would look something like this:

Introduction

The Power of an Effective Organization

Organizing your research paper effectively is key to a successful outcome. The structure of the paper should be planned before any content is written, as this will create an outline for you to follow when crafting the body and conclusion. An effective organization starts with a clear title page that outlines the topic, research question, and purpose of the project; followed by abstracts, introduction sections where relevant data can be presented in tables or figures if needed; each section heading described as part of a logical flow; subsections containing paragraphs discussing related topics and finally end with concluding remarks addressing all points addressed throughout the paper.

Unnumbered lists can also provide easy-to-follow guidance for readers looking into specific information within your work:

• Introduction – background info on study + current literature on topic.
• Methodology – methodology used (if applicable).
• Results & Discussion –presentation/discussionof results.

Finally, having an ending conclusion can often strengthen your argument further while driving home important findings fromyour efforts thus far. This final paragraph could restate main arguments made previously while introducing future potential research paths associated with thematter at hand — adding some sense closure but leaving roomfor additional exploration moving forward.

The research paper writing process can be daunting, but by breaking it down into smaller parts and organizing with headings, the task is made easier. By understanding the structure of an academic essay, students can begin to better organize their ideas for a more cohesive document. With practice and dedication, any student has the potential to become a master at structuring essays in this format. It is our hope that this article has provided useful guidance on how best to go about using headings when constructing your research paper so that you are able to produce quality work which meets all expectations set out by your professor or instructor.

Parallel Headings in Research Papers

The MLA Handbook offers guidance about styling headings and subheadings in research papers in section 1.5 (4–5). Formatting headings is one thing, but what about writing them? This post offers advice about one aspect of writing headings: parallel structure. Parallel structure means that corresponding components match one another grammatically and share other basic similarities. When headings are parallel, readers can more easily grasp the structure and content of a research project as a whole. This post discusses several ways to achieve parallelism in headings.

First, a quick review of levels of headings. A research project might have no headings other than its title, or it might have one or multiple levels of headings. Because headings help organize and structure a project, longer and more complex projects, such as a thesis, a dissertation, or a book, may benefit from more levels of headings than shorter projects do. In a dissertation, for example, the first level of headings might be the chapter titles. If a chapter has subheadings, they are subordinate to the chapter title, and each subsequent level of headings is subordinate to the level above it. Parallelism in headings can apply across all headings, within a given level of headings, or both.  

Grammatical Parallelism

Text has parallel structure when its corresponding elements are of the same grammatical category. In the following, all headings except the last one consist of noun phrases. Consider revising the heading “Who Wants Dessert?” so that it is parallel with the others.

Agreement in Number

If headings use a mix of singular and plural nouns, see if you can adjust them so that they are all singular or all plural. In the headings below, “Dessert” could become “Desserts.”

If you have a mix of headings with and without subtitles, consider editing them so that all headings at the same level either contain a subtitle or do not. In the following, give “Main Dishes” a subtitle if you decide to retain subtitles in the other headings.

The MLA Handbook advises keeping headings short (4). If you can, make all headings of the same level roughly the same length. That doesn’t mean that all headings have to contain exactly five words. But a review of your headings for length may quickly identify any outliers. If a heading contains things like titles of works or quotations, consider removing them from the heading and mentioning them only in the body text. Because the first heading below is much longer than the others, consider replacing the quotation with a shorter main title or shortening the subtitle.

MLA Handbook . 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

Jesse Billett 11 May 2022 AT 11:05 AM

This is great advice. Many thanks!

One sentence in this article, though, might suggest a topic for another post: "A research project might have no headings other than its title, or it might have one or multiple levels of headings."

Years ago, at a Christmas Day dinner for scholarly misfits who were stranded at the university on the holiday, I was roundly scolded in front of the assembled company for saying "multiple" when I should have said "several," "many," or "more than one."

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Practical Ideas on How to Properly Head a Paper

College provides numerous obstacles for students to overcome in different ways. The changes are very apparent, from the freedom to attend classes at your convenience to handling bulky assignments and study requirements.

The way you handle your research papers is also different from what you may be familiar with in high school. There are basic rules to follow in heading a college paper, and once you get those rules down, understanding how to head a paper becomes easy.

Of course, that is easier said than done. So, in this article, we provide you with simple and practical tips on how to properly head a paper.

What is the header for a paper?

A header is a line of text that appears at the top of a page. It usually consists of the author’s last name, the title, and the page number. Essay headers are often needed for different academic texts.

The page header appears at the top margin of every page of your research paper. It normally consists of the page number for student papers only. For professional papers, it consists of the page number and running head.

Headers for any page must be appropriately formatted. They should also be of similar fonts, sizes, and styles placed in the same position on every page. This is often at the top of the page, on the first line.

Why is research paper heading important?

Headers are crucial because they identify the information within the different sections of your paper. They should be as descriptive and concise as possible, with their main sections permitted to have very similar headers to describe each content accurately.

Secondly, headers make your writing look polished and organized. Moreover, a professor examining several student essays would find it easier to sort if the essay pages get mixed up.

Lastly, when writing a proper heading for paper, you may need to divide the content of some sections into smaller subsections. Doing this gives your research content clarity and makes the whole reading process less demanding. However, it is important to follow specific journal formatting styles.

How to write a header for a paper?

In learning how to write heading for your papers, some guidelines will help you along the way. Some tips for writing a good header for your paper include:

• Consider Paper Style

Often, the MLA style is utilised for most papers, including homework assignments. When using this format on your research paper, don’t skip lines between the initial heading. Your heading on each page should contain your last name and the page number in a right-justified format.

Your heading structure will differ from other paper formats you might use in college, such as American Psychological Association (APA) and Chicago Style.

• Understand Your Margins

After format consideration, your heading will often be placed in the upper left-hand corner of the page. Margin size and spacing differ in formatting styles and understanding your margins will enable you to accurately place your headings for any style.

• Use Standard Fonts

After considering your paper style and understanding your margins, use a 12-point font and a standard font style. The Times New Roman font is often used, but Arial, Modern, Lucina, and Palermo can also be used for headers because they are not script-style fonts.

• Writing Names

It would be best to always place your first and last names on the first line, then double space each line of the heading. All lines in the heading are typically justified at the left margin.

Next, put your professor’s name on the nearest line and use their first and last name preceded by Professor. For example, “Professor Eric Thomas” goes on this line. Afterward, place the name of your course on the next line.

The date usually enters the final line, and your first paragraph begins after double spacing.

In learning how to head papers in college or even in high school, you should take note of the guidelines above. Remember the paper format you’re asked to write in, and you don’t have to type a header for each page of your essay. Writing tools like Microsoft Word make it easy to write a header that appears in the correct format at the top of each page.

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3.2 Headings

Headings are standard features of technical documents that serve several important functions:

• provide organizational overview of the document
• show logical development of ideas
• show hierarchical relationship of ideas (headings, sub-headings)
• enable the reader to scan and read selectively
• increase readability of the document by providing breaks and passive space

Effective headings use concrete, descriptive language to tell the reader what to expect from the content of each section. Avoid “functional” headings when writing technical reports. Functional headings are used in documents that have consistent structures, such as science lab reports , when each section must fulfill a particular function. For example,

• Introduction
• Procedure/Methodology
• Data/Results
• Discussion/Conclusions

Technical reports are usually not so strictly organized or predictable.  Readers will find it much more helpful if headings concretely describe the content of each section rather than the function . Using descriptive headings will also result in an easily usable document; that is, the reader will easily be able to find information.

