Anyone who has ever had to do an academic work, be it a monograph, dissertation, thesis, article or course conclusion work (TCC), has heard about the norms of the ABNT (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards).
This rule regulates the standard of writing and formatting that formal works must have in order to obtain bachelor's, licentiate's, specialist, master's and doctoral degrees, and establishes the formality of these relationships.
However, it not only formalizes the procedures for delivering academic papers, but rather different techniques performed in various areas in Brazil. Works like a network certification establishing what is right and wrong to do.
In today's article, you will learn a little more about ABNT standards and how to apply them in your academic work, in addition to the NBR and the benefits of application. Check out!
After all, what is NBR?
NBR is an acronym for Brazilian Technical Standards, produced by ABNT. These norms organize standards for subjects considered specific in various areas. Therefore, to find out something specific, you will have to consult the corresponding NBR.
For example, if you work with precision machining, there is certainly some NBR defining the sequence to be used, the necessary equipment and the time required to be within the standards.
Some NBRs are about student life, and standardize the work as mentioned above. So, let's introduce some standards you need to know to do proper academic work. Check out.
1. NBR 14724 - Standards for formatting and structure of academic work
NBR 14724 is used to structure, write and format academic papers that involve the TCC, scientific articles, dissertations, theses and postdoctoral reports.
This standard establishes that the texts must have a logical order, including pre-textual, textual (development) and post-textual elements.
For example, if you write a paper about process design and improvement, on the cover must include the title, your name, the name of the institution, the city and the year of publication.
The pre-text elements include:
- The Cape;
- Cover sheet;
- Approval sheet (signed by the bank);
- Summary in source language;
- Summary in selected foreign language;
- Summary or table of contents.
These elements are mandatory and must appear as pre-textual in all text that follows this NBR.
As optional elements of the pre-text section we have the spine, errata (if necessary), dedication, thanks, epigraph (a sentence or thought), list of illustrations, tables, symbols and abbreviations or acronyms.
The textual elements involve the introduction, development and conclusion. In the introduction, you should cover elements to situate the reader on the subject of the work. In development, the work proceeds and is finally concluded at the conclusion.
Imagine that you write a paper on “The importance of command button for marketing campaigns”. In this case, the introduction should bring what a command button is, the development on what you did to get the answer and the conclusion.
Finally, post-textual elements include references as something mandatory. The glossary, appendices, appendices and indexes are considered optional elements that
may appear in the post-textual part of the work.
2. NBR 15287 (Research Project Standards)
NBR 15287 is a continuation of the previous one and deals with rules for research projects presented to the institution for admission to postgraduate studies stricto sensu (for the academic environment) or to public bodies to request funding for research.
Basically the research project contains the same pre-textual and post-textual elements as the formal research work. What changes is that there are no results and discussion as it will be developed, and a schedule must be added.
In addition to the introduction, or within it, there must be a hypothesis, objectives, a justification for why the research was carried out and the methods to be used.
Suppose you will conduct a survey on “Development of cut and fold service of steel for machining of automotive parts”. In the introduction, you will mention what this service is, what the research objective is, the hypothesis and the justification.
3. NBR 10520 (Standards for citations)
Citations are information brought to the document extracted from other people's texts, such as research data or conclusions. However, as this is not information you obtained from your studies, you should name who did it.
Therefore, you mention in the text where you took certain information. There are three types of citation: direct, indirect and citation citation (which APUD is used to identify).
Direct citation is one in which you remove the entire text and put it in quotation marks, if it is equal to or less than 3 lines, and indented 4 cm from the left margin if it has more than 3 lines.
In turn, indirect citation is one in which you use data from a source, but write in your own words and don't need the quotation marks.
For example: you write that the risk analysis should be performed every six months within large companies and every 8 months in small companies.
In the original text it was: “It is recommended to carry out maintenance every 6 months in large projects and 8 months in small ones”. In this way, you made an indirect quote.
Citation citation, which is recommended for less use as it is of lesser quality, is when you cite information from a text that has cited another author's information. For this, you put the two sources and between them the suffix Apud.
In addition, the norm brings standards for reference, footnotes and explanatory notes, which are less used in the daily routine of academic work, being more restricted to the area of human sciences.
4. NBR 6023 (Bibliographic References Rules)
Bibliographic references refer to the sources used to build the works, as the information consolidated in the development belongs to other people. Therefore, everything is method, metric and standardization.
When placing references in the text, you need to add the font at the end of the sentence. For example: you write that the engineering projects they must be completed within 6 months. At the end of the sentence you will put the font in parentheses.
That is, if you put the phrase “people who smoke are more likely to develop lung cancer”. At the end of the sentence, you must put the following: (LAST NAME, Year). If it is a direct quote, also include the page from which you took it.
As for the complete references of the post-textual elements, they must be placed at the end of the work and have a pattern according to the type of source. As a reference standard, the NBR establishes the following model for articles:
SURNAME, Author. Title of the article. Name of the Magazine in which it was published (bold), v. XX, no. XX, Year of publication.
For books, e-books and book chapters, the following model is adopted:
SURNAME, Author. Book's title (bold). Publisher's name, Ed. XX, Year of publication.
In case of up to three authors, the names must be cited. If there are more than three, quote the first and add the suffix et. al which in Latin means “others”.
5. General rules for formatting
In addition to the specific NBRs, ABNT establishes a standard for document formatting in text editors that make it mandatory in all areas. You should pay attention to the following parameters:
- Type of writing font;
- Paper format;
- Line spacing;
- Paper margin spacing;
- Document text position.
Below are the details established for each of these parameters!
writing font type
The font used in the texts is standardized as Times New Roman or Arial, both with size 12 in the text and 10 in direct citations of more than 4 lines.
paper format
The type of paper to be selected is A4 sheet, corresponding to the bond paper on which printing is carried out later.
Line spacing
The recommendation in the text is 1.5 cm and in direct citations of more than 4 lines, single spaced.
Paper Margin Spacing
The margins must contemplate 3 cm for the left and superior and 2 cm for the right and inferior.
Document text position
All text must be justified, with the exception of references that may be justified or left justified.
Benefits of applying ABNT in your academic work
The ABNT norms exist to standardize the work, as we have seen, and this brings several benefits to the academic area, such as:
- Greater standardization of work;
- Logical sequence of events;
- Better understanding of what was done;
- Greater initial context for understanding;
- Writing organization;
- Greater formality that is required at events.
Therefore, ABNT sets a standard to be followed by everyone and makes the work much easier to read. It might be interesting to carry out online course NR (regulatory norms) to get inside and memorize these patterns.
Understanding the established standards is essential for you to meet the necessary requirements and obtain a smooth approval of your course.
This text was originally developed by the blog team Investment Guide, where you can find hundreds of informative content on different segments.
