I had the exact same question until it discovered my university library's Electronic Catalog. If I'm on a hot streak, I'll even find a few research papers on the web, but this is a very rare occourance and sometimes their sources are "BS'ed" as the saying goes. :lol:
I've only used the MLA and APA citation styles for sources. There's an excellent summary of them at **broken link removed**.
As for writing style, there are just conventions you tend to pick up on after reading other papers. Don't speak in the 1st person, don't use contractions, "i"s dotted, "t"s crossed, you know the rest. Academia is obsessed with all the formalaties, but since you're a student, you'll probably have a technical writing class your sophomore year that will cover technical writing.