Note the differences in the two Tables of Contents in Figure 3.2.1 , each generated automatically from headings within their respective documents. Which one gives a clear idea of the content of the report?

General Principles for Designing Headings

When designing the headings in your document, keep in mind these general principles:

• Hierarchical Relationship of Ideas : Use font size, boldness, typography and color to indicate the relative importance of ideas and how they inter-connect. In general, first level headings are larger and bolder than second and subsequent level headings.
• Consistency : If you use headings, every section must have a heading. Make sure your headings at each level are consistent in design (font, size, color, indentation, etc.) Use consistent, parallel phrasing as well. Use the STYLES function in Word to help design and maintain effective and consistent headings throughout your document.
• Readability : Leave passive space above and below headings. Leave slightly more space above the heading than below it. As a general guideline, use two-to-four headings per page in short reports. Avoid overusing headings.
• Specificity : Use descriptive headings that inform the reader of the content of each section. Avoid vague headings, and avoid using too many headings. Headings may be formatted using an alpha or numeric system, if there are many sub-sections. Use the alpha system when writing for business purposes; use the numeric system (with Arabic numerals: 1, 2, 3 . . .) if writing for technical purposes. The Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists (OACETT), for example, requires that technical reports submitted for the certification process include numbered headings (n.d.). Also, see Seneca’s A Guide to Writing Formal Technical Reports (Potter, 2021) for additional guidance.

Review the following video to better understand how to integrate the different heading levels into an APA formatted document.

( Using Headings and Subheadings , 2015)

DO the following:

• Use a sans serif font for your headings.
• Use descriptive (rather than functional) headings.
• Make sure there is slightly more white space above a heading than below it.
• A heading must have a block of text below it. Remember to include a lead-in sentence below the heading when it is followed by a list, a figure, or table.

DON’T do the following:

• Do not “stack” headings. Avoid stacking one heading directly below another. A heading is like a chapter title; it must have at least a sentence of information below it.  Stacked headings can indicate inefficient organization of information.
• Do not overuse headings. Keep in mind that every sentence does not require its own heading, nor does every paragraph.  Overuse of headings indicates an inefficient organization of ideas that needs revision.
• Do not use a heading to introduce a table, figure, or list. You must have text below a heading that introduces and explains the figure or table.
• Avoid creating “lone headings.” Ideally, a heading should have at least one, often several, paragraphs of text below it.  A heading defines a SECTION of the document. In the example below, there are 2 first-level headings, 2 second-level headings, and 2 third-level headings. Having only one heading at a level is like having only one item in a list. Try to avoid it.
• Avoid creating “widows and orphans” by leaving a heading at the bottom of the page with no body text below it. Insert a hard page break before your heading to avoid this.
• Don’t refer to a heading as “this” in the body text below it. Begin your sentence as if the heading were not there. Never start a new section with a pronoun that refers to a previous idea.

The examples below illustrate the use of heading sizes and font types, with numbered headings and without, to show the relationship of ideas within the report. The headings were created using the Styles option in MS Word.

Using the Styles function in Word, as well as the Document Elements , allows you to auto-create a table of contents from the headings in your documents. These will automatically update as you revise your document and add sections, which will save you considerable time in the long run. Similarly, you can also create an automatic Table of Figures if you use the Caption function. Learning how to use these formatting tools will make your report writing much easier, and will allow you combine sections written by different team members easily and effectively. Use the tutorials in MS Word, or search for current online video tutorials showing how to use these tools.

EXERCISE 3.2 Review questions

Answer the following review questions:

• As a guideline, how many headings should you use per page?
• What is an acceptable size range and font style for headings?
• What are “widows and orphans” in the context of document design?
• What are several purposes that headings can have in a document?
• What are “lone headings”? Should you use them?
• What are “stacked headings?”  Should you use them?
• What is the difference between a “functional” heading and a concrete or “descriptive” heading?
• True or False: You should have more white space above a heading than below it.
• True or False: A heading can be used to introduce a figure or a list.

Further practice: 

Review a document you have written, such as a research essay, and see if you can divide it into logical sections introduced by concrete, descriptive headings.

Review the Headings PowerPoint .

APA Assistant. (2015). Using headings and subheadings . Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsMeXUyVaCg&list=RDLVJpVTo7bTnXU&index=5

Last, S. (2019). Technical Writing Essentials . BCcampus. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/

Microsoft. (n.d.). Add a heading . https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-a-heading-3eb8b917-56dc-4a17-891a-a026b2c790f2

Microsoft. (n.d.). Add, format, or delete captions in Word . https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-format-or-delete-captions-in-word-82fa82a4-f0f3-438f-a422-34bb5cef9c81

Potter, R. L. (n.d., 2017, 2021). A guide to writing formal technical reports: Content, style, format. Original document by University of Victoria (n.d.). Engineering work term report guide: A guide to content, style and format requirements for University of Victoria engineering students writing co-op work term reports. (Updated by Suzan Last, October, 2017 and adapted by Robin L. Potter (2021). OER.

The Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists (OACETT). (n.d.). I need to complete a technology report. OACETT. http://www.oacett.org/Membership/Certify/TR#Technology%20Report%20Guidelines

Image descriptions

Figure 3.2.1 image description:

Function-based headings:

• Problem Definition
• Proposed Solution
• Recommendation

Descriptive headings:

• Ski Lift Safety Issues
• Deropement Problems in Tow Lifts
• Proposed Rope Catcher Solution
• Benefits of Implementation
• Resolving the Safety Issues
• References.
• Table 1. Cost breakdown for one tower installation.
• Figure 1. Proposed Retainment Device

[Return to Figure 3.2.1]

Technical Writing Essentials Copyright © 2019 by Suzan Last is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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When writing an academic paper, the structure is consistent. Higher education papers grow off of what we are taught in elementary and secondary school, but there’s a structure to each format that is obviously important or it wouldn’t be a worldwide standard.

Part of the framework of writing an academic paper is to include headings and subheadings to divide the content into easily manageable sections. Headers and subheaders are used in everything from magazine articles and blogs to classroom textbooks. Although these features are integral in breaking up text into chunks that help the reader navigate through the content, the importance of the way they are worded is often overlooked. With so much content going digital today, the wording of a header and subheader can be the difference between having your article caught by a web crawler and read by your audience or completely overlooked altogether. There’s a purpose to refining your subheadings in research writing that you must understand in order to optimize your work.

Why Headings and Subheadings are Necessary

Academic papers are full of a lot of content. As early as primary school, text is necessary to get information out to the learner. But throwing it all out there on a piece of paper in one big chunk is overwhelming to the eye and, therefore, to the brain. White space is crucial to give our brains a resting point, thus the need for one-inch margins as a set standard for so many academic texts.

Heading and subheadings take this to the next level. They give our brains a chance to breathe and process what we just read, as well as get a heads-up for what we are about to be reading. Subheadings have the main intent of grabbing the readers’ attention and making them pause for a moment. The subheading tells the reader what they can expect to find - the main idea, as it were, of the section.

