Instructions for Research Paper Research papers are due Tuesday, March 8, at the beginning of class. Submit an electronic copy to Turnitin.com before coming to class. Papers should be 7-10 pages long (no more than 11 pages at most), typed, double spaced, with normal margins and font size of 10 or greater. Put your name at the top of each page. Staple your research design with the OK at the top to the front of the hard copy of your paper. Advice for Writing a Good Paper Your paper should explain something. An explanation consists of three parts: the introduction, which tells the reader what specific thing you are going to explain; the body, which should include a clear statement of your explanation along with the evidence that supports it; and the conclusion, which summarizes what you have written. In the introduction, you tell the reader what you plan to explain and how you plan to explain it. It is a good idea to rewrite the introduction after you have finished your first draft of the whole paper because you will understand what the paper is about better at that point than you did when you began to write. The main part of the paper is the evidence section. It consists of the presentation of facts or evidence and the reasoning from the evidence to the outcome you want to explain. It is very important to explain the mechanisms that connect causes to effects, that is, to explain WHY the cause leads to the outcome. Unsupported opinions do not belong in academic papers. When you make factual or causal assertions, you should cite the source from which you learned the fact or got the idea (if it did not originate in your own mind). See next section for how to cite. Restate your main points in the conclusion. If you wish to speculate about future events, the conclusion is the place to do it. Proofread your paper. If English is not your first language, ask a friend to proofread it for you. How to Cite the Words and Ideas of Others This is a research paper. That means that you are expected to have learned something about the subject you are writing about from sources other than lectures and texts assigned for this class (though you may also use lectures and assigned reading). When you mention a fact, idea, or theory you got from one of these outside sources, cite it in the following way: author’s last name, date of publication, page number, in parenthesis following the sentence mentioning the fact or idea; if it is from a website with an unidentified author, use the article title, date, and url in parenthesis at the end of the sentence in which the fact or opinion is contained. IT IS PLAGIARISM TO USE MORE THAN NINE CONSECUTIVE WORDS FROM A HARD COPY OR INTERNET SOURCE WITHOUT PUTTING THEM INTO QUOTATION MARKS, OR TO USE SOMEONE ELSE’S IDEAS WITHOUT CITING HIM OR HER. PLAGIARISM IS CHEATING AND VIOLATES UNIVERSITY RULES. IF YOUR PAPER INCLUDES PLAGIARIZED SEGMENTS, YOU WILL BE REPORTED TO THE DEAN OF STUDENTS AND YOUR GRADE WILL BE DAMAGED. If you use material from one source in more than one paragraph, cite it at the end of each paragraph where it is used. Do not “paraphrase” by changing just a few words in a paragraph from someone else. Doing so leaves the impression that you do not understand what you are writing. You should synthesize the information from several sources rather than taking all your information from one or two sources. Example of how to cite in the text: “State strength can be interpreted as the state’s ability to preserve itself and its territory” (Huber 1995, 165). At the end of the paper, you should list the full references for the items you have cited in the text and only those references. References listed at the end should be arranged alphabetically by author’s last name, using the format shown in the examples below. Unsigned articles should be listed by title of article.
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]