Research Paper, academic document, writing homework help

Select a major event that occurred during the last 100 years and that resulted in a major loss of life. The event may have been a fire, civil unrest or rioting, natural disaster, terrorism or any number of other kinds of events. Describe in an eight- to ten-page paper what happened and any significant contributing factors. Discuss the impact of the event on the field of public safety and how it influenced the development of codes, practices, beliefs, and research.Introduction:As a university student you have likely written research papers for someof your classes. A research paper is aspecific type of academic document for which there are conventions, standards,and expectations. In the past,most university courses and programs were in purely academic disciplines (e.g.English, Chemistry, History).Increasingly, however, universities also offer courses and degree programsin practitioner disciplines. A practitioner discipline is one in which thesubject matter being studied is knowledge of, and the ability to work in, aspecific profession. Practitionerdisciplines cover a wide range of professions, from engineering andenvironmental science to homeland security, law enforcement, and the managementof fire and rescue services.Researchpapers are of particular importance in practitioner disciplines because theyoften provide a bridge between the purely academic research and the applicationof that research in actual practice. Thisposes certain challenges to you as the writer of such a paper; you have tointerpret the results of academic research and determine whether and to whatextent those results tell something about the profession. Courses inpractitioner disciplines are designed and taught exactly like courses that are moreacademic in nature: there are required readings, assignments, exercises, and soon. This means that research papers arevery often required, particularly in more advanced (300- and 400-level)courses. There are, however, somespecial considerations that a student must keep in mind when writing a researchpaper for such a course. AudienceWriters arealways encouraged to consider the audiencefor a written document. In the caseof a purely academic research paper, the audience is likely to be a professor(or a group of professors) specializing in the academic discipline. This means the writer can be confident thatthe audience will be familiar with the main principles and bodies of literatureand research within the discipline; this audience will also have a deepunderstanding of research methodologies and techniques. In apractitioner discipline, however, the concept of audience may need to bebroadened. You may be asked, forexample, to consider the possibility of a more general audience for theresearch paper. For example, yourpotential audience may include people who are professionals in the field but whodo not necessarily have advanced academic degrees or training. This means they may know a great deal aboutthe profession but not about the academic basis for some aspects of theprofession.Think ofengineering, for example. A person whoreceived a bachelors degree in engineering and who is now working as anengineer probably understands the principles of engineering quite well. However, he or she may not be aware of theresearch being conducted by professors of engineering at various colleges and universitiesor in large private sector organizations, nor of how the knowledge created bythat research is transferred out to the professional at large. For thisreason, audience analysis is an especially important first step in the processof writing a practitioner discipline research paper. SourcesIn youracademic writing you have undoubtedly used sources such as books and articlesin academic journals. In writing for apractitioner discipline, you will continue to use such sources. You will also, though, sometimes use sourcesthat are more professional than purely academic in nature. For example, in the field of emergencymanagement a writer may consult an academic journal such as The American Journal of Emergency Medicine,as well as a more professional source such as the website of the FederalEmergency Management Administration (FEMA).It isimportant to remember that there are differences between these types ofsources. An academic journal typicallyreports on research that has been conducted according to strict standards ofoversight. Further, the materialpublished in an academic journal has been peer-reviewed;that is, before publication it has been reviewed by other researchers andspecialists to ensure the research methodology is sound and the results arereasonably accurate.By contrast,material published for professional purposes may be more descriptive in nature; that it, it may relate real-worldexperiences in the field rather than purely academic research into aproblem. Also, professional material isunlikely to have gone through the peer-review process. This does not mean that theinformation is necessarily unreliable; it does mean, though, that you must becareful when drawing conclusions from specific information to broader, moregeneral situations (see Guidelines forAnalytical Reading in the Course Content area).TopicOne of themost challenging parts of writing a good research paper in a practitionerdiscipline is the selection of an appropriate topic. This is especially important given the verylarge amounts of information, both academic and professional, that may beavailable in a given subject area.Ideally, your topic will be broad enough to allow you to use a varietyof sources in your research, while specific enough for you to be able to framean argument or an assertion about it.Letsconsider an example. Suppose you arewriting a paper for an environmental management class, and your instructorwould like you to tackle the issue of the agricultural and horticultural usesof biosolids such as sewage sludge. Itstempting, at this point, to title your paper The Agricultural andHorticultural Uses of Biosolids. If youdo