Each subheading guides the reader through the lengthy text and serves as a table of contents, but there’s an even more important purpose to their job. Your subheading must be eye-catching enough to the reader that they decide the content is worthy of their time and effort. It’s interesting to them and they should continue to read your work.

Those same headings and subheadings are also mined by web crawlers when a user types in keywords in their query. If you’re not using refined choices to carefully create your headings and subheadings, you could be missing out on a lot of potential readers.

How to Know if Your Subheadings are Clear

Subheadings divide the document up into relevant sections, but they also help the reader find their way through your lengthy paper. In academic papers, many readers are searching for something specific. They don’t want to read your entire research experiment to get to what they are looking for, but they do need to know the key parts of your work.

As they are scanning your paper, readers should be able to use your subheadings to understand the flow of the document. To ensure this is possible, make your subheadings clear by asking yourself the following questions as you choose your wording:

●      Does the subheading contain keywords that tell the reader specifically what the main idea of the content in that section will include?

●      Does the subheading wording match that of the rest of the surrounding subheadings?

●      As an impartial reader, would the entire set of subheadings read by themselves create a flow that summarizes your work?

Keep tweaking the wording until all of these answers are yes.

How to Make a Refined Subheading

Ultimately, if your paper doesn’t make it through the web crawlers to get to your audience, it can’t make an impact. Refine your subheading to ensure optimization by using these tips:

●      Give each section a unique subheading that includes a description of the content the reader will see until the next subheading.

●      Keep the subheadings short and to the point.

●      Use keywords in a natural, conversational manner.

●      Be sure to separate your headings and subheadings with tags; that is, don’t just change the font and expect the web crawlers to realize it’s a subheading. You have to actually use the formatting option that tags your text as a header or subheader.

●      Research keywords that match your content and use them in your subheadings as naturally as possible without stuffing them.

These tips will help your work be seen to as wide of an audience as possible and create a more impactful final result!

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Easy Style Guide for Research Paper Subheadings

Table of Contents

Whether you’re writing in the APA or MLA format, there are rules that you need to follow. These rules help standardize research papers’ structure, making them easy to read and evaluate. This article explains the rules for completing  research paper subheadings .

If you want to learn to write proper academic paper subheadings, read on. 

What are Research Paper Subheadings?

Research paper subheadings are the most essential part of your paper. Your subheadings are the headings that appear in italics at the top of each page. They give the reader an idea of what to expect throughout the text and serve as tags in a research paper. They may also make it easier to refer to specific ideas or arguments in the article.

Research paper subheadings also improve the readability and flow of a paper, and it helps separate ideas. This helps readers fully grasp your meaning and follow your arguments.

Naming Sections and Subsections

Naming sections and subsections are essential because they will be referred to in the text. Subsections can be named in various ways, including by title or phrase representative of their content. 

A research paper’s main sections are often specific to the journal, but some sections are standard in all papers. As a general rule, it’s essential to pay attention to the prescribed style for your paper  (e.g., APA, MLA) .

Author instructions will also provide guidelines for writing your sections.

Rules for Research Paper Subheadings

Headers represent the content found in the different sections of your paper. They need to be descriptive and concise. This explains why the main sections of many articles have similar or exact headers such as:

• Introduction

These main sections are divided into subsections representing a facet of the main section. Think of it this way: Your research article is a tree made up of branches (Headings) that further separate into smaller branches ( Subheadings ). To fully grasp the concept of a tree, one needs to appreciate all its parts.

APA style headings structure:

If you’re writing a journal in the APA style, you’re allowed to use a maximum of five levels of headings. This depends greatly on your journal’s length, the complexity of topics, and personal preference.

Every header has a different format to indicate a shift to a new section. These headers usually don’t have numbering because the difference in the design already indicates a change of section. The different heading levels and their formats are illustrated below:

Level 1  Centered, Bold, Title Case

The text begins as a new paragraph.

Level 2  Left-aligned, Bold, Title Case

Level 3  left-aligned, bold italic, title case, level 4  indented, bold, title case, period . the text starts on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph., level 5  indented, bold italic, title case, period.  the text starts on the same line and continues as a regular paragraph..

Again, these are the standard header formatting rules for APA. It’s important to take note of particular formatting rules included in the author instructions for your journal.

MLA paper headings example structure:

The MLA structure doesn’t require authors to follow exact rules for sectioning their articles. The structure needs to be consistent with general formatting guidelines such as:

• 12-pts Times New Roman font
• Double-spaced text
• 0.5-inch indentation for each new paragraph

Sections must also be written in title case (Capitalize major words and use lowercase for minor words). Below is an example of MLA section levels:

1. Introduction

2. Material and Methods

2.1 Subject Recruitment

2.2 Experimental Procedure

2.3 Statistical Analysis

3.1 Experiment 1

3.2 Experiment 2

4. Discussion

5. Conclusion

The MLA research style isn’t as strict as APA. It only requires authors to observe formatting standards for both types. 

Subsection formats are essential in academic writing because they signify a shift in the subject matter . APA and MLA styles have different rules for sectioning. If you need help understanding these rules, feel free to revisit our style guide any time. Good luck with your research paper!

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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• Before the Dissertation: A Textual Mentor for Doctoral Students at Early Stages of a Research Project   This book focuses on purposes for doctoral dissertation writing, topic choice and development, choosing and working with advisers, reading and informal writing, and quality-of-life issues. Each of the nine chapters begins with a common myth about advanced academic work that is then dispelled. It should help instructors and advisers understand and respond to the kinds of obstacles faced by students that tend to impede or halt their progress.
• Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping With the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles Author Noelle Sterne demystifies the dissertation-writing process, offering practical strategies so this often overwhelming process can become less intimidating to doctoral candidates. She addresses common fears and hurdles students face when writing and defending their dissertations and provides inspiration and encouragement during this long stressful time. A must-read for doctoral candidates, this important resource helps readers cope with moments of despair, navigate family and social commitments, avoid self-sabotage, and persevere.
• Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation: A Roadmap From Beginning to End Graduate students often struggle with turning qualitative research projects into a master′s thesis or doctoral dissertation because the research itself is inherently messy. This work by Linda Bloomberg and Marie Volpe helps address that challenge. They focus on finding and articulating a clear research problem, purpose, and questions; laying out a research design that will lead to gathering relevant data and conducting insightful analyses; and writing up and defending the study. The text provides working tools, an integrative summary discussion at the end of each chapter, comprehensive checkists, and an annotated bibliography in each chapter.
• The Craft of Research, 4th edition Conceived by seasoned researchers and educators Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, this fundamental work explains how to find and evaluate sources, anticipate and respond to reader reservations, and integrate these pieces into an argument that stands up to reader critique. The fourth edition has been thoroughly but respectfully revised by Joseph Bizup and William T. FitzGerald, who provide fresh examples and standardized terminology to clarify concepts like argument, warrant, and problem. It retains the original five-part structure, as well as the sound advice of earlier editions, but reflects the way research and writing are taught and practiced today.
• Participant Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers From the publisher: "This book serves as a basic primer for the beginning researcher and as a useful reference and guide for experienced researchers in many fields who wish to reexamine their own skills and abilities in light of best practices of participant observation. This new edition includes discussions of participant observation in nontypical settings, such as the Internet, participant observation in applied research, and ethics of participant observation. It also explores in greater depth the use of computer-assisted analysis of textual data in issues of sampling and in linking method with theory."
• Restarting Stalled Research Written for researchers and graduate students writing dissertations, this unique book offers detailed advice and perspective on many issues that can stall a research project and reveals what can be done to successfully resume it. Author Paul C. Rosenblatt draws on his decades of experience to guide readers through challenges, such as clarifying the end goal of a project; resolving common and not-so-common writing problems; dealing with rejection and revision decisions; handling difficulties involving dissertation advisers and committee members; coping with issues of researcher motivation or self-esteem; and much more.
• Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes From the publisher: "Using actual unfinished notes as examples, the authors illustrate options for composing, reviewing, and working fieldnotes into finished texts. They discuss different organizational and descriptive strategies and show how transforming direct observations into vivid descriptions results not simply from good memory but from learning to envision scenes as written ... This new edition reflects the extensive feedback the authors have received from students and instructors since the first edition was published in 1995." 
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Research shows immigrants benefit u.s. taxpayers.

