I have a major writing assignment due for a Final Grade. I have posted all Instructions and the Modules pertaining to the assignment thats why this post is so lengthy. Thank you.

Instructions

Writing, for social science majors, is power. A well written paper establishes competence, which aids persuasiveness. Having served in both the private and public sectors, I have observed that the public sector typically requires approval or consensus prior to yielding any action. Early on I found the “good ideas” I offered to public officials needed to be bundled with well-substantiated documentation so as to provide political cover for the policy making in the event that the idea went south (i.e. failed). Ultimately, I learned that I needed to be able to write in order to be successful (or at least survive) in the field. It is for this reason that I (…and most if not all of the faculty of UCF’s School of Public Administration) feel so strongly about instilling you with the tools to write effectively: They are your tools for survival.

This assignment expects you to consider a subject in the field of public administration – specifically, a problem or topic related to an organizational theory, a theorist, or generally, human behavior (e.g. dealing with stress, motivation, team work, etc.). Then you are to produce a 6-8 page paper (excluding the required cover page, abstract page, and bibliography sections; and any optional appendices) that expounds on that subject.

This assignment is MANDATORY TO PASS THE COURSE. Regardless of a student’s performance in all other areas of the course, he/she is required to produce a deliverable as described in this section in order to pass – no exceptions. (*Don’t fret – just do it! 🙂

The assignment is divided into two parts: the Issue Paper Activities and the Issue Paper itself. The Activities are tutorials that explain certain aspects of your paper. Each of the tutorials have a mandatory quiz as a complement. Students must pass all the tutorial quizzes with a score of 80% or better. Furthermore, they must do this for each quiz in order to proceed to the next quiz.

The second part of this assignment is the Issue Paper itself. As was previously mentioned, the paper should range between 6 to 8 pages in length (excluding the Title Page, the Abstract, the References, and/or any Appendices).

Paper requirements

• Highlight a topic relating to an organizational theory, a theorist, or generally, human behavior (e.g. dealing with stress, motivation, team work, etc.), or the like;
• Stress the importance of the issue;
• Give readers a brief history of the issue;
• Provide the status of the issue;
• Identify stakeholders that identify with the issue;
• Describe the issue in terms of two contexts — social, political, economic, and/or cultural;
• Make a policy recommendation, based on the paper’s analysis; and
• Identify potential outcomes (both good and bad) of the hypothetical policy recommendation.

Scoring criteria

Papers must…

• be written according to APA standards that govern margins, headings, headers, spacing, references, citations, etc.;
• be free of spelling, grammar, and/or punctuation errors;
• be written in the third-person (i.e. don’t use the words “I”, “we”, “us”, “my”, etc.);
• utilize terms and phrases that are appropriate to undergraduate-level writing;
• include (in this order)
  • a Title Page;
  • an Abstract (on a separate page);
  • an Introduction to the topic;
  • a Literature Review;
  • a Conclusion;
  • a References section; and/or
  • any Appendices (optional).

A rubric is available to guide students as they write. It is HIGHLY SUGGESTED that students utilize this comprehensive tool as it serves to help you with nearly every aspect of the assignment. The rubric and other materials pertaining to this activity can also be found in the Files section of this portal. Of course, for those students who struggle with such activities, I encourage them to visit the UCF Writing Center for additional assistance.

Instructions

Many students approach this assignment as a basic report, with no chapter headings or separate components. I liken this to eating an entire meal in a single bite. What students need to understand is that each of the following REQUIRED components has a distinct purpose. Let’s start with identifying those components (in the order they appear in the report); knowing that each of these components will be covered in detail.

• Title page
• Abstract (on a separate page)
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendix (if necessary)

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Title Page

The Title Page is always the first thing the reader sees. It begins with the header (which differs from the header on the remaining pages of the report, as you will discover in the Formatting tutorial), the title of the report, the report’s author(s), and the author’s note (which provides contact information about the author). For the sake of this report, the author’s note should merely contain the student-author’s email address, and the general address for the University. More on the formatting of this component can be found in the Formatting tutorial.

Abstract

The Abstract serves two purposes: function and appeal. The first purpose – function – is to inform the reader in a concise manner (using a mere 150 to 250 words) what the paper will cover, including any findings. It aids the reader in determining whether or not the paper contains the information he/she seeks. Noting, however, that researchers can easily plow through a zillion reports while conducting a literature review, there is another quality that authors should consider – the Abstract’s appeal – which I liken it to the sell point of a commercial product or service. Ultimately, if the Abstract fails to impress the potential reader, then the paper typically goes unread.

