Now it’s time to put all of your project components together into a final five-seven page APA research paper. The research paper is designed to enhance your learning on a topic from the course, provide you with an opportunity to work on your writing skills, give you the time to research scholarly sources and finally, teach yourself to construct an upper-level writing assignment within a timed period and under specific guidelines.
Instructions: The actual paper must follow all of the written instructions that are required for all professional paper submissions. However, the basic requirements of the paper are:
It will be presented in a formal research paper, with a research question, and formal language (i.e. not first person language). NOTE: This is not a report paper, so you should have a question that you are supporting with evidence throughout the paper, not simply reporting on a topic. See the following resource for more description on this difference: http://askalibrarian.mwcc.edu/faq/85227
It will be at least five pages in length and no longer than seven. See how to number your pages below for this assignment.
It must include five-seven sources in the reference list, AND one of these must be your course text from class. You may also use more than seven sources, but you may not use less than five.
The paper must be formatted within APA guidelines, including the citation and reference format. Provide both in-text citations (author date format) and a reference list of your sources. All sources should be cited within the document.
Follow all APA writing guidelines for a research paper (e.g. include a Title Page, abstract, running head, etc.). Remember to make sure anything in the header section (running head and page numbers) match the font style of the text in your paper. See the following OwlPurdue link for more information: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html
The paper should contain each of these areas:
Title Page (this needs to be in APA format, see the above link for more information. Write out the course name. Do not number this page for this assignment)
Abstract (this needs to be a separate page with key words at the end of the Abstract. For this assignment start page number 1 on your Abstract)
Introduction to the paper (this should start with an interesting statement or points or a research question, then include your thesis statement, along with the final sentence which previews the points to be covered in the body of the paper. Refer to your research outline.)
Body paragraphs (three-five paragraphs depending on how many main points you have identified, and all of these points should support your thesis statement. Refer to your research outline)
Conclusion (this should restate your thesis and the points covered that provided support, and then wrap things all together with an interesting statement to conclude)
Reference list (all sources in this section in APA format. One of these sources must be your course text from class. Your 5-7 page count will not include the reference list for this assignment. )
Page numbering for this assignment:
– Title Page, do not number
– Abstract, start page 1
– Introduction, Body paragraphs, Conclusion will be page 2 up to at least page 5 but no longer than 7 pages
– Reference list, you can continue with the page numbering but they do not count towards the 5-7 total pages for this assignment. One of these sources must be your course text from class
Please reach out early if you have questions, this is not an assignment that you want to wait for the last minute to write!
Originality Review: It is expected that all work submitted for this course is original to the student author, and has not be submitted previously to another course, or to another section of this course. Each student submission will be submitted to the MSU Originality Checker “Unicheck” and a report will be provided to the student and instructor based on the originality of the work being presented. Submissions that receive a high non-originality percentage (i.e. material that is indicated as not original to the paper) will be reviewed by the instructor and discussed with the student. Situations of suspected plagiarism may be reported to the MSU Academic Misconduct committee, as described in course expectations and institutional policies (please refer to the Course Information Module for more description.)