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Newly sworn in US citizens celebrate and wave US flags during a naturalization ceremony at the ... [+] Lowell Auditorium, where 633 immigrants became U.S. citizens on January 22, 2019, in Lowell, Massachusetts. Research shows the benefits to taxpayers of immigrants, which contradicts an argument made for imposing new immigration restrictions. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

Research shows immigrants benefit U.S. taxpayers. The findings contradict an argument made for imposing new immigration restrictions. The research, from various sources, has become more relevant with the news about short-term costs experienced in cities after migrants have arrived unannounced as part of the Western Hemisphere political and economic refugee crisis . The costs are due for reasons that include city rules on housing, migrants lacking work authorization and the absence of coordination among government entities. Economists say the issues with cities do not negate findings on the overall fiscal benefits of immigrants.

The Congressional Budget Office

The Congressional Budget Office concluded that the increased labor supply fueled by immigration produces enormous fiscal benefits for U.S. taxpayers.

“In our projections, the deficit is also smaller than it was last year because economic output is greater, partly as a result of more people working,” according to CBO Director Phillip L. Swagel . “ The labor force in 2033 is larger by 5.2 million people, mostly because of higher net immigration . As a result of those changes in the labor force, we estimate that, from 2023 to 2034, GDP will be greater by about $7 trillion and revenues will be greater by about $1 trillion than they would have been otherwise .” (Emphasis added.)

Swagel said CBO will continue to assess the impact of immigration on the budget.

Mainstream economists support more liberalized immigration, viewing it as positive for labor force growth—an essential element of economic growth—and as a moderating influence on inflation by increasing the supply of workers. “Strong job creation has been accompanied by an increase in the supply of workers, particularly among individuals aged 25 to 54, and a continued strong pace of immigration,” said Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell in Congressional testimony .

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Ncaa coaching carousel: dusty may leaves fau for michigan, cricket s biggest star virat kohli under pressure in this season s indian premier league, penn wharton budget model on the benefits of high-skilled immigration.

In the past, the Congressional Budget Office has produced analyses that underestimate the fiscal benefits of immigration. Former CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf (now Dean at Harvard Kennedy School) and Dartmouth economics professor Heidi Williams explain the Congressional Budget Office has used three different models to assess the budget impacts of immigration legislation: conventional, population-change and dynamic.

Elmendorf and Williams used the Penn Wharton Budget Model to estimate the vast difference in the budgetary estimates if CBO used the “population-change” approach rather than the less accurate “conventional” model. The analysis used a section of the House-passed version of what became the CHIPS Act. The provision was dropped in a House-Senate conference committee after Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) blocked including it in the bill.

The legislative language would have exempted from employment-based green card limits foreign nationals with a Ph.D. in a science, technology, engineering and math field or a master’s degree in a “critical” industry.

“We report estimates from the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM) that exempting employment-based green cards from statutory limits for applicants (and their families) who have earned a doctoral or master’s degree in a STEM field—similar to Section 80303 in H.R. 4521—would reduce federal budget deficits by $129 billion from 2025 to 2034,” according to Elmendorf and Williams. “In contrast, a conventional budget estimate, which would include projected increases in federal spending but not the effect of a larger population on federal tax revenues, shows an increase in federal deficits of $4 billion.”

The difference between the two approaches grows with the time measured. “Over the following decade, the difference between the conventional approach and population-change approach estimates is even larger: swinging from a $74 billion increase in the budget deficit to a $634 billion decrease,” write Elmendorf and Williams.

CBO estimates carry real-world consequences. In July 2022, CBO declared that an amendment on green cards for individuals with Ph.D.’s in science and engineering would cost $1 billion over ten years. The amendment was not added to the FY 2023 defense authorization bill .

Under the “conventional approach,” CBO counts “the number of people who claim government benefits” but assumes gross domestic product will remain unchanged. That means it fails to account for increases in workers.

However, under the “population-change approach,” CBO does not “incorporate all of the effects on the economy” it expects would occur but does include “all of the direct budgetary effects of changing the number of people in the United States—in particular, the effects on taxable compensation and therefore on income and payroll tax revenues,” note Elmendorf and Williams.

When it uses the “dynamic approach,” CBO estimates “reflect the budgetary impact of all of the economic changes that CBO expects would occur.”

Elmendorf and Williams write, “At various times in the past decade, the House of Representatives has adopted a rule that CBO and JCT [Joint Committee on Taxation] provide dynamic estimates for ‘major’ legislation. However, no immigration proposal during that period has met the criteria to be designated as ‘major,’ and therefore no dynamic budgetary estimates have been produced in the past decade.” They note this approach was used for two immigration bills S. 744 ( CBO 2013b ) in 2013 and for S. 2611 ( CBO 2006a ) in 2016, “although not as the basis for official budget estimates.”

Fiscal Estimates By Economist Michael Clemens

The reason most people immigrate to America is to work and build a better future for their families. However, fiscal estimates have overlooked the capital investments employers make when employing immigrants.

In a paper for the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration at University College London, Michael Clemens, an economics professor at George Mason University , produced estimates that challenged past efforts to measure the fiscal impact of immigrants.

According to Clemens, the traditional method “omits substantial indirect, dynamic effects of immigration,” and the most influential method “simply counts the direct fiscal flows to and from individual immigrants by education level.”

Clemens made a “simple adjustment” to these estimates by including conservative estimates of tax revenue from capital income caused by an immigrant worker’s presence in the economy.” (Emphasis added.)

“Omitting tax revenue from capital contradicts economic theory if the firms that employ immigrants are profit-maximizing,” writes Clemens. “Intuitively, after a firm has set its demand for labor and capital to maximize profits, suppose it raises its labor demand by one to hire an immigrant. Without general-equilibrium shifts in prices or productivity, this increase in labor demand would by definition reduce profits if it occurred without also hiring capital—such as buying an additional computer or renting additional retail space for the worker to use.”

