Research Paper – Read these instructions thoroughly
Course Value This Assignment counts for 20% of your APUS final course grade.
Deadline: The Research Paper is due the Monday following Week 7. Note that Week 7 and Week 8 have more than one assignment per week. You are strongly advised NOT to delay beginning work on your paper. It can’t be completed in a few days prior to the due date.
Objective: This assignment, in accordance with undergraduate academic standards, provides an opportunity to assimilate course topics, and sharpen and evaluate research & critical thinking skills. The paper is developed using a combination of course and outside academic materials; analyzed and presented in essay form.
Type: This assignment consists of a 2100-word, 7-page research paper. Specific kinds of outside materials and all course required reading materials may be used.
Topic: Select your topic from the following themes:
| Psychological Motivation for Terrorism |
| Sociological Motivations for Terrorism |
| Political Motivations for Terrorism * |
| Religious Motivations for Terrorism * |
| The Psychological Effect of Suicide Terrorism |
| The Importance of the Leader to the Success of a Terrorist Group |
| The Psychology of Terrorist Group Recruitment |
| Group Dynamics in Terrorist Groups |
| A Critical Analysis of One of the Course Texts ** |
|
NOTE: Remember that these are THEMES, not titles. The topic that you will choose should be a more narrowly defined topic within one of these general themes.
* If choosing either of these areas, you must keep in mind that the assignment is not to write a treatise on politics or religion but rather to articulate how either might play an integral role in shaping the ideology and actions of a particular terrorist movement. ** This should NOT be misconstrued as an easy assignment. Consider it a VERY advanced form of book report. You will need to present a thorough review of the central tenets of the specific book (no partial summaries of more than one book allowed) that demonstrates that you read it cover to cover, identify and thoroughly describe a minimum of five key themes and how they are particularly useful to understanding of terrorist psychology, and identify and describe five related insights you gained from reading the book. This cannot be a “the book said” type of summarizing only report. Your professor has already read the book and needs much more to evaluate your understanding of it! 😉 |
Format: This paper must be no less than 2100 words not including the title and source citation “References” pages (it is strongly recommended that you use MSWord “Word Count” function under the “Tools” menu to check this before submitting) and written in APA style.
Font: Ariel size 11 or Times New Roman size 12, double-line spacing must be used throughout. The website, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ is the best known, most practical and easy to understand APA formatting guideline resource. On the left side of that website you will find general writing tips, worth checking out if you struggle with grammar and other writing rules. On the right side you will find the APA formatting guide links (scroll down until you get to “All Sections in APA Formatting and Style Guide” and click on the orange links). There is also a sample cover page on this website—something some students have never seen before but not hard to do if you have a sample as included on this site.
Location: In the Classroom, click on “Assignments”, then “Research Paper”. You will need to upload your completed paper (in MSWord .doc format only, no .docx, .wps or .wpd papers will be accepted) into your Student Folder. Be sure to click the “Request Grading” box on the lower right side of the upload screen. Without this your Professor won’t see your paper in the “Workload” folder, a folder with submitted assignments awaiting grading.
Research: Students must conduct their own research. This doesn’t mean conducting an experiment (research in the most traditional sense of the word) but rather locating and reading published resources on the topic and weaving what they say together by paraphrasing (summarizing IN YOUR OWN WORDS—NO COPYING ALLOWED!) into a well articulated paper that an intelligent but uninformed reader can understand (for this paper pretend your professor doesn’t have expertise in these topics and write accordingly). You should think about how you could succinctly yet fully address your topic for such a reader. You may research for any published material as long as it meets the criteria for scholarliness below, but are advised to seek at least two confirming sources in cases of doubt or question.
Sources for this paper must be cited in the paper body and in an attached “References” page and must include at least one article accessed through the APUS online library. Students may also include any of the course required readings, Internet web sites—all must be academic (Wikipedia and blogs are not acceptable because non-experts often contribute to the former and the latter are opinion and often slanted publications). Here you are looking for reputable and non-biased authors. Personal reflections may not be included in this assignment. That style of writing is more appropriate for a journaling assignment, but isn’t allowed here.
Content: The paper subject content must be broad and well organized within the confines of 7 paper body pages. Be sure not ramble on and on about a very narrow aspect of your topic (e.g. the history of a particular religion) at the expense of the broader view and then tack on a quick attempt to address everything else in a few paragraphs at the end of the paper. Here you are discussing and academically dissecting multiple aspects of the topic, paying special attention to the three major components of a paper: Introduction, Critical Context & Integrative Conclusion, as well as citing your sources properly.
Citation of Information Sources: Multiple published sources (a minimum of 7 with 2 outside the course materials/texts required) must be used in the development of the paper and all must be cited in the paper body and a References page attached to the end per APA style. NO COPYING of any kind is allowed in this paper and will result in a score of zero with no opportunity for revision. You must paraphrase (read and summarize in your own words) the materials used. Paraphrasing requires more than merely moving published paragraphs, sentences, words or ideas around. Doing so will result in heavy point loss.
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