homeland security and defense
For your final research paper in this course you will write an analytical research paper addressing a major issue of your choosing from among the topics covered in this course. As a research paper, your paper will have to answer a significant puzzle related to a course topic. In this preliminary assignment, you are expected to identify a paper topic, to outline the puzzle/research question your paper is going to address, and to offer a justification for this paper based on preliminary research.
Chapters One thru Five of the Turabian manual are a great resource for this assignment.
The following link is also a good resource for your research paper.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/02/
For this assignment you are essentially doing the first three elements of your research paper from the outline provide in the Research Paper Outline Attachment. The length of this document should range from five (5) to nine (9) pages in length.
Select a topic. The tendency will be to select too broad a topic. The length of the paper should be kept in mind in order that you will select a topic that can be explored adequately within the paper limit. For this assignment you are expected to complete the following.
• Title Page of the Paper. The title of your paper should be brief but should adequately inform the reader of your general topic and the specific focus of your research. Keywords relating to parameters, population, and other specifics are useful. The Title Page must include the title, name, course name and number, and Professor’s Name.
I. Introduction, Research Question, and Hypothesis: This section shall provide an overview of the topic that you are writing about, a concise synopsis of the issues, and why the topic presents a “puzzle” that prompts your research questions, which you will include. This section will be 1-2 pages. This section can be preceded by an epigraph that creates interest in the topic. Ensure that you follow proper format for epigraphs!!
II. Review of the Literature: All research projects include a literature review to set out for the reader what knowledge exists on the subject under study and helps the researcher develop the research strategy to use in the study. A good literature review is a thoughtful study of what has been written, a summary of the arguments that exist (whether you agree with them or not), arranged thematically. At the end of the summary, there should still be gaps in the literature that you intend to fill with your research. It is written in narrative format and can be from 3-5 pages depending on the scope and length of the paper.
As a literature review, this section should identify the common themes and theories that the prior research identified. In this section what you do is look at the conclusions of prior research and identify what the common themes are you see in those conclusions. You then identify those themes. A good site to explain what a literature review is: http://www.york.cuny.edu/~washton/student/Org-Behavior/lit_rev_eg.pdf
III. Methodology and Research Strategy: This section provides the reader with a description of how you carried out your qualitative research project, and the variables you identified and analyzed. It describes any special considerations and defines any limitations and terms specific to this project, if necessary. This section can be brief or more complicated, depending on the project, written in 1-2 pages.
IV. References (or Bibliography): This section will contain all references, cited in Turabian format and alphabetically arranged. Entitle this section as either “References” or “Bibliography” depending on the type of citation you use in the rest of the paper. You should have been compiling these and adding to them as you’ve gone along. They should be error free!!!
Scoring Rubric:
A copy of the complete scoring rubric for this assignment is provided in the Writing Resources module within the course lessons. The following is a synopsis of that rubric.
Area of Evaluation
Maximum Points
Focus/Thesis 20
Content/Subject Knowledge 20
Critical Thinking Skills 20
Organization of Ideas/Format 20
Writing Conventions 20
Technical Requirements:
Length: 5-9 pages, double spaced, 1″ margins, 12 pitch type in Times New Roman font, left
Citations/References: You must use the Turabian Reference List (Parenthetical) style for this assignment.
Submission: All work is to be submitted as an attachment to the assignment link by midnight on the due date. All work should be prepared in Microsoft Word format and submitted as an attachment.
Class
In addition to the main guidance of this assignment, here are a few more thoughts that may help you as you craft your final paper.
General Outline of paper
Introduction (sets the context) [1 ½-2 Pages]
Problem (what is the issue you see)
Purpose (of your paper and research)
Research Question
Theoretical framework
Literature Review – [3 ½ to 5 Pages]
Theme A
Theme B
Theme C
Research Method – [1 – 1 ½ Pages}
This section should discuss the research methodology, its design and appropriateness, the data collection procedures, and an examination the validity of the design and data analysis methodology.
Findings and Analysis [3 – 5 Pages}
Analysis – How data was collected. (Ties back to your research method). Where the data came from and how you analyzed that data (i.e. coding for themes)
Findings (Findings will normally be broken down into themes that you have identified from the data. This is your analysis of the data, much as you did in the literature review where you identified the theme that researcher discovered with their study. In most cases you will have more than one theme that you identify.
Theme A
Theme B
Theme C
Conclusions and Recommendations [2 – 3 Pages]
Findings and Interpretations (In this section you provide an interpretation of the findings from the previous section. Often easiest to use same construct as previous section and call out the findings and what your analysis is of that finding)
Recommendations (What are you recommending as a result of the interpretation of the findings? Change in law, process, policy, etc.).
Any recommendations for future research
Summary/Conclusion – Last few paragraphs should tie it all together. Recap of problem, findings, and recommendations.
Here is some supplemental guidance to go with the above outline.
Literature Review – The idea of the literature review is to see what the past research has shown. As you worded this it is as if you picked literature to answer questions versus finding the themes from the past research and building your research on that foundation. As a literature review, this section should identify the common themes and theories that the prior research identified. In this section what you do is look at the conclusions of prior research and identify what the common themes are you see in those conclusions. You then identify those themes. A good site to explain what a literature review is:http://www.york.cuny.edu/~washton/student/Org-Behavior/lit_rev_eg.pdf
Analysis and findings are not the same as conclusions. In the analysis component of this section you identify how you analyzed the data. The second part is the finding you got from your analysis of the data. The findings are the facts that you developed, not your interpretation of the facts. That interpretation is conducted in the conclusions and recommendations section of the paper. Findings will come from the prior research you examined and your analysis of those prior findings to create new findings for your paper. While there may be some facts that are such that they will stand and translate to your paper, the intent is to create new knowledge, so you will normally analyze the data to create your own findings of what facts that data represents.
Conclusions and Recommendations is the section where you give your interpretation of the data. Here you tell the reader what the findings mean. Often the conclusions and recommendations sections will mirror the findings in construct as the researcher tells the reader what that researcher sees as the meaning of that data, their conclusions. Then, drawing on those conclusions, the researcher tells the reader what they believe needs to be done to solve/answer the research question. This section may include recognition of any needs for further research and then finishes with a traditional conclusion to the paper as a whole.