Economist Mark Regets, a senior fellow at the National Foundation for American Policy, said Clemens’s approach makes sense by assuming companies would invest in computers, machines and office space when they hire immigrants. By pursuing profits, employers would pay more taxes to governments after hiring immigrants.

After taking into account tax revenue from capital income, Clemens found that an average recent immigrant without a high school degree causes a lifetime positive net fiscal balance of $128,000 . “Including the expected children and grandchildren of the average immigrant without a high school degree, the lifetime positive net fiscal effect is $326,000.” (Emphasis added.)

By omitting capital tax revenue, an estimate by Blau et al. in 2017—produced as part of a National Academy of Sciences panel—underestimated the positive impact of an average recent immigrant without a high school degree by $381,000, according to Clemens.

Clemens, Elmendorf, Williams and the Congressional Budget Office show that economists must use real-world assumptions to capture the fiscal benefits of immigration.

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Title: a design space for intelligent and interactive writing assistants.

Abstract: In our era of rapid technological advancement, the research landscape for writing assistants has become increasingly fragmented across various research communities. We seek to address this challenge by proposing a design space as a structured way to examine and explore the multidimensional space of intelligent and interactive writing assistants. Through a large community collaboration, we explore five aspects of writing assistants: task, user, technology, interaction, and ecosystem. Within each aspect, we define dimensions (i.e., fundamental components of an aspect) and codes (i.e., potential options for each dimension) by systematically reviewing 115 papers. Our design space aims to offer researchers and designers a practical tool to navigate, comprehend, and compare the various possibilities of writing assistants, and aid in the envisioning and design of new writing assistants.

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Details of $1.2 Trillion Spending Bill Emerge as Partial Shutdown Looms

Tucked inside a massive measure to fund the government through the fall are several initiatives sought by members of both parties. Aides are still writing the legislative language.

By Catie Edmondson

Reporting from Capitol Hill

Congressional aides raced on Tuesday to draw up the text of a bipartisan $1.2 trillion spending deal to fund the government through September.

While President Biden, Republicans and Democrats have all endorsed the agreement, they had yet to release its details and it was not clear whether Congress would be able to complete action on it in time to avert a brief partial government shutdown over the weekend.

Still, lawmakers in both parties were already touting what they would get out of the legislation, which wraps six spending measures into one huge package.

“The final product is something that we were able to achieve a lot of key provisions and wins and a move in the direction that we want, even with our tiny, historically small majority,” Speaker Mike Johnson said on Wednesday.

In a closed-door meeting with Republicans on Tuesday morning, Mr. Johnson cited the inclusion of provisions his party wanted, including funding for additional detention beds run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and cutting off aid to the main United Nations agency that provides aid to Palestinians.

Democrats secured a long-sought deal to create 12,000 new special visas for Afghans who had worked for the United States in Afghanistan; a one-year reauthorization of PEPFAR, the U.S. government’s effort to address H.I.V. globally; and funding boosts for federal child care and education programs.

Here’s a look at what we know so far about the legislation, which would fund the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and health agencies.

It boosts funding for immigration detention beds.

The legislation funds roughly 8,000 more beds than last year’s bill, a win House Republicans have touted. Congress funded 34,000 beds through the fall of 2023, but under the stopgap measure currently funding the department, the number of beds rose to about 42,000. Negotiators agreed to keep funding flowing to support that higher number.

The bill would bar funding for the main aid agency for Palestinians.

The legislation would bar funding from going to UNRWA , the main U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinians in Gaza, through March 2025, creating a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars for the agency.

It extends a pause in funding that the White House and lawmakers from both major U.S. parties supported after Israel accused at least 12 UNRWA employees in January of participating in the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel led by Hamas.

It would boost funding for child care and health research.

In a closed-door meeting, Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, told lawmakers that Democrats had won spending increases for federal child care and education programs, including Head Start. She also touted increases to funding for cancer and Alzheimer’s research, and for the federal suicide hotline, according to a person familiar with her presentation.

It includes a one-year reauthorization of PEPFAR, which helps bankroll global efforts to fight the spread of AIDS. Congress had been gridlocked on reauthorizing the program, parts of which expired in the fall, amid concerns among Republicans that some of the health organizations that fight AIDS also provide abortion services.

Democrats also staved off the inclusion of Republican efforts to slash funding for Title I, a program run by the Education Department to support low-income students and schools.

It includes a series of conservative G.O.P. policy mandates.

House Republicans also won the inclusion of several provisions aimed at addressing conservative cultural grievances. For instance, the bill would bar U.S. diplomatic facilities from flying any flag other than the American one overhead — an attempt to prevent embassies and other official buildings from flying gay or transgender pride flags. It also contains a prohibition on a federal ban on gas stoves, an idea the Biden administration has said it is not pursuing but which prompted outrage among Republicans when a commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission suggested could be ripe for future regulatory action.

The Hyde Amendment, a measure banning federal funding for abortion that was first included in spending legislation in 1976 and has been renewed virtually every year since, also is in the bill. But Democrats blocked Republicans from imposing any other anti-abortion measures.

The legislation cuts foreign aid.

The funding levels adhere to the debt limit and spending deal negotiated last year by President Biden and the speaker at the time, Kevin McCarthy, keeping spending on domestic programs essentially flat — even as funding for veterans’ programs continues to grow and military spending increases slightly.

That translated to cuts in other areas, including to foreign aid.

In the closed-door meeting, Mr. Johnson said that Republicans had secured a 6 percent cut to foreign aid programs. It was not immediately clear which programs would bear the brunt.

Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times. More about Catie Edmondson

A Divided Congress: Latest News and Analysis

Spending Bill: The House passed a $1.2 trillion measure  to fund the government through September and avert a partial shutdown at the end of the week, setting off a Republican mutiny that threatened Speaker Mike Johnson’s grasp on the gavel .

An Invite for Netanyahu: Johnson said that he planned to invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to address Congress, moving to welcome a leader who has become a flashpoint for partisan disagreement  in American politics over the war in Gaza.

Aid to Haiti: Congressional Republicans are blocking $40 million in aid  that the Biden administration has requested to help stabilize Haiti amid an increase in gang violence there.

32-Hour Workweek Proposal: Senator Bernie Sanders unveiled legislation to reduce the standard workweek  in the United States from 40 hours to 32 without a reduction in pay.

TikTok Ban: The House passed a bill  with broad bipartisan support that would force the video app’s Chinese owner to sell the platform  or be banned in the United States.

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• Knowledge Base
• Research paper

Writing a Research Paper Introduction | Step-by-Step Guide

Published on September 24, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on March 27, 2023.

The introduction to a research paper is where you set up your topic and approach for the reader. It has several key goals:

• Present your topic and get the reader interested
• Provide background or summarize existing research
• Position your own approach
• Detail your specific research problem and problem statement
• Give an overview of the paper’s structure

The introduction looks slightly different depending on whether your paper presents the results of original empirical research or constructs an argument by engaging with a variety of sources.

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Table of contents

Step 1: introduce your topic, step 2: describe the background, step 3: establish your research problem, step 4: specify your objective(s), step 5: map out your paper, research paper introduction examples, frequently asked questions about the research paper introduction.

