Research Paper Guidelines – Course Research Proposal

Research Paper Guidelines – Course Research Proposal

Students will complete a Course Project in this class. It is worth 25% of your final grade and is a research project. Students will prepare a written report in APA format on a topic provided or approved by the instructor. The research must deal with content from the course. You must include at least 6 concepts/principles/key terms from the textbook. Identify each with bold font. If approval is required, you must turn in your proposed topic for your instructor’s approval before you begin writing. Writing on an unapproved topic will result in a zero for this project.

Your course project is a RESEARCH project and not based on your opinion. The following link is great about how to write a research paper: How Do You Write a Good Research Paper¹. That said, a few tips: Do not use “I” in a research paper. Your paper is about your research, not you. Do not state opinions or try to “fix” something. Simply, tell the reader what the research says, and answer the question “So what?”–what conclusion should your audience draw, based on your research?

Length: 5 -7 full pages (title page, abstract (if provided), reference page, graphs, etc. do not count towards page count)

Sources: Six (6) academic/peer reviewed/primary resources.

APA Guidelines:

All papers must be in proper APA format which includes at least the following:

• A properly formatted title page that is doubled-spaced and includes your name, title of paper, and School’s name in the center of the page.
• All papers must be double-spaced, with a Times New Roman, Courier New, or Arial size 12 pt. font.
• Include section headings. Section headings should be bolded. Always include an Introduction and Conclusion section. An abstract is not required.
• Indent the first line of each paragraph 0.5” from the left margin.
• You must include a reference page. References must be properly formatted, double-spaced, with the first line of the entry left justified, and following lines of the entry a hanging indent.