Term Project:
Each student will be required to complete a 1200-word APA Style research paper. You must include a separate proper title page at the TOP of your submission and a separate properly formatted source page. The project should have at least 1200 words of text not counting the title and reference pages. Students will be required to use (5) five scholarly references, and two of these references must be peer-reviewed journal articles from the APUS online library databases. Please note that Wikipedia, dictionaries, encyclopedias, endnotes, ehow, etc. are not scholarly resources. If in doubt about your source, please ask your instructor before using. The paper is due by Sunday of week 7 and is worth 15% of your class grade. Submit your paper into the “assignment” area via a word doc only and to Turnitin. Failure to submit your paper for review to Turnitin will result in an automatic 20 pt. deduction. You can re-submit to the “research paper-revision” section as many times as necessary to analyze your paper to check your index rating, but only once per 24hrs, so plan accordingly.
Students are required to follow APA Style guidelines. There is a sample paper under Lessons and Resources that students can use as a template for their project. Feel free to copy and keep the sample paper as a model to help guide your work.
The class instructor will read and grade your papers with professor comments for improvement as needed. The course will be using the Criminal Justice Writing Rubric to grade the Term Project. The rubric is in the lessons, resources, and attached to this assignment. Please make sure that you are using the writing rubric as a checklist as you work on the Term Project.
You are to select one topic from below that you are interested in and would like to learn more about. There is no special requirement on the content. Discussing case laws and articles associated with your paper is acceptable. You do not have to notify the instructor of your choice. Your research paper must be formatted in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association Sixth Edition (APA style). You can find help with APA Style guidelines within the AMU Online Library or at www.apastyle.org. Do not copy large SECTIONS of text verbatim, cited or uncited, from the Web or your paper will be severely penalized. You must cite within the paper per APA standards. Papers submitted to previous classes or other universities are not permitted.
4th Amendment 6th Amendment Crime Prevention Crimes against children Crimes against the elderly Domestic Terrorism Driving Under the Influence Human Trafficking Identity Theft Juvenile Crime Landmark Cases Police Brutality Police Pursuits Polygraph or CVSA (Computerized Voice Stress Analyzer) Sex Offender laws Wrongful Convictions The class instructor is looking for critical thinking and demonstrating that you have a grasp of the criminal justice material you are researching. Do not just regurgitate information but analyze the articles, journals, and scholarly literature you use to support your work.
Do not include quotes in your work. The course instructor wants to see your critical thinking skills on display and not a string of quotes written by published authors. Your analysis is what is needed for a successful paper. You will lose points for using quotes so stay away from quotes in this analytical assignment.
At this level in your educational journey students should have solid substance and proper academic formatting in your college level writing assignments. The course instructor will be grading on both, so make sure you turn in your best work.
Do not wait to the last minute to research, write, format, and edit. Proper time management is required to turn in a quality paper that highlights your criminal justice writing.
This a major assignment so follow the instructions carefully. Good luck!