The first job of the introduction is to tell the reader what your topic is and why it’s interesting or important. This is generally accomplished with a strong opening hook.

The hook is a striking opening sentence that clearly conveys the relevance of your topic. Think of an interesting fact or statistic, a strong statement, a question, or a brief anecdote that will get the reader wondering about your topic.

For example, the following could be an effective hook for an argumentative paper about the environmental impact of cattle farming:

A more empirical paper investigating the relationship of Instagram use with body image issues in adolescent girls might use the following hook:

Don’t feel that your hook necessarily has to be deeply impressive or creative. Clarity and relevance are still more important than catchiness. The key thing is to guide the reader into your topic and situate your ideas.

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This part of the introduction differs depending on what approach your paper is taking.

In a more argumentative paper, you’ll explore some general background here. In a more empirical paper, this is the place to review previous research and establish how yours fits in.

Argumentative paper: Background information

After you’ve caught your reader’s attention, specify a bit more, providing context and narrowing down your topic.

Provide only the most relevant background information. The introduction isn’t the place to get too in-depth; if more background is essential to your paper, it can appear in the body .

Empirical paper: Describing previous research

For a paper describing original research, you’ll instead provide an overview of the most relevant research that has already been conducted. This is a sort of miniature literature review —a sketch of the current state of research into your topic, boiled down to a few sentences.

This should be informed by genuine engagement with the literature. Your search can be less extensive than in a full literature review, but a clear sense of the relevant research is crucial to inform your own work.

Begin by establishing the kinds of research that have been done, and end with limitations or gaps in the research that you intend to respond to.

The next step is to clarify how your own research fits in and what problem it addresses.

Argumentative paper: Emphasize importance

In an argumentative research paper, you can simply state the problem you intend to discuss, and what is original or important about your argument.

Empirical paper: Relate to the literature

In an empirical research paper, try to lead into the problem on the basis of your discussion of the literature. Think in terms of these questions:

• What research gap is your work intended to fill?
• What limitations in previous work does it address?
• What contribution to knowledge does it make?

You can make the connection between your problem and the existing research using phrases like the following.

Now you’ll get into the specifics of what you intend to find out or express in your research paper.

The way you frame your research objectives varies. An argumentative paper presents a thesis statement, while an empirical paper generally poses a research question (sometimes with a hypothesis as to the answer).

Argumentative paper: Thesis statement

The thesis statement expresses the position that the rest of the paper will present evidence and arguments for. It can be presented in one or two sentences, and should state your position clearly and directly, without providing specific arguments for it at this point.

Empirical paper: Research question and hypothesis

The research question is the question you want to answer in an empirical research paper.

Present your research question clearly and directly, with a minimum of discussion at this point. The rest of the paper will be taken up with discussing and investigating this question; here you just need to express it.

A research question can be framed either directly or indirectly.

• This study set out to answer the following question: What effects does daily use of Instagram have on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls?
• We investigated the effects of daily Instagram use on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls.

If your research involved testing hypotheses , these should be stated along with your research question. They are usually presented in the past tense, since the hypothesis will already have been tested by the time you are writing up your paper.

For example, the following hypothesis might respond to the research question above:

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The final part of the introduction is often dedicated to a brief overview of the rest of the paper.

In a paper structured using the standard scientific “introduction, methods, results, discussion” format, this isn’t always necessary. But if your paper is structured in a less predictable way, it’s important to describe the shape of it for the reader.

If included, the overview should be concise, direct, and written in the present tense.

• This paper will first discuss several examples of survey-based research into adolescent social media use, then will go on to …
• This paper first discusses several examples of survey-based research into adolescent social media use, then goes on to …

Full examples of research paper introductions are shown in the tabs below: one for an argumentative paper, the other for an empirical paper.

• Argumentative paper
• Empirical paper

Are cows responsible for climate change? A recent study (RIVM, 2019) shows that cattle farmers account for two thirds of agricultural nitrogen emissions in the Netherlands. These emissions result from nitrogen in manure, which can degrade into ammonia and enter the atmosphere. The study’s calculations show that agriculture is the main source of nitrogen pollution, accounting for 46% of the country’s total emissions. By comparison, road traffic and households are responsible for 6.1% each, the industrial sector for 1%. While efforts are being made to mitigate these emissions, policymakers are reluctant to reckon with the scale of the problem. The approach presented here is a radical one, but commensurate with the issue. This paper argues that the Dutch government must stimulate and subsidize livestock farmers, especially cattle farmers, to transition to sustainable vegetable farming. It first establishes the inadequacy of current mitigation measures, then discusses the various advantages of the results proposed, and finally addresses potential objections to the plan on economic grounds.

The rise of social media has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the prevalence of body image issues among women and girls. This correlation has received significant academic attention: Various empirical studies have been conducted into Facebook usage among adolescent girls (Tiggermann & Slater, 2013; Meier & Gray, 2014). These studies have consistently found that the visual and interactive aspects of the platform have the greatest influence on body image issues. Despite this, highly visual social media (HVSM) such as Instagram have yet to be robustly researched. This paper sets out to address this research gap. We investigated the effects of daily Instagram use on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls. It was hypothesized that daily Instagram use would be associated with an increase in body image concerns and a decrease in self-esteem ratings.

The introduction of a research paper includes several key elements:

• A hook to catch the reader’s interest
• Relevant background on the topic
• Details of your research problem

and your problem statement

• A thesis statement or research question
• Sometimes an overview of the paper

Don’t feel that you have to write the introduction first. The introduction is often one of the last parts of the research paper you’ll write, along with the conclusion.

This is because it can be easier to introduce your paper once you’ve already written the body ; you may not have the clearest idea of your arguments until you’ve written them, and things can change during the writing process .

The way you present your research problem in your introduction varies depending on the nature of your research paper . A research paper that presents a sustained argument will usually encapsulate this argument in a thesis statement .

A research paper designed to present the results of empirical research tends to present a research question that it seeks to answer. It may also include a hypothesis —a prediction that will be confirmed or disproved by your research.

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APT & Targeted Attacks

Earth Krahang Exploits Intergovernmental Trust to Launch Cross-Government Attacks

Since early 2022, we have been monitoring an APT campaign that targets several government entities worldwide, with a strong focus in Southeast Asia, but also seen targeting Europe, America, and Africa.

By: Joseph C Chen, Daniel Lunghi March 18, 2024 Read time:  ( words)

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Introduction

Since early 2022, we have been monitoring an APT campaign that targets several government entities worldwide, with a strong focus in Southeast Asia, but also seen targeting Europe, America, and Africa. The threat actor exploits public-facing servers and sends spear phishing emails to deliver previously unseen backdoors.

Our research allowed us to identify the campaign’s multiple connections with a China-nexus threat actor we track as Earth Lusca . However, since the campaign employs independent infrastructure and unique backdoors, we believe it to be a separate intrusion set that we named Earth Krahang. We will examine these connections, as well as potential links to a Chinese company named I-Soon, in a separate section.

One of the threat actor’s favorite tactics involves using its malicious access to government infrastructure to attack other government entities, abusing the infrastructure to host malicious payloads, proxy attack traffic, and send spear-phishing emails to government-related targets using compromised government email accounts. Earth Krahang also uses other tactics, such as building VPN servers on compromised public-facing servers to establish access into the private network of victims and performing brute-force attacks to obtain email credentials. These credentials are then used to exfiltrate victim emails, with the group’s ultimate goal being cyberespionage.

