This is a term paper for a sports medicine class, so it should focus on the area of exercise and health.
1. Title the paper, double-spaced, 12pt font, times new roman font, 1-inch margins. Saved as a word document (not a PDF)
2. Introduction: Provide context for your topic. Explain the problem that you are researching. What are some common opinions, based on the literature that you have reviewed? Conclude the introduction with a clear and concise sentence discussing what you will be analyzing.
3. Definitions: Provide the reader with some common terms that are used in the literature. Talk about why these terms are important for your topic. Include a pool of terms that are interchangeable, for example, “power energy system” and “phosphagen energy system”. Conclude by defining what your main topic means and some of the vocabulary that is used in the real world for it, for example, “muscle hypertrophy” and “gaining muscle mass”.
4. Literature Review: This part of the paper should make up the bulk of the assignment. Within this section, you will do an in-depth analysis of the journal articles.
a.) It is extremely important to talk about the methodology that each of the papers used. Compare the methodologies between each of those research articles. What was similar? What was different? What was the population that was studied (e.g., older individuals)? What type of treatments did each of these different groups receive? Etc. This will allow you to analyze how well the research study was planned and whether any limitations can be deduced from it.
b.) What were the results found within the article? Do they all add up, or was there something different between them because of the methodologies? Are there any trends that were similar that can help you make assumptions about your topic?
c.) Do the authors suggest any treatments (i.e., holistic vs. conventional) or prevention strategies, if your topic involves them?
d.)Finally, what do the authors conclude? Do they all have similar opinions on the topic? How can those opinions translate into real-world applications?
e.) You may choose to break this down by sections of a scientific journal or by responses, such as the effects of sleep deprivation on anxiety, hormone levels, mood, cardiovascular strain, exercise performance, etc.
5. Discussion: Summarize your findings into a small paragraph. What were some common trends that you found amongst all of the papers? How would you change the methodology of the research articles? What should further research focus on? Lastly, include any concluding remarks or an overarching statement about your research topic.
6. References: A minimum of 5 peer-reviewed articles. Review articles that summarize other studies will not count toward one of your citations. The references and in-text citations should follow APA formatting guidelines.
I will attach an example term paper and how it should be formatted and done! Thank you so much!
