research paper

Instructions You must use APA style and formatting! The paper must include title page, introduction which includes

review of related literature along with the last paragraph that states the purpose of your study and

identifies the hypotheses, a methods section that identifies the details of your study, a plan for your

analysis (replaces the results section), and a reference section. The related literature must include at

least 8 PRIMARY SOURCES. Avoid direct quotations – I will allow two brief quotations (i.e., one sentence

each), but you will lose points for more. This is not a long paper and you need to learn to write using

your own words what the authors are communicating. Papers will be posted through TURNITIN on

Moodle. TURNITIN checks for plagiarism.

Submitting Through Turnitin You will submit your initial paper through Turnitin. To do so, go to Moodle and click on the “Turnitin:

Final paper” link. Fill in the information and browse for your paper to upload. WARNING: Make sure you

have closed your paper on your computer before you upload. Otherwise, it may not upload properly.

TURNITIN will thoroughly check your paper for evidence of plagiarism. This includes attempts at simple

rewording of sentences. Papers with a score of greater than 15 will be suspect and over 20 will certainly

require a full review with explanation.

Requirements: APA format (double-spaced with 1” margins) with12 pt Times New Roman font.

Minimum of 8 primary, empirical research articles from peer-reviewed journals.

Introduction and review of the Literature: no more than 12 pages no fewer than 8.

Method: 1 page is acceptable.

Plan for Statistical Analysis: whatever it takes.

APA Format Review: If you are unfamiliar or a bit “rusty” on your APA format, refer to a copy of the Publication manual of the

American Psychological Association. You may also refer to Purdue’s online guide:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/.

Grading Criteria: See the Rubric posted on Moodle.

Further Instructions Find a research topic of interest and gain approval from your QRP advisor. Think ahead by considering your DV (what you will measure) and IV (groups that you will compare). Give thought to how you will recruit subjects (be realistic!) and how you would motivate them to complete your study (be realistic!).

You WILL NOT be collecting data!! You will stop once you have finished your method section (which should include your plan to analyze your hypothetical data). Before settling on a topic, you should review the research literature to see if there is any support for your hypothesis. For example, suppose I found research that supported the idea that early birds (people who get up earlier than most) tend to get more work done in an average day. I could then use this research as support for my hypothesis that students taking morning classes have better grades than students taking classes later in the day.

APA Format After writing your paper, check that you have completed the following:

• The entire document is double-spaced.

• You have used 12-point Times New Roman font. Other fonts are not acceptable.

• You have used 1.0 inch margins on all four sides.

• You have numbered all pages in sequence starting with the Title page.

• You have avoided using personal pronouns and modifiers (e.g., My, me, I, Our, We, etc.).

• Boldface text is only used for headings (see Section 3.03)

• You used five space paragraph indents throughout the body.

• Your title page contains: o A left justified header that contains a “Running head” with an abbreviated title that is capitalized and no

more than 50 characters followed by the page number. o The header must be inserted, not manually entered at the top of each page. o The byline appears centered on the page and consists of the following three lines:

1. Your full title (10-12 word maximum) centered on the page

2. Your name centered (no titles or degrees)

3. Your institutional affiliation centered

• Your abstract is between 150 and 250 words. It is titled, Abstract, which appears centered on the first line. The first line of text is not indented.

• The full title also appears centered on the first line of the Introduction (upper & lower case).

• Every work that is cited in the body is referenced on the Reference page. Likewise, every reference on the Reference page has been cited at least once in the body.

• To cite the work of others, you have either paraphrased or used a direct quote. Make sure all paraphrases have been cited using the author(s) names and dates of publication. Make sure all direct quotes:

1. Have been cited using the author(s) names, dates of pub, and page or paragraph number(s) from which the quote was taken.

2. If quote is 39 or fewer words, it should appear in quotation marks.

3. If a quote is 40 or more words, it should appear as an indented block without quotation marks. 4. When citing others, you made every attempt to paraphrase instead of using quotes. However, if you used

three or more consecutive words from the author(s), you must cite by direct quoting. 5. Do not pick apart and rearrange sentences! This will still be considered plagiarism and result in a failing

grade.

• The title References appears centered on the Reference page. References appear alphabetically by first author’s last name. The first line of each reference is not indented. Subsequent lines are indented five spaces.

• Journal and Text names are italicized, not underlined. Volume numbers are italicized. Issue numbers appear in parentheses and are not italicized. You must include both the first and last page

numbers on journal article references.

• Article titles: Only the first letter of first word and proper nouns are capitalized (and first word after a colon).

• Make sure that electronic (Internet & databases) sources have been referenced correctly. When provided, the DOI number must be included.

• Make sure you have performed a spelling and grammar check on the completed document.

• Make sure that you have thoroughly cited, so that no material has been plagiarized! For help understanding plagiarism, please see https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ .

• Have someone else review your paper for you because it is difficult catch your own typos and errors. Completing this checklist does not guarantee a high grade on your paper. Each research project has different details. You are responsible for knowing such details as outlined in the Style Manual.