Term Paper: Medical Conditions

(Term Paper)

Papers must be in correct APA (7^th edition) style for a student paper in 12 font with 1” margins. Page counts refer to the text of the paper and do not include the title page or reference list. Abstracts are not needed for these papers. You will research one of the topics below and write a paper of 5 to 7 pages that summarizes the recent literature about your topic. For your paper, you must have a minimum of 4 peer-reviewed journal articles. You may have additional sources beyond those as needed. Be sure to correctly cite your sources both in text and in the references list. All papers must be uploaded to the Term Paper folder by the due date. Late papers will receive a deduction of 10 points for each calendar day or part of a day they are late. Papers should be your own work in your own words; quotes should rarely be used. If your paper is more than 5% direct quotes, you will not receive any credit for it.

 All papers must be in one of the following file formats ONLY: DOCX, DOC, PDF, TXT, ODT, or RTF. Blackboard cannot open other formats and papers in other than the required formats will not be accepted.

You may write on ONE of the following topics (no other topics are allowed):

1. Causes of and treatment for Major Depressive Disorder
2. Language development in children
3. Causes of academic cheating
4. Altruism
5. Altered states of consciousness
6. Cognitive biases
7. Head trauma in sports

Under Course Resources in Blackboard there is a folder labeled Term Paper Resources. It contains contact information for the ILC writing center, a video guide to selecting peer-reviewed journal articles, a quick guide to APA style, and a link to the OWL at Purdue. Please take advantage of these resources in writing your paper.

Scoring

Organization

40 Points – The paper is the correct length and format (APA style) and contains all of the required elements.

30 Points – The paper is either not the correct length or is not in APA style.     

20 Points – The paper is both not the correct length and not in APA style.     

0 Points – The paper is not turned in.

References   

20 Points – There are at least 4 peer-reviewed sources and each is cited correctly both in text and in the references list.    

10 Points – There are at least 4 peer-reviewed sources and they are either not cited correctly in text or in the references list.       

5 Points – There are at least for peer-reviewed resources and they are not cited correctly in text and in the references list.   

0 Points – There are not at least 4 peer-reviewed resources.

Coverage

30 points – The paper covers the topic thoroughly enough that an uninformed reader will come to understand the subject.  

20 points – Coverage of the topic is unclear or incomplete.         

10 points – Coverage of the topic is poor.

0 points – The paper is not turned in.

Spelling/grammar

10 Points – No more than one or two spelling or grammatical errors found  

5 Points – No more than three or four spelling or grammatical errors found. 

0 Points – A significant number of spelling or grammatical errors found.

0 Points – The paper is not turned in.