Your Unit 8 Assignment will allow you to apply all you have learned in the course so far about the writing process, reading comprehension skills, and the research process. You will also learn about a relevant trend in your field of study and communicate relevant information about that change to your educated academic audience.
Your Unit 8 Assignment should be a formal, informative report of 5–6 paragraphs, between 2.5–3 pages long, double-spaced (excluding the title and references pages).
Select a relevant and recent trend in your field of study that others need to know about and understand. Present your knowledge and research about this trend to an audience of experts in the field itself. Your goal is to define for your intended audience what the trend is and explain its relevance to the field of study itself.
As the final draft version of the informative report you began in Unit 5, your Unit 8 Assignment should demonstrate your ability to do the following:
Focus on a specific, relevant, recent, and researchable trend, either positive or negative, in your general field of study. Note: Technology is too broad as a topic, but a specific technological trend like the increased use of cloud computing is a change; obesity is not a trend, but the increase in obesity rates among children is.
Establish a clear thesis about this topic that focuses on the relevance of the trend to the field of study.
Develop your thesis with specific observations, details, analysis, and research information.
Avoid taking a position, making recommendations, or addressing solutions; the paper must be an objective, informative report.
Organize your information logically, using clear transitions.
Use appropriate formal, third-person language, avoiding first- and second-person language.
Integrate three to four relevant and reliable, peer-reviewed secondary sources and demonstrate the ability to summarize and paraphrase source information rather than relying on quotes.
Apply current APA citation format to credit any uses of source information, both when you use the source information within the paragraphs (in-text citations) and in an alphabetically listed references page.
Apply revision, editing, and proofreading strategies to substantially revise your final draft, demonstrating substantial revision of your Unit 6 Assignment and Unit 8 Discussion Board post.
Apply current APA formatting expectations (title page, double-spaced paragraphs, regular one-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman font, for example).