Due to mistakes on the attacker’s side, we managed to retrieve multiple files from Earth Krahang’s servers, including samples, configuration files, and log files from its attack tools. Combining this information with our telemetry helped us understand the Earth Krahang operation and build a clear view of the threat actor’s victimology and interests. In addition, we will also share their preferred malware families and post-exploitation tools in this report.

Reconnaissance and initial access

One of the infection vectors used involves the scanning of public-facing servers. Earth Krahang heavily employs open-source scanning tools that perform recursive searches of folders such as .git or .idea . The threat actor also resorts to simply brute-forcing directories to help identify files that may contain sensitive information such as file paths or passwords on the victim’s servers. They also tend to examine the subdomains of their targets to find interesting and possible unmaintained servers. Earth Krahang also conducts vulnerability scanning with tools like sqlmap , nuclei , xray , vscan , pocsuite , and wordpressscan to find web server vulnerabilities  that will allow them to access the server, drop web shells, and install backdoors.

The threat actor abused the following vulnerabilities multiple times:

• CVE-2023-32315 : command execution on OpenFire
• CVE-2022-21587 : command execution on Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator

Earth Krahang also makes use of spear phishing email to attack its targets. Like most spear phishing attacks, the emails are intended trick their targets into opening attachments or embedded URL links that ultimately lead to the execution of a prepared backdoor file on the victim’s machine. Our telemetry data and some of the group’s backdoors uploaded on VirusTotal revealed that the backdoor filenames are usually related to geopolitical topics, indicating their preferred type of lure:

• "Plan of Action (POA) - TH-VN - TH_Counterdraft_as of Feb 2022.doc.exe"
• คำบอกกล่าวคำฟ้อง.rar (translated as “Notice of complaint.rar” )
• “ร่างสถานะ ครม. รว. ไทย-โรมาเนีย as of 25 Feb 2022.doc.exe” (translated as “Draft Cabinet status of Thailand-Romania as of 25 Feb 2022.doc.exe”)
• “Malaysian defense minister visits Hungary.Malaysian defense minister visits Hungary.exe”
• “ICJ public hearings- Guyana vs. Venezuela.ICJ public hearings- Guyana vs. Venezuela.exe”
• “On the visit of Paraguayan Foreign Minister to Turkmenistan.exe”
• “pay-slip run persal payslip.pay-slip run persal payslip.docx.exe”

We noticed that Earth Krahang retrieves hundreds of email addresses from their targets during the reconnaissance phase. In one case, the actor used a compromised mailbox from a government entity to send a malicious attachment to 796 email addresses belonging to the same entity. The malicious attachment was a RAR archive containing an LNK file that deployed the Xdealer malware (which we will discuss in the Delivered malware families section) and opened a decoy document (available online) related to the governmental entity. It is likely that the actor discovered the weak credentials of the compromised mailbox using brute-forcing tools.

Earth Krahang abuses the trust between governments to conduct their attacks. We found that the group frequently uses compromised government webservers to host their backdoors and send download links to other government entities via spear phishing emails. Since the malicious link uses a legitimate government domain of the compromised server, it will appear less suspicious to targets and may even bypass some domain blacklists.

In addition, the actor used a compromised government email account to send email to other governments. We noticed the following email subjects being used for spear-phishing emails:

• Malaysian Ministry of Defense Circular
• Malaysian defense minister visits Hungary
• ICJ public hearings- Guyana vs. Venezuela
• About Guyana Procurement Proposal for Taiwan <redacted>

Our telemetry also showed that the threat actor compromised a government web server and leveraged it to scan vulnerabilities in other government targets.

Post-exploitation TTPs

The threat actor installs the SoftEther VPN on compromised public-facing servers and uses certutil commands to download and install the SoftEther VPN server. The SoftEther server executable is renamed to either taskllst.exe , tasklist.exe , or tasklist_32.exe for the Windows executable and curl for the Linux executable to make it look like a legitimate file on the installed system. With the VPN server installed, the actor can then connect to the victim’s network to conduct their post-exploitation movements.

Additional post-exploitation movements include:

• Maintaining backdoor persistence with task scheduling
• Enabling Remote Desktop connections by modifying the Windows Registry “fDenyTSConnections”
• Accessing credentials by dumping Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) with Mimikatz or ProcDump
• Accessing credentials by dumping the SAM database ( HKLM/sam ) from the Windows Registry
• Scanning the network using Fscan
• Lateral code execution via WMIC
• Using tools such as BadPotato, SweetPotato, GodPotato, or PrinterNotifyPotato for privilege escalation on Windows systems
• Exploiting CVE-2021-4034, CVE-2021-22555, and CVE-2016-5195 for privilege escalation on Linux systems

Email exfiltration

We observed Earth Krahang conducting brute force attacks on Exchange servers via their Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web Access, or OWA) portals of its victims. The threat uses a list of common passwords to test the email accounts on the target’s email server.  We have observed the group using a custom Python script targeting the ActiveSync service on the OWA server to perform their brute-force attack.

We also found the threat actor using the open-source tool ruler to brute force email accounts and passwords. Email accounts using weak passwords can be identified by the attacker, who can then perform email exfiltration or abuse the compromised account to send spear phishing emails (as we discussed earlier).

We also identified another Python script that the actor used to exfiltrate emails from a Zimbra mail server. The script can package the victim’s mailbox via the mail server API using an authenticated cookie stolen by the threat actor. However, our investigation was unable to determine how the authenticated tokens were stolen from the victim’s server.

Delivered malware families

Earth Krahang delivers backdoors to establish access to victim machines. Cobalt Strike and two custom backdoors, RESHELL and XDealer, were employed during the initial stage of attack. We found that these backdoors were delivered either through spear-phishing emails or deployed via web shell on compromised servers.

We found the RESHELL backdoor being used several times in attacks during 2022. It was mentioned being used in a targeted attack against a Southeast Asian government by Palo Alto in a previous research report . RESHELL is a simple .NET backdoor that possesses the basic capabilities of collecting information, dropping files, or executing system commands. Its binaries are packed with ConfuserEX and its command-and-control (C&C) communication is encrypted with the AES algorithm.

Since 2023, the Earth Krahang shifted to another backdoor (named XDealer by TeamT5 and DinodasRAT by ESET). Compared to RESHELL, XDealer provides more comprehensive backdoor capabilities. In addition, we found that the threat actor employed both Windows and Linux versions of XDealer to target different systems.

Each XDealer sample embeds a mark string that represents the backdoor’s version. We observed the following marks:

Table 1. The list of the identified marks embedded on XDealer samples

This finding indicates that the backdoor may have been used in the wild for some time now and is still under active development.

It's worth noting that many early XDealer samples were developed as a DLL file packaged with an installer, a stealer module DLL, a text file contents ID string, and an LNK file. The LNK file executes the installer, which then installs the XDealer DLL and the stealer module DLL on the victim’s machine. The stealer module can take screenshots, steal clipboard data, and log keystrokes.

