Overview

All the assignments in the course will lead to the creation of the final project, which will be a research paper that reviews the most recent scholarly literature about the topic. This will be identified in the course as the Course Project: Final Paper Draft Assignment and the Course Project: Final Paper Assignment. The written assignments completed in Module 2: Week 2, Module 3: Week 3, and Module 4: Week 4 will assist you in gathering the most recent scholarly information published about the topic. You will refer to these assignments as you write the draft version in Module 5: Week 5 and the final paper in Module 7: Week 7.

For this first written assignment, you will explain the topic you will develop, explore, and investigate. The topic should pertain to an issue or problem in the field of education.

State your topic using this template:

The Impact of _____________ on ____________.

 (Example: The Impact of Parental Involvement on Young Children’s Academic Achievement).

Your topic statement will be the title of the final paper.

Instructions

This assignment must be 750-1,000 words. There must be a title page at the beginning of the paper and a reference page at the end. A minimum of five recent scholarly references must be cited in the body of the paper, and the full citation for each will be on the reference page. You may use more than five references because you will look at the literature to explore your topic and analyze the most recent information and research published about the topic.

The title page must be the current APA professional version of the title page. Scholarly references used in this class must be peer-reviewed journal articles and published professional books. All five required references should have been published in the past five years. The Jerry Falwell Library (JFL) will be the best source to locate peer-reviewed journal articles and professional books.

You must include an in-text citation when you refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source. Each in-text citation in your paper must have a corresponding entry in the reference list at the end of the paper.

The topic you select should be one you are very interested in discovering more about because this will be the paper’s focus, and all the other parts of the paper will be centered on this topic.

The paper must be written in third person. No first-person pronouns should be used in the paper, and avoid referring to self in any section. Research papers must have a formal, professional tone.

Below are the headings and information you will explain under each heading. 

• Topic Statement -Your topic statement should be a Level 1 heading centered at the top of page 2, immediately following the title page. This section explains the topic and why it needs to be further studied and researched. Any topic that a researcher wants to study must have been identified in the research as needing further study. This can be found by looking at the existing literature on the topic and finding what is missing or what has been identified as needing further study.
• Practices, Policies, or Procedures that Relate to the Topic – This should be a Level 2 heading placed flush left. In this section, explain what has brought this topic to light, causing it to need to be studied. What happened that created a need for research on the topic? Use reference citations to support any factual statements/ideas from the references.
• Importance of the Topic – This should be a Level 2 heading placed flush left. This section discusses how this topic is significant to the field of education. Explain previous ways the topic has been addressed in the past. If there is little to no research on the topic (and it is highly unlikely that there will be no literature at all relating to it), then explain this in this section. Talk about the missing parts of the research that lead you to explore this topic.
• Steps Taken to Address the Topic – This should be a Level 2 heading placed flush left. In this section, explain what has been done to address the topic. You can include steps the federal government may have taken, school districts have taken, etc.
• Biblical Worldview – This should be a Level 1 heading that is centered. This section offers a biblical worldview perspective on the topic. Explainwhy the topic is important as it relates to scripture and your biblical worldview.
• References – This must be a Level 1 heading centered at the top of the paper’s last page. Your references will be on a page by itself. Include the full citations for the references cited in the paper.

Format the paper according to current APA format and see the grading rubric for specific grading criteria.

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.