Research Paper

Research Paper Instructions

You will write an 8–10 page research paper (references excluded) on an organizational communication topic of your choosing. This is a course on Organizational Communication—and you take it to apply the lessons to your life, to what you do or will do in organizations. For your Research Paper, you may write about any topic suggested by your textbook that interests you, and that you think holds value for you as you pursue a career—or contemplate doing so.

Our textbook has many applications for the workplace. So YOU CHOOSE THE TOPIC or ISSUE for the paper. Also, your topic for the paper will serve as the topic for the Literature Review.

Your Research Paper should have the following sections, all formatted according to current APA format (these guidelines may be found at our Liberty University Online Writing Center ). Your Research Paper should include these sections in this order:

· Introduction

· Literature Review

· YOUR Argument/Assertion/Theory and Hypothesis (or Hypotheses)

· Your Research Approach (how you went about putting together your understanding in such a way as to cause you to take a position on this subject—in this case, a LITERATURE REVIEW)

· Results

· Suggestions for Further Research/Study

· Conclusion

· References (the works cited in your paper)

Note: Not all sections are created equal. Some of the above may be a paragraph or 2, while others may be a few pages.

Safe Assign Submission

Safe Assign software is an educational tool that shows students the originality of the work they are submitting. Since any research paper you write will include ideas or quotations that do not belong to you, it is important that you not only give credit where it’s due, but also strive for originality. Before submitting this paper to the instructor, submit a draft of the paper to the Safe Assign link in the Tools area of your Blackboard menu. What is your score? Will you need to rewrite portions of your paper? The following guidelines for analyzing submissions are provided by the Safe Assign developers:

The overall score is an indicator of what percentage of the submitted paper matches existing sources. This score is a warning indicator only and papers should be reviewed to see if the matches are properly attributed.

· Scores below 15 percent: These papers typical include some quotes and few common phrases or blocks of text that match other documents. These papers typically do not require further analysis, as there is no evidence of the possibility of plagiarism in these papers.  

· Scores between 15 percent and 40 percent: These papers include extensive quoted or paraphrased material or they may include plagiarism. These papers should be reviewed to determine if the matching content is properly attributed.  

· Scores over 40 percent: There is a very high probability that text in this paper was copied from other sources. These papers include quoted or paraphrased text in excess and should be reviewed for plagiarism.

Once you have reviewed the report on your paper generated by Safe Assign, made the modifications to your paper (if needed), submit your final paper through the submission link located in Module/Week 5.

The Research Paper is due by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday of Module/Week 5. Late submissions will not be accepted.