Assignment Instructions
This assignment is the culmination of your crafting of a research paper on a homeland security issue. In Week Four you presented the first three sections of your paper. This week you add the final sections and present the full paper. Be sure to make any changes to your literature based on instructor feedback.
The three main sections you should add to the paper for this submission are the Methodology and Research Strategy, Analysis and Findings, section and the Conclusions/Recommendations section.
Methodology and Research Strategy: This section provides the reader with a description of how you carried out your qualitative research project, and the variables you identified and analyzed. It describes any special considerations and defines any limitations and terms specific to this project, if necessary. This section can be brief or more complicated, depending on the project, written in 1-2 pages.
Analysis and Findings: are not the same as conclusions. In the analysis component of this section you identify how you analyzed the data. The second part is the finding you got from your analysis of the data. The findings are the facts that you developed, not your interpretation of the facts. That interpretation is conducted in the conclusions and recommendations section of the paper. Findings will come from the prior research you examined and your analysis of those prior findings to create new findings for your paper. While there may be some facts that are such that they will stand and translate to your paper, the intent is to create new knowledge, so you will normally analyze the data to create your own findings of what facts that data represents. This section should be at least 2-5 pages.
Conclusions and Recommendations: is the section where you give your interpretation of the data. Here you tell the reader what the findings mean. Often the conclusions and recommendations sections will mirror the findings in construct as the researcher tells the reader what that researcher sees as the meaning of that data, their conclusions. Then, drawing on those conclusions, the researcher tells the reader what they believe needs to be done to solve/answer the research question. This section may include recognition of any needs for further research and then finishes with a traditional conclusion to the paper as a whole.
Remember, your paper should seek to answer a question that helps to solve the research puzzle you identified.
Scoring Rubric:
A copy of the complete scoring rubric for this assignment is provided in the Writing Resources module within the course lessons. The following is a synopsis of that rubric.
Area of Evaluation
Maximum Points
Focus/Thesis
20
Content/Subject Knowledge
20
Critical Thinking Skills
20
Organization of Ideas/Format
20
Writing Conventions
20
Technical Requirements:
Length: 3-8 additional pages (in addition to your literature review) double spaced, 1″³ margins, 12 pitch type in Times New Roman font left justified format.
Citations/References: You must use APA style for this assignment.
