Objective
The purpose of this paper is to enable you to complete an original research project on a relevant topic in the social sciences. Drawing on the extant literature and using your own unique research frame, you will develop and complete a research paper that answers your unique questions about an issue in society. While your own interests will guide your research, it is crucial to use the literature available to develop an informed and professional research paper.
Topic Selection
You have a great deal of personal autonomy in selecting your research topic. The expectation is that you will:
• Select a broad topical area that interests you, such as substance abuse, unemployment, discrimination, violence, or health care.
• Narrow your focus to a particular issue, such as does violence in video games affect behavior in teen-agers?
• Establish clear research questions that enable you to effectively identify what is your focus of inquiry.
• Develop a means of identifying and collecting data to answer your research questions. The methods of data collection and analysis should be linked with and supported by a specific theory in the social sciences.
• Present the findings as applicable to your research questions. Sometimes the most interesting are those that contradict or refute your original claims.
Paper Requirements
After your topic is selected:
• After you have identified a specific topic, you will then develop your own unique area of discussion and analysis:
• Introduction (1) Page
In this section you will give a brief snapshot about your study. Tell us a quick introduction, the extent of the problem, and why it’s an important area to research.
• Literature review (2-3) pages
Here you want to gather some of the scholarly articles you plan to cite in your paper. The articles you gather for this section will help to set a conceptual framework for your study
• Research Questions/Hypotheses (1-2) pages
List at least 3-4 research questions that will guide your overall research process.
• Theory and Methodology (1-2) pages
This should include a description of your intended methods and detailed information about how you will sample and/or set up your observations.
• Findings (1) page
In this section you should provide wrapping up points that attempt to conclude what you believe to be major points/findings. Here you want to hit your audience hard in terms of what you believe they should absolutely walk away with regarding your findings.
• Conclusion (1) Page
In this section provide some solutions to the issues you found. Maybe policy or program suggestions? Changes in the administration of justice? Whatever you deem fit. These are your concluding thoughts.
• References
You must use the APA guide for identifying authors cited in the text as well as the bibliography listing all sources used in alphabetical order. If you are not familiar with APA, there are reference guides in the library as well as on-line sources.
• Format
Papers must be typed, double spaced, with one-inch side, top, and bottom margins and use a 12 point font. A cover page with the title and your name is sufficient.
The minimum page requirement for the paper is 8 pages (NOTE: cover, reference, graphs, figures and, tables pages will not be counted as part of the 8 pages). While I do not specify a maximum length, I am anticipating that most people will submit papers 8-12 pages long.
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