Research Paper Formatting Guidelines and Academic Integrity Policy

Task:

The research paper should be typed, double spaced and include a minimum of 20 references. These references should include books, journals, websites (3 maximum), periodicals, research journals, etc. Refereed journals are preferred, however popular and trade magazines may be included (2 maximum). Refereed journal articles located online do not count as websites. Scholarly journals can be found by searching the online databased available through the NCWC library. For assistance in accessing and searching the databases, please visit the link below. https://ncwc.libguides.com/videotutorials Formal language should be used, thus avoiding slangs, contractions, text abbreviations etc. “I” statements which express the personal views and opinions of the student should not be included. Instead outside sources should be used which support and express these views. The only exception is the plan of action, which is the student’s plan for addressing the identified issue/problem, and therefore “I” statements are appropriate in this section. The final paper should be submitted online as a single file. Section headings and subheadings should be included, if appropriate. The final paper will consist of: title page, abstract, introduction, literature review, prevention and intervention strategies, legal analysis, plan of action, and reference list. Failure to submit work by the established deadline will result in the deduction of points for each day it is late. Early submissions are welcomed, but will not be graded until after the due date. VI. Academic Integrity North Carolina Wesleyan College and faculty guarantee the integrity of the academic process. Since cheating and plagiarism are threats to this integrity, all members of the College community must work together to prevent their occurrence (NCWC, 2019). Students are encouraged to review the section, Academic Standards in the College handbook. Specific attention should be given to the section regarding “Plagiarism and Cheating.” Acts of cheating, plagiarism, falsification or attempts to cheat, plagiarize or falsify will not be tolerated. Cheating is defined as the giving or receiving of information illicitly with intent to deceive the instructor in his or her effort to grade fairly any academic work.

Plagiarism is to take and use as one’s own the thoughts, writings, or inventions of another (Oxford English Dictionary). It is plagiarism when one uses direct quotations without proper credit and appropriate quotation marks, and when one uses the ideas of another without written proper credit. Turnitin software is used to submit work which can identify plagiarism, authenticity and ownership of the information. If the professor becomes aware of a potential academic integrity violation, the student will be contacted using the procedures outlined in the College Catalog. If an academic integrity violation has taken place, the instructor reserves the right to assign a grade penalty up to and including an F for the course. If material is included that is not the original thought of the student, then a citation must be included in the text of the document and in the reference list. This applies to paraphrased as well as quoted material. Failure to cite sources will be viewed as a violation of the academic integrity policy.  Format for the Research Paper The final research paper should be submitted as a single file and contain the following: 1) Title Page, 2) Abstract, 3) Introduction, 4) Literature Review, 5) Prevention / Intervention Strategies, 6) Legal Analysis, 7) Plan of Action, and (8) Reference List. The Annotated Bibliography and Outline are NOT included in the final paper. Please see the subsequent information regarding the material to be included in each section. Introduction This is the first section of the research paper and discusses the specific problem to be addressed. The first paragraph should summarize the media clip, news story etc. which illustrates the topic selected. The introduction is the opportunity to get the reader’s attention and to present statistics, rationale etc which explain why this issue is important. It is suggested also that this section address how this problem impacts the reader, society, schools, etc. Make the reader understand the impact on them and thus they will want to read the remainder of the paper. A brief overview of relevant literature should be included, which highlights some of the key research on the topic. This should not be a comprehensive review, as this information is included in a subsequent section. Assume that the reader lacks any knowledge on the topic.

Thus the student will need to educate the reader on the topic and to spell out all acronyms when used the first time. In addition to stating the problem to be addressed, the student will need to include a statement which states the purpose of the assignment. Lastly, include a paragraph outlining what is contained in the paper. Literature Review The purpose of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the information published on the topic. The annotated bibliography, as noted previously, summarizes each publication with no comparing and contrasting of the information. The literature review however, compares and contrasts the information by topic, similarities, differences etc. It is not the recanting of what one author said on the topic followed by the views of another, but rather a critical analysis of the information learned / published from multiple authors/sources. The literature review is composed of the following 3 sections: introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction begins by introducing the topic and presenting the various ways that the topic is viewed in the literature. The body gives is the opportunity to summarize, evaluate, and interpret the information located on the topic, thus arrange the sources and discussions by various perspectives. The conclusion is a summary that provides the reader with an overview of what they have already read. The literature review should be viewed as a funnel, whereby the beginning is a review of general background information, definitions, statistics etc on the topic and then concludes with information specific to the issue/topic selected. Pages should be number with Be sure to number the pages which have a 1-inch margin. The font should be Times Romans 12 only. Include the headings for each section, but remove your name, date, course number etc which may have been included when you submitted the sections previously.  Consider including sub-headings to assist the reader with topic transition. Reference page should be added.