Introduction

Though many students tend to simply duplicate their Abstract and pass it off as an Introduction, this is not good writing form as the two components serve two different purposes. While the Abstract offers a concise glimpse of what the entire paper will cover, the Introduction is typically written more like a Table of Contents in narrative form. The author should be careful to “introduce” the reader to all the forthcoming aspects of the report, and summarize the section with a thesis statement, which more or less captures the overall intent / purpose of the report. Lastly (or should I say, firstly), the Introduction should not begin with the heading “Introduction”. Proper APA form suggests that the author utilize the paper’s title as the Introduction heading.

Literature Review

This section provides the reader with an overview of any research that has been previously completed on the subject: The contributions to the field of knowledge by other researchers. Yes, the author can make observations and/or draw conclusions, but the foundation should be the findings of the other authors. Of course, because this section refers to the findings of other authors, it should be apparent that there will be considerable opportunity for inline citations.

Conclusion

*Often times there is a section or two between the Literature Review and the Conclusion that allows for methodology and/or analysis, however, for the sake of this paper those two sections have been omitted.

The Conclusion section wraps up the report. In this case, it simply summarizes what was covered in the report (i.e. “we started the report by examining this, then we looked at this other report that said that, and another that discovered something else – all of which led us to this conclusion”). Be sure not to include any new findings in this section: only report what has already been noted in the first sections of the report. Lastly, the savvy writer identifies any weaknesses in his/her research (e.g. the report was only a 6-8 page assignment, thus there was not sufficient scope to cover this topic as it should have covered…”), make suggestions for future research, and conclude with a closing statement that captures the paper as the thesis did at the beginning.

References

This section is your bibliography. It provides readers with all the list of other sources that you included in the report. It is not written in narrative format, but each source has its own lines (as a list). The APA is quite specific in how references should be formatted, so more information will be covered in the Formatting tutorial.

Appendix

An appendix is a repository for large documents or passages that are not necessarily appropriate to include within the body of text. For instance, if a writer references a particular policy in the report, and the author wants to provide the reader with the opportunity to read the exact verbiage, then they might include the policy at the end of the report as one of the appendices.

Instructions

As was suggested in the last tutorial, the APA is quite specific when it comes to how academic papers are formatted. Being that all papers tendered in the course are required to adhere to APA standards, you would do well to pay particularly close attention to the information contained herein.

The Title Page

At the top of the Title page (along the top margin) one can find the “Running head”. Specifically, it should be formatted “Running head: ABBREVIATED TITLE OF THE PAPER” without the quotation marks. Note that the header has a maximum of 50 characters, including spaces and punctuation. Also notice the Title page is the only page in the paper where the phrase “Running head” is used: All subsequent pages drop that phrase, along with the colon that follows it. Lastly, the page number always follows in the top, right hand corner of each page, including the Title page. (*Check out the short three-minute video below for visual instructions on how to complete this operation.)

Next on the page is the paper’s title. This is one of the most important components of the paper, as it immediately indicates to the reader what the paper is about. The title uses proper case (a.k.a. all major words are capitalized, while articles are not), is written in 12-point font (same as all other text in the paper), and is centered but not bolded. Immediately below the title is the author’s name (without Titles such as “Dr.” or “Mr.”, and without degrees such as “PhD” at the end of the name). Below the name is the institution (in this case, “University of Central Florida”) Note that there is no date on the Title page.

The Author’s note is a component that helps readers to locate the author, in the case where the reader wishes to clarify something or generally get in touch with the author. As you can see by the Purdue University example I’ve provided, it is suggests that you include at least your email address.

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The Abstract

The should range between 150-250 words; however, be sure NOT to indent the first line of text. (*This is the only paragraph within the paper that is not indented.) The term “Abstract” should be centered above the text, in 12-point font, and not bolded. Make sure its on a separate page (i.e. not included at the bottom of the Title page, etc.).

The format of your abstract will depend on the work being abstracted. An abstract of a scientific research paper will contain elements not found in an abstract of a literature article, and vice versa. However, all abstracts share several mandatory components, and there are also some optional parts that you can decide to include or not. When preparing to draft your abstract, keep the following key process elements in mind:

• Reason for writing:
  What is the importance of the research? Why would a reader be interested in the larger work?
• Problem:
  What problem does this work attempt to solve? What is the scope of the project? What is the main argument/thesis/claim?
• Methodology:
  An abstract of a scientific work may include specific models or approaches used in the larger study. Other abstracts may describe the types of evidence used in the research.
• Results:
  Again, an abstract of a scientific work may include specific data that indicates the results of the project. Other abstracts may discuss the findings in a more general way.
• Implications:
  What changes should be implemented as a result of the findings of the work? How does this work add to the body of knowledge on the topic?

(This list of elements is adapted with permission from Philip Koopman, “How to Write an Abstract.” (Links to an external site.))

All abstracts include:

• A full citation of the source, preceding the abstract.
• The most important information first.
• The same type and style of language found in the original, including technical language.
• Key words and phrases that quickly identify the content and focus of the work.
• Clear, concise, and powerful language.

