Assignment 1: Topical Research Paper (50 points)
Description
This research paper is a broad review of literature surrounding a specific topic or practice related to individuals with intellectual disabilities. It is a review of current literature. It is not a position paper.
Using your text, you may identify several current valued practices that have been reported in the literature as critical to quality service delivery for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a professional in the field, it is important that you examine these issues by reviewing the literature. With this in mind, you are required to choose one of the current valued practices listed, conduct a review of the literature, and write a synthesis of your findings. A section of your lit review must review current policies and practices in Mississippi but the majority of your review should center on federal policy and research based practice. Broad topics are listed here. You may use your text to identify specific topics. Your specific topic must be approved prior to beginning your research paper.
Broad suggestions (you will need to drill down to a specific question under one of these broad topics).
• Family Partnerships
• Transdisciplinary Service Delivery
• Inclusive Environments and Opportunities (including Effective Schools)
• Peer Relationships and Friendships
• Self-Determination and/or Self-Advocacy
• Positive Behavior Support
• Independent and Supported Living
• Competitive and Supported Employment
Helpful tips can be found at http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review
Format for Paper
Your paper must be a minimum of 10 full pages/maximum of 15 pages (no larger than 12 point font, double spaced, one-inch margins and NOT including your title page, abstract or reference pages). It should comply with APA format guidelines (APA VII edition) for manuscript submission. It should build from a minimum of eight peer-reviewed journal articles related to your topic. While you may use more than eight, at least eight of your articles should have been published within the last ten years. Other references such as your text, other books, and other materials may be used but you must include a minimum of eight peer-reviewed articles as foundation for the validity of your review. You will submit your paper via Turn-It-In in Canvas. You will be trying to get a similarity score of less than 30%. You should include no more than 3-5 direct quotes in your paper and if necessary, only 1 quote longer than 40 words.
The following is a basic outline of the format you should follow. Page 4 includes a basic rubric used to evaluate your paper.
Title page/Abstract
I. Introduction
A. Provide an introduction to your topic and a context for the reader to follow the rest of the paper. To do this, you should provide an overview of the specific topic and cite articles, chapters, or books thatintroduce this topic to the reader within the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities.
B. Justify the importance of your topic in general.This section should show how this specific topic fits into the larger field of intellectual and developmental disabilities
C. Justify the relevance of your topic to YOU (This should be one paragraph explaining the appeal of this topic to you. Why are you interested in this? Why did you choose this? How will it improve your practice and/or education? This is the only time first person voice is allowed in this paper and should be restricted to one paragraph.
D. Conclude with a purpose statement that summarizes your introduction AND explains exactly what you are going to do in your paper.
II. Body
A. Divide your paper into logical sections, based on the topic, and then use a heading for each section.
B. Use transition sentences to relate each new section to the previous one.
III. Conclusion
A. Begin with a paragraph that summarizes what your paper was about.
B. Review and highlight the most important
IV. APA Style
A. Formatting (e.g., title page, abstract, content, references, tables/figures, headings, quotes)
B. In text-citations in text-author and year. Do not cite title!
C. Reference list
Scoring Rubric
Notes from the Assignment Description:
Main Ideas
Points allotted
I. INTRODUCTION
Formation of context
Justification of topic
Personalization of topic
Statement of Purpose
/10
II. BODY
a minimum of eight peer-reviewed journal articles related to your topic. Other references such as your text, other books, and other materials may be used but you must include a minimum of eight peer-reviewed articles as foundation for the validity of your review
Logical Sections
Clear points addressing main topic
Support for each point
/20
III. CONCLUSION
Summary of Points Paper
Concluding Points of Importance
/10
IV. APA STYLE:
10 full pages/maximum of 15 pages (no larger than 12 point font, double spaced, one-inch margins and NOT including your title page, abstract or reference pages). It should comply with APA format guidelines (APA VII edition) for manuscript submission.
Formatting
Citations
References
/5
V. Turn It In Rate
get a similarity score of less than 30%
Similarity Score
/5
TOTAL:
/50
