This assignment represents an in-depth investigation of an issue related to allied health.  In The Little Brown Handbook, Fowler and Aaron defined analysis as “the separation of something into its parts or elements, the better to understand it” (2018, p 158-159, 2019, p 150-151).  The next step in the process is looking for connections between these parts or elements.  It is important to understand how each part contributes to understanding the issue.  The last step is to draw conclusions about the importance of each part in terms of the “big picture”.  The Little Brown Handbook refers to this as synthesizing, which is discussed on pages 585- 587.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) describes the writing of college-level research papers and specifically addresses analytical papers. Please examine the webpages starting with http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/01/

All issues and research questions  must be approved by the instructor before writing the draft research paper.  Students are to research the issue through a minimum of eight credible sources ideally published in the last 5 years, one of which may be a cited personal interview of an expert. The draft paper of at least 10 pages —not including the title and references pages–is to be uploaded.  The following criteria will be used to evaluate and grade the papers.

• Clear purpose/thesis   5 pts                                                               
• Content (quality of evidence) 10 pts                                                 
• Evidence of critical thinking and analysis     10 pts                         
• Quality and appropriateness of information sources  5 pts               
• Use of APA style including use of a professional tone and language 5 pts                    
• Organization and clarity of writing    10 pts                                     
• Mechanics of writing  5 pts

• Revision addressing concerns from review process (For final paper)