Abstracts may include:

• The thesis of the work, usually in the first sentence.
• Background information that places the work in the larger body of literature.
• The same chronological structure as the original work.

How not to write an abstract:

• Do not refer extensively to other works.
• Do not add information not contained in the original work.
• Do not define terms.

If you are abstracting your own writing

When abstracting your own work, it may be difficult to condense a piece of writing that you have agonized over for weeks (or months, or even years) into a 250-word statement. There are some tricks that you could use to make it easier, however.

Reverse outlining:

This technique is commonly used when you are having trouble organizing your own writing. The process involves writing down the main idea of each paragraph on a separate piece of paper. For the purposes of writing an abstract, try grouping the main ideas of each section of the paper into a single sentence.

For a scientific paper, you may have sections titled Purpose, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Each one of these sections will be longer than one paragraph, but each is grouped around a central idea. Use reverse outlining to discover the central idea in each section and then distill these ideas into one statement.

Cut and paste:

To create a first draft of an abstract of your own work, you can read through the entire paper and cut and paste sentences that capture key passages. This technique is useful for social science research with findings that cannot be encapsulated by neat numbers or concrete results. A well-written humanities draft will have a clear and direct thesis statement and informative topic sentences for paragraphs or sections. Isolate these sentences in a separate document and work on revising them into a unified paragraph.

If you are abstracting someone else’s writing

When abstracting something you have not written, you cannot summarize key ideas just by cutting and pasting. Instead, you must determine what a prospective reader would want to know about the work. There are a few techniques that will help you in this process:

Identify key terms:

Search through the entire document for key terms that identify the purpose, scope, and methods of the work. Pay close attention to the Introduction (or Purpose) and the Conclusion (or Discussion). These sections should contain all the main ideas and key terms in the paper. When writing the abstract, be sure to incorporate the key terms.

Highlight key phrases and sentences:

Instead of cutting and pasting the actual words, try highlighting sentences or phrases that appear to be central to the work. Then, in a separate document, rewrite the sentences and phrases in your own words.

Don’t look back:

After reading the entire work, put it aside and write a paragraph about the work without referring to it. In the first draft, you may not remember all the key terms or the results, but you will remember what the main point of the work was. Remember not to include any information you did not get from the work being abstracted.

REVISE, REVISE, REVISE

No matter what type of abstract you are writing, or whether you are abstracting your own work or someone else’s, the most important step in writing an abstract is to revise early and often. When revising, delete all extraneous words and incorporate meaningful and powerful words. The idea is to be as clear and complete as possible in the shortest possible amount of space. The Word Count feature of Microsoft Word can help you keep track of how long your abstract is and help you hit your target length.

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The Introduction

The Introduction section is mandatory for an academic paper. (*You’ll lose points if you don’t have this section labelled accordingly (see below)). While it may seem counter-intuitive, this section does NOT begin with the heading “Introduction”. Instead, students are to re-type the title of the paper, making sure it is centered over the first line of text. It should not be bolded, nor should it be in a larger font than the text. (I know, it sounds boring). Lastly, the first line of text should be indent 5-points, as should every paragraph from this point on within the paper.

The purpose of the Introduction is to introduce all the major aspects of the paper. I typically start out describing the topic or explaining how something is a problem, etc.; then I go on to break down my paper into chapters (i.e. this is my paper topic / problem, and in my paper I will discuss this, this, this, and this, and then conclude with that.) Don’t forget — the closing statement(s) of the Introduction should contain your paper’s thesis statement (i.e. a statement that pretty much captures exactly what you hope to convey in your topic — but all rolled up in a single statement.)

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A Review of the Current Literature (a.k.a. Literature Review)

The next section is where the author explores what other, prior researchers have written about their topic. In the Introduction you simply explain “this is what I’m going to research”, but in the Literature Review, you would say something like, “In their 2010 study of three blind mice, Smith and Barney found that those mice didn’t actually know how to run…” This section will be chocker-block full of academic, in-line citations. Every claim you make, you have to substantiate with a citation. Nothing should be assumed as common knowledge (e.g. “As we all know…” or the like). How do you know this? Prove it!

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The Conclusion

The last narrative section of the paper is the Conclusion. This section does not include any new information! The author uses this section to simply re-cap what has already written. It is customary to summarize the entire paper — almost opposite of the Introduction section. If you’ll recall, the Introduction section previewed what you were planning to write about (this is my paper topic / problem, and in my paper I will discuss this, this, this, and this, and then conclude with that). The Conclusion should be about the same: this was my paper topic / problem, and in it I discussed this, this, this, and this, and then concluded with that. You should, of course, note any findings from your review of the literature (i.e. “We learned that Smith (2005) discovered the fleas have fleas…”), but just make sure that you already covered such findings earlier in other sections of your paper.

