Y????????????????????ou will write an 18-22 page (only the body of the text counts towards the limit) paper on a topic of your choosing that I approve. It should be related to the course material or another CJ topic. There is no recycling of and adding to old papers from other classes allowed. Your topic must be approved by me by the date indicated on the syllabus. Failure to submit a paper topic by that date will result in 20 points off your paper grade. Email is the preferred method of topic approval, although we can hammer out a topic in-person and you can just email it to me in writing afterwards. The topic approval date does not mean you have to have your topic 100% figured out by then, but I HAVE to have heard from you about it by then. I would also like to have a conversation with each of you about your plan/outline for your paper (before it is due obviously!) this semester as well. This is strongly encouraged. Your pape????????????????????r will be formatted in the APA style. This includes a title page, abstract, in-text citations, and a reference section. Papers that make little or no attempt to follow APA style will be penalized 20%. You are required to have a minimum of 10 references. Acceptable references include peer-reviewed articles and books. No random websites or Wikipedia, unless they are approved by me. Articles and books accessed online do not count as websites. There is one quote per page allowed in your paper. Each quote that I see beyond this average is 5% off for each infraction. We will discuss this paper frequently in advance of important due dates and there will be more handouts and information as well. The following is a good resource for APA basics. General APA Resource: (Links to an external site.) This site also links through to the well-known Purdue University writing lab????????????????????.