that, though, youre going to run into trouble during your research; thereis so much information available that youll likely be overwhelmed. Besides, even if you managed to get throughall that information your paper would still be largely descriptive (youll just be describing the uses of biosolids inthose situations) rather than analyticalin nature.Instead,suppose you look at the topic and try to narrow it down a bit. For instance, are there any importantdifferences between fertilization practices in agriculture and horticulture? A little bit of research will tell you thatthere most certainly are differences, given that the end products ofagriculture are intended for human consumption.You can now focus your research a bit on any aspects of biosolids thatrelate to human health. It wont takeyou long to discover that there is quite a bit research on health-relatedissues with biosolids; for example, youll find a number of articles onresearch into the presence of heavy metals such as cadmium in sewagesludge. At thispoint, youve refined your topic to something like Health and Safety Issues inthe Agricultural and Horticultural Uses of Biosolids. This is a more manageable topic in that youcan use the research you find to draw a distinction between agricultural andhorticultural uses of the substances.You can continue refining your topic based on your research and on theparticular curriculum of your course, e.g. The Need for Regulation ofBiosolids Usage in Agriculture, or perhaps Guidelines for Handling Biosolidsin the Management of Public Lands. A refined,well focused topic not only aids you in evaluating and using your research butalso helps ensure that you can write a paper that meets the expectations oflength, number of sources, and so on.Presentation:Like all research papers in university courses, those in practitionerdisciplines are expected to follow the formatting requirements of a particularstyle guide such as that of the American Psychological Association (APA). The style guidelines cover not only thestructure of your manuscript but also the format for citing sources. If you areasked to use the APA format then, as a general rule, your paper should consistof the following four elements:1. The Title Page. The title page of your paper has three parts:Therunning head, which is an abbreviated version of your papers title (forexample, if your paper is entitled Alien Abduction as an Emerging HumanResources Issue your running head could be Alien Abduction). The running head should be placed in theupper left-hand corner of your title page.Note: the running head should also appear in the upper left-hand cornerof every page of your paper, opposite the page number (see below);Thefull title of the paper, which should be centered on the page; andYourname, and either the institutions name or (if requested by your instructor)the course number.2. The Abstract. The abstract is a short (no more than 120words) summary of your paper. Theabstract should be by itself on page 2 of your paper (remember to include therunning head in the upper left-hand corner before the page number). 3. The Body of the paper. In a practitioner paper this section shouldinclude an Introduction thatdescribes the question or problem being studied; a description of the researchthat you reviewed, and a Discussion of how the research informs aresolution of the question or problem. On the first page of the body (usuallypage 3 of your paper) put the full title at the top of the page (centered andtwo lines below the running head/page number).The title should be double-spaced from the first line of your firstparagraph. On every page of the bodyinclude the running head in the upper left-hand corner and the page number inthe upper right-hand corner. 4.The References Page(s).Here you will list all the various books, articles, web pages, and othersources that you cited in your paper.This page (or these pages) should also have the running head in theupper-left and page number in the upper right-hand corner.The sourcesyou use in your paper generally must be cited in two ways:1. Parenthetical Citation. This is citation of the source in the textof your paper where the idea, passage, or direct quote is introduced. APA parenthetical citation normally consistsof three items:Theauthors last name;Theyear of publication of the source document; andThepage number (if you are citing a specific passage in the source document) orparagraph number when a work is not paginated.Lets saythat, in the body of your paper, you wish to paraphrase a statement made onpage 117 of Bernadette Maceys 1999 book The Role of Abnormal Psychology inOrganizational Theory. Theparenthetical citation, which would appear right after your paraphrase, wouldprobably look like this: (Macey, 1999,p. 117). 2. Reference Citation. Referencecitations are those that appear on the References page(s) of your paper. These citations require a bit moreinformation; the general elements are:Theauthors last name and initial of first name;Thedate of publication;Thetitle of the authors specific work;Thejournal, book, or other source document (if the work you are citing is part ofa larger document); andThepublication information.In ourexample from above, Maceys book would appear on the References page asfollows:Macey, B. (1999). TheRole of Abnormal Psychology in Organizational Theory. Baltimore, MD: MarylandUniversity Press.Please notethat these items can vary considerably depending upon the type of sourcedocument. This is especially true ofdocuments obtained electronically. Youcan view some examples of the APA citation for different types of sources onUMUCs Library website athttp://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/citationresources.cfm#apa.Conclusion:Research papers in practitioner disciplines are very similar to those inmore purely academic areas. Whenpreparing such a paper it is worth paying special attention to the audience forthe paper, the sources you will use in your research, and the need to have asuitable, well-focused topic for the paper.