Psychology

Research Paper

Each student will be required to complete the a 10-15 page research paper. The paper should have at least 10 full pages of content not including the cover, abstract, and reference pages. The Research Paper must be in a Word Document (.doc) uploaded to the Assignment section of the classroom. Students will be required to use at least six scholarly references from the AMU online library databases. Although, good papers provided many more sources including those studied in our class.

Your research paper must be formatted in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association Seventh Edition (APA style 7th edition). You can find help with APA Style guidelines within the AMU Online Library or at www.apastyle.org. Do not copy large sections of text verbatim, cited or not cited, from the Web or your paper will be penalized. You must cite within the paper per APA standards. Papers submitted to previous classes or other universities are not permitted.

Research Paper Topics – Please select a topic covered in this course that you are interested in researching. You are required to provide a well-developed analysis of the topic. You should utilize your critical thinking skills and demonstrate your understanding of the criminal justice material you learned. Send your topic selection to your instructor for approval by Week 4.

The paper should be of high quality, free of spelling and grammatical errors, and of original work. Plagiarism will not be permitted, and occurrences of it will result in the procedures outlined in the “Student Handbook.”

Do not copy sections of text, charts, tables, pictures, or grafts verbatim, cited or not cited, or your paper will be penalized.  Do not quote at all – in a paper this short, I want to see you paraphrase and/or summarize information in your word backed by sources cited within the paper per APA standards. Check out the Purdue OWL site if you don’t know the difference between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Papers submitted to previous classes or other universities are not permitted.

References like “Wikipedia,” “Psychology Today,” and “Court TV” are not primary sources, are not peer-reviewed (reviewed for empirical integrity, accuracy, and authenticity), and are not appropriate references for scholarly writing (with the possible exception of use for anecdotal background information).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you have submitted the assignment, it is automatically run through a plagiarism checker by the end of week 7. You MUST be below a 20% match to other sources.