Papers should include the following content: 

Title Page – including paper title, your name, course prefix and title, and semester

 Statement of the problem or introduction of the topic that will be covered. 

Review of relevant literature Use evidence from peer-reviewed journals in relevant fields to summarize what is known about your topic 

Current “state of affairs” regarding your topic 

Contextualize the issue you are covering within the larger scheme of society

How does this issue affect other parts of society (i.e. economy, social/cultural consequences, education systems, political systems, technological systems, the criminal justice system overall)?

You may use non-academic sources for this section – empirical research above tells us one thing, but what is the larger dialogue in society about this topic and how does that compare to the research literature? 

Implications and Conclusions This is the chance to “bring it all together” 

What does it all mean? Why do we care?

References list (correctly following current APA formatting)

 Guidelines:

You do not need an abstract

 Double-space your paper Include page numbers

 Left justify 

Use spell and grammar checker

 Write clearly and concisely

 Write in 3rd person (e.g., do not use I, we, us, you, etc.) 

Do not use contractions (eg., it is instead of it’s)

 Identify the word count (3000-3500) at the end of the document Include a reference page

 Wikipedia is never an acceptable reference Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles are to be published no earlier than 2018 Direct quotes are to be used sparingly Always cite the author(s) of the article/reference Do not say According to the textbook…. Say According to Smith and Wesson (year)…