Course Texts:
American Corrections, 11th Edition, with Cengage MindTap Access Card
Clear, Reisig & Cole
Cengage Learning, 2016
ISBN-13: 9781305093300
Term Paper Instructions
A. This is a five to eight (5-8) page paper on any topic about or affecting the Correctional system. While there are many social issues you may wish to write about, keep in mind that this is a class about corrections, not psychology, sociology, ethnicity, or criminology. If you have a burning social issue you wish to write about, you must write about it in respect to how the social issue impacts the correctional system.
There must be a minimum of five (5) supporting references found on the Works Cited page.
1 reference can be the text.
Note: The five to eight pages refer only to the content pages and do not include the cover page or works cited page.
Scope of Paper:
Keep your paper focused on local, state and national correctional issues within the United States. This does restrict you from discussing worldwide correctional issues as they compare and relate to local, state and national issues, but it does mean that most of your paper to be discussing the U. S. perspective rather than spending most or all of your paper on international views and concerns.
discuss in this term paper how and if the rehabilitation process works and how effective it is in getting offenders ready to be a productive citizen in society. How can we (the criminal justice system) get these offenders ready to be accepted by employers. Feel free to add additional ideas if needed.
I. Cover Page – This is a required part of the paper
1) Always give your paper an original title unless you are given a specific title for the paper.
2) The title must reflect the focus of the paper even though originality is always appreciated. For example, “Tears of Society: A discussion of the social impact of police brutality” could as easily discuss the anguish of an officer’s family dealing with the accusation of brutality as well as it might discuss the views of society concerning brutality.
3) Center the information on the page in a manner that is pleasing to the viewer.
4) First appearances do count. A neat cover page goes a long way towards any professor’s positive attitude when reading/grading your papers.
II. Content Pages – SPECIFIC TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
Read this section carefully and follow the requirements
1) Page one: The first line on the first page is the TITLE of the paper. Yes, write it again, even though you just put it on the cover page. Center the title on this line.
2) Margins – Margins are to be one & one-half inches all around, meaning top, sides and bottom. (Not the 1¼” default found in MS Word.) The only exception is the first content page, which has a two inch top margin (that page only).
3) Justification: Also, use a left justification for your paper. Do not use a center justification.
4) Length of paper: The required length of any paper is given in the course syllabus; however, a 5-8 page paper means at least five FULL content pages. Also, a 5-8 page paper means no more than eight pages.
5) Font Size: The font size for the content and Works Cited pages is 12;
7) Letter Style: Use Times New Roman throughout the paper.
8) Numbering Pages: The first page of the content section is numbered Page 1 and centered at the bottom of the page.
9) Note: The cover page does not count as a numbered content page.
10) Spacing: Double-space your paper.
11) Cites: Make sure that you properly cite the information within your paper. I expect to find your “Works Cited” material properly noted (meaning properly cited) throughout your paper.
12) Quotes: If you are writing a quote, the rule of thumb is three lines or more require indentation and single spacing. If the quote is less than three lines just use quotation marks within the sentence.
13) Paragraphing: Indent new paragraphs. Because you are already double-spacing, do not double, double-space between paragraphs.
14) Contractions: Do not use contractions such as I’m, we’ll, don’t, can’t, won’t, haven’t in a paper unless it is part of a quote. Write it out, most of you will need to find something to fill space with anyway.
15) Page numbers – Bottom center is preferred (at least 1/2″ from bottom), however, every word processing program has its own idiosyncrasies so do your best, but be sure they are somewhere.
16) Name – The only place for your name is on the cover page. Do not put your name in an upper header with the page number or at the bottom.
17) Use upper and lower case letters. Do not use all CAPS
18) Citations – When citing a source use the APA format. The complete source will be listed on the “Works Cited” page. Do not use footnotes in this paper. Make sure that you cite your sources within the paper itself and not just on the Works Cited Page.
19) Headers/sub-headings: when using headers or sub-headings in a paper make sure that you have at least one line of text beneath. It is not correct to have a header or sub-heading at the bottom of a page and the first paragraph starting on the top of the next page. If you run into this type of situation just hit an extra return to take the header to the next page. An extra line of white space is preferable to a “widowed” header or sub-heading.
III. Works Cited Page (versus a Bibliography)
1) The difference between a “bibliography” and a “works cited” page is that a “bibliography” lists all of the sources you have used in researching your topic whether you actually cite them or not, while a “works cited” page lists only those sources you have cited in your paper.
2) Page Heading: On the first line of this page, in bold caps and centered, write the words WORKS CITED.
3) Defining style: Use the APA for determining how to list your sources.
4) Spacing FYI: Single space within each entry. Even if the APA is showing you to double space the entries themselves, do not double space within a cited entry, use single spacing and only double space as noted in number 5 below.
5) Spacing FYI: Double space between listed sources.
6) Alphabetize the entries according to the last names of the author. (If there are multiple authors for a single used source, then the last name of the first author listed in the article or book is used for alphabetizing purposes.)
7) Use Hanging Indents when listing your sources. If you do not know what a hanging indent looks like then be sure to look at the Works Cited page on the file titled, “Example of Basics for Paper”.