PAPER TOPIC: U.S BORDER PROTECTION WALL
The paper should be approximately 7 pages in length (not including a cover page or references). It should contain at least 5 references to related intelligence topics or concepts that have been discussed throughout the entire course. When relating the intelligence topics, remember it can be explained from the standpoint of:
1). How was intelligence use?
2) How is intelligence currently being used?
3) How could intelligence have been used?
Your paper should be a persuasive research paper, aimed at informing a decision maker. Your decision maker cannot be the general public, but an individual or group of individuals who are empowered to act upon your analysis/research (i.e. Corporate CEO, Congress, police detective, Commander, County Commissioner, etc.). Based upon your research, you should be able to draw strong conclusions about your topic, related to intelligence. Your paper should also include at least 3 intelligence related recommendations for the decision maker.
Guidelines for writing:
1. Content: – Your paper should be produce by deriving intelligent generalizations from accurate and appropriate facts. Note the combination. Your paper should not contain definitions only. Generalizations without supporting evidence are insufficient. I strongly recommend the inclusion of statistical information or data to support your argument.
2. Organization: – From the beginning, make sure the reader knows what you intend to do and how you intend to do it. The biggest help is to think of a meaningful title and write a detailed abstract (it may help to look up the difference between an introduction and an abstract). Then lead your reader through your argument step by step, making sure there are no breaks in your logic. Finally, your conclusion should be written so that your reader is in no doubt as to where you stand an why.
3. Documentation: – When you borrow facts or ideas from someone else, you must acknowledge the borrowing. Failure to do so is plagiarism (refer to the Academic Honesty section of the syllabus). Papers must include a list of references which cites all of your sources, and must include citations within the paper for each time you borrow ideas or facts.
The easiest way to cite a source is in line with the text rather than footnotes. This approach uses the author(s) name(s), followed by a year if there is more than one piece by the sane person(s) in one year, followed by a page number.
4. Mechanics: – Your writing should be grammatically correct and correctly punctuated. Use a dictionary to check doubtful spelling and a thesaurus to select the best word in case you have any doubts. Please proof read you work. It should not contain typographical errors or run-on sentences.
5. Illustrations: – Writing is often clarified by using photographs, graphs or maps. Three pointers if you decide to use illustrations: A. Use illustrations because you need then, not for window dressing. B. Illustrations are seldom self explanatory. You will almost always need captions to tell the reader what to look for, notice, and learn. Take care with them as with any other kind of writing. C. When you use illustrations, you are trying to get across an idea. Anything that helps is good, anything that interferes is bad.
6. Final Paper: – The final paper should be typed, following the formatting guide provided.