In one case, we found that the LNK file was replaced with another executable, which is an installer loader (it’s likely that Earth Krahang employed a different execution scheme instead of a standalone executable). Furthermore, we found that some of the XDealer DLL loaders were signed with valid code signing certificates issued by GlobalSign to two Chinese companies. According to public information available on the internet, one is a human resource company, while the other is a game development company. It’s likely that their certificates were stolen and abused to sign malicious executables.

Table 2. The list of packages delivering XDealer DLL and other files

Table 3. The list of certificates abused to sign the XDealer loader

Cobalt Strike was also frequently used during the initial stage of an attack. Interestingly, we found that instead of the typical Cobalt Strike usage, Earth Krahang adds additional protection to their C&C server through the adoption of the open-source project RedGuard , which is basically a proxy that helps red teams hinder the discovery of their Cobalt Strike C&C profile.

The threat actor abused RedGuard to prevent its C&C servers from being identified by blue team Cobalt Strike C&C scanners or search engine web crawlers. It also helps the group monitor who is collecting their C&C profiles. We found that Earth Krahang’s C&C server redirected invalid C&C requests to security vendor websites due to RedGuard’s protections.

Cobalt Strike exploits the DLL side-loading vulnerability. In one case we analyzed, the threat actor dropped three files, fontsets.exe , faultrep.dll , and faultrep.dat . The file fontsets.exe (SHA256: 97c668912c29b8203a7c3bd7d5d690d5c4e5da53) is a legitimate executable that was abused to side-load the DLL file faultrep.dll (SHA256: a94d0e51df6abbc4a7cfe84e36eb8f38bc011f46).

The faultrep.dll  file is a custom shellcode loader that will decode the encoded shellcode — which is Cobalt Strike — stored inside faultrep.dat . We also found another DLL loader with a similar decoding routine, but with different byte values for decoding and loads shellcode from a different filename ( conf.data ).

Using our telemetry data, we found that the threat actor also dropped PlugX and ShadowPad samples in victim environments. The PlugX sample, named fualtrep.dll , is likely used for side-loading, similar to the Cobalt Strike routine mentioned above. The ShadowPad samples had the exact same characteristics as seen in our previous Earth Lusca report .

Victimology

We found approximately 70 different victims (organizations that were confirmed to be compromised) spread across 23 different countries. Since we had access to some of Earth Krahang’s logs, we were also able to identify 116 different targets (including those that were not confirmed to be compromised) in 35 countries.

In total, the threat actor was able to compromise or target victims in 45 different countries spread across different regions, most of them in Asia and America, but also in Europe and Africa.

Government organizations seem to be Earth Krahang’s primary targets. As an example, in the case of one country, we found that the threat actor compromised a diverse range of organizations belonging to 11 different government ministries.

We found that at least 48 government organizations were compromised, with a further 49 other government entities being targeted. Foreign Affairs ministries and departments were a top target, compromising 10 such organizations and targeting five others.

Education is another sector of interest to the threat actor. We found at least two different victims and 12 targets belonging to this sector. The communications industry was also targeted; we found multiple compromised telecommunications providers. Other target organizations and entities include post offices (targeted in at least three different countries), logistics platforms, and job services.

There were other industries targeted, but on a smaller scale, including the following:

• Finance/Insurance
• Foundations/NGOs/Thinkthanks
• Manufacturing
• Real estate

Attribution

Initially, we had no attribution for this campaign since we found no infrastructure overlaps, and had never seen the RESHELL malware family before. Palo Alto published a report that attributes, with moderate confidence, a particular cluster using RESHELL malware to GALLIUM . However, the assessment is based on a toolset that is shared among many different threat actors, and we were hesitant to use this link for proper attribution.  We also considered the possibility that RESHELL is a shared malware family.

Earth Krahang switched to the XDealer malware family in later campaigns. In a research paper presented by TeamT5, XDealer was shown to be associated with Luoyu , a threat actor with Chinese origins that used the WinDealer and ReverseWindow malware families. Our colleague, who was previously involved in the research of Luoyu, shared with us the insights on this association, particularly the sharing of an encryption key between an old XDealer sample and a SpyDealer sample — suggesting a connection between both malware families. ESET, which named this malware DinodasRAT, wrote an extensive report on its features. However they had no particular attribution apart from the possible China-nexus origin.

While we believe it could be possible that this campaign has links to LuoYu, we found no traces of other malware families used by this threat actor. Also, the encryption key mentioned above is different from the samples we found in this campaign, meaning that this malware family has multiple builders. This could suggest that either the key was changed at some point in development, or that the tool is shared among different groups.

In January 2022, we reported on a China-nexus threat actor we called Earth Lusca , following up with updates on their use of a newly discovered backdoor named SprySOCKS and their recent activities capitalizing on the Taiwanese presidential election. During our investigation, we noticed malware being downloaded from IP addresses we attribute to Earth Lusca (45[.]32[.]33[.]17 and 207[.]148[.]75[.]122, for example) at the lateral movement stage of this campaign. This suggests a strong link between this threat actor and Earth Lusca. We also found infrastructure overlaps between some C&C servers that communicated with malware we found during our investigation, and domain names such as googledatas[.]com that we attribute to Earth Lusca.

While the infrastructure and the preference of the initial stage backdoors look to be very different between this new campaign and the previously reported activities of Earth Lusca, our speculation is that they are two intrusion sets running independently but targeting a similar range of victims, becoming more intertwined as they approach their goal — possibly even being  managed by the same threat group. Due to these characteristics, we decided to give the independent name, Earth Krahang, to this intrusion set.

Our previous report suggests Earth Lusca might be the penetration team behind the Chinese company I-Soon, which had their information leaked on GitHub recently. Using this leaked information, we found that the company organized their penetration team into two different subgroups. This could be the possible reason why we saw two independent clusters of activities active in the wild but with limited association. Earth Krahang could be another penetration team under the same company.

In this report, we shared our investigation on a new campaign we named Earth Krahang. Our findings show that this threat actor focuses its efforts on government entities worldwide and abuses compromised government infrastructure to enable its malicious operations.

We were also able to identify two unique malware families used in Earth Krahang’s attacks while also illustrating the larger picture involving the group’s targets and malicious activities via our telemetry data and the exposed files on their servers.

Our investigation also identified multiple links between Earth Krahang and Earth Lusca. We suspected these two intrusion sets are managed by the same threat actor.

Given the importance of Earth Krahang’s targets and their preference of using compromised government email accounts, we strongly advise organizations to adhere to security best practices, including educating employees and other individuals involved with the organization on how to avoid social engineering attacks, such as developing a healthy skepticism when it involves potential security issues, and developing habits such as refraining from clicking on links or opening attachments without verification from the sender. Given the threat actor’s exploitation of vulnerabilities in its attacks, we also encourage organizations to update their software and systems with the latest security patches to avoid any potential compromise.

Indicators of Compromise

The indicators of compromise for this entry can be found here .

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to Leon M Chang who shared to us insights about the overlap of  the TEA encryption key between XDealer and SpyDealer samples.

MITRE ATT&CK

The listed techniques are a subset of the MITRE ATT&CK list .

Joseph C Chen

Threat Researcher

Daniel Lunghi

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