Use a minimum of three primary/authoritative/ scholarly resources. At least one source must be a research article from a peer-reviewed scientific journal such as JAMA, Nature, Science, or PLosOne. In addition to scientific journal articles, newspapers articles, media broadcasts, and other forms of journalism and or can be used as primary source material and must be properly cited in your bibliography and in the body of your report. Dictionaries and textbooks may be used as reference material and should be cited as such, but they will not count as primary resource material.
You may use any of the standard academic formats (APA or MLA) for References and In-Text citations so long as your source material is consistently acknowledged and properly documented.
Your paper should include, but is not limited to, four sections: 1) Introduction; 2) the body of the report; 3) Conclusion/Discussion/Summary; and 4) Reference List or Bibliography.
Depending on the topic, other subheadings might be appropriate. For example, if you are writing about a disease, you might want to organize your paper to have the following sections: Background (History and description of the disease), Epidemiology (what is the frequency and distribution of the disease in world populations), Diagnosis, Treatment, and Current Research or Future Directions.
Below is a summary of what generally each section might include:
1) Introduction: In the introduction, provide the reader with enough background information to be able to follow your paper and understand why the topic is important to research and discuss. You may raise several questions in the introduction that you will then attempt to answer in the rest of the report.
2) Body of your text: (DO NOT title this section BODY! This term refers to the paragraphs that comprise the main portion of your paper). In the body, you will go into detail on one or more of the topics or questions that you raised in the Introduction. Try to stay on topic. Make an outline or a flow chart of the information you want to convey to the reader and the order that you want to present it and stick to your plan. For a scientific paper, it is most appropriate to present information succinctly and objectively even when advancing a particular viewpoint.
3) Conclusion/ Discussion: In the concluding discussion portion of your report, you may draw conclusions from what you presented. You may raise additional questions and include future directions or a summary of unresolved issues. This portion is usually considered to be a more subjective assessment of the topicso feel free to express your informed opinion.
4) References: A full description of the source material whether it be a book, an article, an interview, a website, or a personal communication, a presentation, or a website. References can be listed alphabetically, according to the last name of the author(s) cited OR numerically, according to the order the citations appear in your report.
