Research Paper Assignment

Title Page (ASA Style)

Abstract (this should be the only thing on the 2nd page of your paper)

ALL PAGES SHOULD BE DOUBLE SPACED.

Brief summary of paper (purpose of paper, major findings, and implications).

**Write this section after you have finished writing your paper.

Section I.  Introduction (no heading for this section: 1-2 pages)

          Describe in detail the scope and trends in the social phenomenon that you are investigating.  Ensure that you include information about why this is an important topic to study (what are the consequences to individuals, groups or society) if relevant and if possible provide national statistics or the best information available that describe the scope (size) of the problem.

***Use academic journal articles or government publications/statistical information available on the web as sources for this section.

The last sentence of this section should be the thesis statement (or research question) for your paper.

Section II.  (1-2 paragraphs)

Methodology: describe how articles for your literature review were collected, describe how many articles are used in your review (should match the number on your table) and summarize the topics included in the literature review Section.  Include a Table that summarizes the important aspects (themes) of the literature in this area.

Literature Review. (6-8 pages)

            This section should be comprised of a review of the literature that is relevant to your thesis statement.  This section may have multiple sub-headings that should be consistent with aspects (dimensions/ themes) of the problem (phenomenon) identified in your research question or thesis statement.  Fully describe each area that has been researched by integrating results from all articles that address a particular sub-topic of your research area. You may have some sub-topics that have been addressed by only one research article; but, where two or more articles investigate one topic the information across articles should be integrated in your description of results of the research.  You can also discuss the conclusions drawn by the authors of the studies about the results, again these should be organized according to the sub-topics.  So for each sub-heading in your literature review, there should be a discussion for research finding and then authors conclusions about these results.

(This section should consist entirely of information obtained from academic journal articles or scholarly books that are displayed on your Table).

Section IV.  Discussion (1-2 pages)

            In this section you need to briefly summarize the important findings from the literature review, then you should identify 1.) the gaps in the literature; 2.) policies of CJ system and/or other institutions and 3.) practices that need to be supported, modified or investigated in order to prevent or reduce the likelihood of this type of problem from occurring in the future.

References (1-2 pages)

The reference list and the in-text citations should be in ASA format. References are double spaced in hanging paragraphs; the list is double spaced.

Dont forget that all pages should be numbered with the exception of the title page.