two hmw of community and service

Rough Outline for Integrative Paper

Integrative Paper Outline

As you begin to think more about the content and organization of your Integrative Paper, please review the purposes of the paper and the outline below. If you have not had the opportunity to write a scholarly paper in your own discipline, this is an excellent time to begin. It will be new and possibly a challenge. Please do not hesitate to contact me regarding this assignment and its various components. Most of all, do not be afraid to tackle this task.

The integrative paper is designed to be a thoughtful, scholarly work. This means that it should follow scholarly research procedure--although little, if any, formal, original data collection will be conducted by you. However, a significant part of your research will include a comprehensive literature review gathering support for your ideas about your topic from what other scholars have written about the subject. Be sure to give them credit for their ideas by proper citations. The writing style to be used in citing published materials from others in the body of your paper and the Reference Page will be APA style. See Kent library online for a review of APA style.

It is important to state the social issue as a problem that needs to be addressed. You then articulate the nature of the problem, the extent of the problem, outcomes or consequences, and possible solutions. So try to view your social issue in this way.

The Integrative Paper is an integration exercise, relating the community service experience to one social issue surrounding human need. You may be aware of a number of social issues, concerns, or problems experienced by people that are being met by your volunteer site and your volunteer activities. You write on only one. The volunteer experience and the issue(s) inherent in the experience will be viewed and integrated using the concepts of the Course Perspective. The Course Perspective can illuminate causation as well as possible interventions. Please give careful attention to the application of the concepts we have been using throughout the course.

In developing the paper you, as a volunteer, must be able to articulate the volunteer's role in addressing your social concern. Generally, the social concern may be the specific focus, or one of the concerns, of the agency or program in which you are volunteering. This will require you to think critically and make informed judgments about the causes and solutions related the condition. As an example: you may consider tutoring as as addressing a need arising from the lack of resources in the environment (or home) to adequately assist a child in successfully completing life stage task connected to cognitive or social development and/or education. You will need to then develop a statement as to why this condition is a problem along with the impact that the agency and its resources, including its volunteer support, is attempting in order to remedy the problem.

The course concepts must be identified as they relate to the problem and their application to the problem is also very important. The idea is that you can experience first hand how your volunteer activity is a response from the environment to assist (from the example above) the child in reaching their potential. The integrative paper will be your final analysis and integration of the service learning experience. It will contain significant reflection and evaluation and demonstrate your ability to apply what you have learned, both in class and through volunteering, to the human experience in a comples, interdependent world. (University Studies Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

The following outline applies to your rough outline and your final outline. It is made available here so you can study and reflect upon the content that needs to be in each heading. The rough outline is the one you create initially and you should feel free to add your own special headings to illuminate other aspects of the social issue or volunteer experience (for example: a review of your agency). So create your outline for the Rough Outline assignment, which means adding any special headings, to the mandatory outline below. Briefly describe what your paper will contain in each of the headings. Your outline will then be carried over to the final outline where you might make changes to your initial effort. Thanks.

Ok, here is the mandatory outline and it should appear in your paper and can be modified by the addition of any special headings you wish. These additional headings, or content, are enhancements to your paper.

1. Introduction--what is this paper going to be about (what is your topic) and how are you going to present information about your topic in the paper? Stay brief and concise.

2. Statement of the problem--state what social problem or issue you are addressing by describing it a little. State it as a problem. In other words, make a case for the relevance of the problem or issue by citing a`source or two that agrees that it is a problem

3. Review of relevant literature and theory--note that you will look carefully at a representative selection of the most recent literature that also identifies this problem or a problem similar to it. You are going to write about your problem, the nature and extent of the problem, its consequences, and solutions as well as recommendations for resolving the problem. This should represent the bulk of your work for your paper.

4. Findings (data from your literature search and volunteer observations). Your observations would be considered antedotal information and not be valid research, however, your experience may add support to your more formalized research.

5. Integration of the course concepts into your paper. You will describe how each concept is found in your specific social issue. You will give good examples with discussion of how the examples apply to the concept.

6. Conclusions (a summary of what the literature and you has to say about the causes and solutions to your social problem).

7. Recommendations for further research or study.

8. Works Cited Page--those references you actually used in your paper

9. Reference Page--additional readings, etc., that may not have been used directly but read for information

The pieces of the Integrative paper have due dates for specific components which will be identified in the Weekly Assignments page of the course

Here are some additional suggestions to guide your initial thinking in identifying the relevant social issue, pursuing the relevant literature, and

determining the impact of your volunteer work:

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What is the nature of your volunteer work? What do you do? Be specific. Look closely.

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Think about the social issue(s) (or human need) that your volunteer effort is attempting to address (along with related issues that may not be the direct focus of your volunteer site).

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Think about the mission or purpose of your volunteer site or program and what it is trying to do to meet the human need connected to this issue.

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How is that larger social issue connected to the specific things you are doing in you volunteer experience? In other words, how are you assisting your agency or program?

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Think about how this specific volunteer activity encompasses the social issue and how the social issue affects the community, the quality of life of citizens, etc.

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Narrow your thinking to choose one issue or topic to write about.

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Find out what has been written in the professional literature about your topic

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Review that literature by including supporting research in a meaningful way to support your view (argument) of the relevance of your volunteer effort. You are not really reviewing what the literature has to say per se but reviewing the relevant literature as it relates and supports your topic.

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Draw conclusions about your observations, the problem, the people, etc. This is anecdotal evidence

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Make recommendations for further study of this area if it is appropriate.