The project for this course will be a literature review for a research proposal. Come up with a general research question and narrow it down into a testable hypothesis. 

This project requires that you write a 10 page (substantive content; do not count the cover page, abstract, or references) APA Style literature review that is the first part of an empirical (quantitative) research proposal.  This review must contain at least 10 scholarly sources (Wikipedia is not scholarly; use peer-reviewed journal articles that report empirical research findings).  

The paper will include your cover page, abstract, reference page, and replace your outline with your actual content.  We will talk a great deal about formal writing as part of the course content, but keep the following points in mind:

• Identify your topic and start doing library research on the first day of class.
• This is a formal writing project:  Use standard English written in a formal style.
• This is an APA Style paper; do NOT use MLA or any other citation system.
• DO NOT USE ANY DIRECT QUOTES longer than a single sentence; cite these properly.
• Cite only scholarly sources; do not use Wikipedia, Encarta, or a dictionary.
• Plagiarism will result in a failing grade; make sure all of your words are your own.

The key thing to understand is that the topic needs to be narrowed down such that someone could actually go out and collect data and write a research report on. This can be kept simple.  Try to identify a simple, causal relationship that you can write a research proposal about.  The general format my instructor is  recommending is “X causes Y.”