Because you’re currently undergraduate students, and because of the limitations of the assignment (it’s only 6-8 pages, right?) you may feel as though some element of your study could have been expounded on. The Conclusion section is the appropriate place to make such suggestions to future researchers. “Because this study was limited in scope and time, much more could have been explored in terms of…” or the like.

Lastly, a good closing statement does wonders for the reader: It let’s them know the paper has completely concluded, so there is no question. A good closing statement is the mark of a good writer.

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The References Section

Any material used in the report that is not an original idea of the report’s author must be cited – both inline and at the end of the report. Because there are so many variables with regards to inline citations, I refer students to consult with the Sixth Edition of the Publication Manual of the APA, which is the most current source for formatting. However, with regards to formatting within Microsoft Word (i.e. using the hanging indent function of the software), I have provided a YouTube video (no, it’s not me) that is a short two-minutes.

Instructions

As was suggested in the previous module’s written assignment activity, the Literature Review section is where you investigate and report what other researchers have discovered and written about your topic. Simply put – the Introduction allows you to explain what your report is about in general terms, but the Literature Review allows you to expound on your idea by utilizing the findings of previous research in order to substantiate your claims.

Each and every time you make a claim, you need to back it up in the literature. This doesn’t mean you need to have a citation for every sentence – only those where you state something as fact. This is important, because the credibility of your research is gauged by the strength of your research findings. I’ll say that again: The credibility of your report is determined by how strongly you have been able to substantiate your claims via other researchers. And, because this aspect of your report is so important, the credentials of those researchers whom you cite is also important. This is why we in the academe insist on you students using “peer-reviewed” or “refereed” sources. Such works are written and published by one or more authors, but the works are vetted through a number of other researchers who function as fact-checkers, in order to validate the material prior to publication. More about this aspect of research will be covered in the next tutorial.

For now, however, observe how I did this in my own doctoral dissertation (i.e. my 120-page report).

Perceived self-efficacy is a self-generated internal assessment of whether or not one can produce given levels of attainment despite varying degrees of difficulty – the strength of belief in one’s ability to complete a task and/or achieve a goal (Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara, & Pastorelli, 2001; Dahlstrom, Dudo, & Brossard, 2012; Gist, 1987; Jago, Sebire, Edwards, & Thompson, 2013). In the case of pedestrian travelers,it pertains to the belief in a traveler’s agentive abilities to navigate the surrounding environment, which includes factors such as the stamina to walk a particular distance or being able to overcome perceived hazards or a strenuous travel environment. It combines an affirmation of capability with the strength of that belief (Bandura, 1997). The aforementioned predictors of walking find commonality in perception; and people’s perceptions have been found to be impacted by mass media (Abioye, Hajifathalian, & Danaei, 2013; Cavill & Bauman, 2004; Moeller, de Vreese, Esser, & Kunz, 2014). While it can be argued that the true measure of the effectiveness of media is the degree to which it influences a targeted audience (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; Cavill & Bauman, 2004; Mogg & Enis, 1974; Wirtz, 2009), media can nonetheless convey conflicting messages, exerting influence over multiple audiences albeit in different ways. Take, for example, road safety campaigns. Some campaigns portray horrific traffic scenarios, presented in a deliberately sensational manner. Such ads are designed to appeal the viewer’s senses in order to educate travelers about the consequences of unsafe, irresponsible travel behavior, to frighten them into compliance with traffic laws. Hoekstra and Wegman (2010) write, “there is a firm belief in the ability to ‘scare people straight’. The idea is that when fear is aroused, people will become more motivated to accept the message and recommendations presented in a campaign” (p. 82).

As you read through the passage above, you’ll see I’ve added colors to show which claim is associated with which author(s).

The passage begins with a claim, highlighted in bold yellow. The claim is a definition of the term “perceived self-efficacy”. You may have noticed the passage is not in quotation marks: That’s because I made this up, based on information I derived from articles written by the authors cited at the end of the sentence (highlighted in light yellow). Moving on, note that Bandura wrote in 1997 about things that pertained to one’s affirmation of capability (i.e. “can I do this…?”). To be honest, he didn’t write about walking or any form of transportation – he wrote about belief and ability. However, after I formed my argument, I simply searched for related concepts and discovered the works of Dr. Albert Bandura. After reading a few of his abstracts, I found that some of his findings from his previous experiments were quite similar to what I was writing about. Ultimately, I was able to use what he wrote to substantiate what I was saying in my report.

The other color combinations may help you to see other claims I made, and how I substantiated those claims.

I would add, the last citation (in pink and salmon) provide you with an example of how to cite a direct quotation (i.e. a passage I borrowed directly from the other researcher’s works “word-for-word”). In this instance, you MUST include the page number from where you found the quote!

I leave you with this short YouTube video, which includes some strategies you may find helpful as you begin to write.