Counseling Research Proposal

Overview

Your Research Paper: Final Submission Assignment must be on your approved Research Topic and incorporate information from your Research Proposal. The purpose of the assignment is to encourage you to conduct research on a specific doctrine that will aid you personally as a counselor to minister more effectively to the spiritual, emotional, psychological, and physiological needs of counselees.

Instructions

Length of Assignment: The body of the paper should be a minimum of 7 full pages and should not exceed 9 pages.

• APA format does not count the Title and References pages
• Turabian does not count Title, Contents and Bibliography pages.

Format of Assignment

The following information notes what should be included in your research paper. An APA Research Paper: Final Submission Template and Turabian Research Paper: Final Submission Template has been developed for you to follow for correct formatting, title page, section headings and spacing, and explanations for what information should be included in each section.

Research Paper: Final Submission Assignment must include either the APA Research Paper: Final Submission Template or Turabian Research Paper: Final Submission Template.

Title Page

Contents (Turabian format only)

The body of your research paper must include the following headings:

Introduction

• This section can include information from your “Research Proposal.”
• This section would include the writer’s thesis statement, brief discussion of the issues (summarize the information from the Need for the Study section of your “Research Proposal”), and brief overview of your paper’s contents.
• The length of this section would be about 1 paragraph.

Biblical/Exegetical Studies Supporting <Insert Your Selected Doctrine>

• This section should include studies on the specific Bible verses that support the selected doctrine.
• For example, if a student’s selected doctrine is on the atoning work of Christ, he/she would include research on Mark 10:45 and 2 Timothy 2:6. The student would want to include word studies on the word “ransom” and the two prepositions translated “for” which support the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
• There are other verses that support the atoning work of Christ and should be included in this section.
• Blue Letter Bible (blueletterbible.org) is a good online resource for Hebrew and Greek word studies.
• The writer may use second level headings if deemed necessary (See APA Research Paper: Final Submission Template and Turabian Research Paper: Final Submission Template for second level headings format).

Theological Implications of <Insert Your Selected Doctrine> for Pastoral Counseling

• This section should note how the selected doctrine will aid the pastoral counselor personally in his/her counseling.
• In addition, this section must include how the selected doctrine will help the counselee.
• The writer may use second level headings if deemed necessary (See APA Research Paper: Final Submission Template and Turabian Research Paper: Final Submission Template for second level headings format).

Conclusion

• This is where the writer summarizes the research that was included in the body of the paper.
• The writer should never introduce new material in the Conclusion that was not covered in the body of the paper. The writer should briefly summarize his/her research in this section.

References or Bibliography page

• Provide a list of at least 5 applicable scholarly references for your paper.
• The 2 required texts for the course may be used.
• Avoid general dictionaries, commentaries, magazines, internet webpages and/or essays.

School Specific Research and Writing Style Guidelines can be found on the Research Paper: Final Submission Assignment page under Research Paper: Final Submission Resources.

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