Research Paper on Communication Process or Disorder

 

6-8 double-spaced pages with at least 5 sources (see note below)

 

 

 

 

 

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Your goal is to educate the reader about your selected communication process or disorder and its impact on or importance to communication. As such, before submitting your paper, it is to your advantage to exchange it with another student who will provide comments on the clarity of the paper. The criteria used for grading are available in a separate document on IL Compass for you to use as you prepare your paper. After your initial submission (required), your paper will be available to you with comments so that you can revise and resubmit it for a final grade.  Submit all papers on IL Compass in .docx or .doc format.

 

Content:

Address as many topics as appropriate to your topic. Items in bold-face type are required at a minimum, but are not sufficient alone. Please remember that this list is not necessarily inclusive of all possible topics.

 

Title   

Introduction to the communication process or disorder

History of the disorder or of the communication process (possibly changes in the process)

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Current information about incidence, prevalence, demographics

Description of the communication process and how it is used

Myths and/or Facts

Characteristics of persons with disorder or who use the communication process

Cause and time-course of the disorder

Signs and Symptoms

Cognitive or learning implications

*Impact on or importance to communication (at least 25% of the paper)*

Treatment/Remediation

Current services available (government or otherwise)

Summary: Review the main messages of your paper

Conclusions: Briefly present your response to the information you have researched. This can include your interpretation of the importance of the information, questions you may have about the topic that was not answered by your research and why these are important questions, your view about where the future research, evaluation or treatment could or should be directed, and/or personal experience or knowledge that is relevant to the topic (e.g., you know someone well who has the disorder or received services).

References (Not included in the 6-8 pages)

 

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References:

  • You must make substantial and balanced use of a minimum of 5 references taken from the web, journals, or non-fiction books.  No more than 2 websites should be included in your 5 or more sources, and websites should be reputable.
  • Citation is needed whenever you present information that is taken from another source and a source is needed when the information is not common knowledge; for example, information not known by an 8 year old child.
  • Web pages (blogs, associations that promote a cause, video, newspaper or magazine articles) often contain over-synthesized, over-simplified material, may not cite their sources, and the information is not necessarily reviewed before publishing. For example, use of Wikipedia as a source is not permitted. Web information from more authoritative sources such as the National Institutes of Health or the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association that often cite sources are better. In any case, consider the validity of the source of the information and how well they support it before using it.
  • Journal articles obtained from the internet or articles published elsewhere but also on web-sites are fine to use (in this case cite the original source, not the web site).
  • No more than one textbook should be used as a source and if a textbook is used, find one not used in this course.
  • Class lectures are not to be used as sources.
  • If you are unsure about the acceptability of a source, please contact the instructor or TA.  Be sure to cite sources appropriately throughout the paper and provide a reference section according to the APA style guide (see information on format below).

 

Format:

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The research paper must be typed using 12-point font and formatted as a double spaced document with 1-inch margins. Provide the title on the first page; a separate cover page is not needed. Pages should be numbered. Use .docx or .doc format.

For the citations and reference list follow the guidelines from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition (2001), American Psychological Association: Washington, DC. Direct quotations must be appropriately referenced, as well as any paraphrasing of another person’s words, or use of another person’s ideas, in accordance with the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines. A complete bibliography composer designed to help you format your references for free is NoodleBib Express which is available at http://noodletools.com. NoodleBib, found at the same site, includes note-taking tools also and is available through a small subscription fee. You may also review the information on APA format at http://apastyle.apa.org/  or http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/citation/apa/.

 

When citing a source, provide citation at the first occurrence of information in a paragraph. Information that follows in that paragraph derived from the same source should not have further citation. If a source changes mid-paragraph, provide the new citation; if discussion returns to the original source after that, cite the original source again to indicate change in source.

 

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Summary:

5 references minimum, must be well explained and used relatively evenly.

No more than 2 web sites, and consider the quality of the information

Sources obtained in electronic form from the web such as journal articles are fine.

Class lectures are not to be used as sources.

No more than one textbook should be used as a source (not SHS 170 textbook).

Use APA format for citations and references.

 

 

 

 

 

Credit, Due Date, Revisions:

You will have the opportunity to improve your point total by revising, rewriting, and submitting the revised research paper for a second evaluation. Should you choose to revise your paper then you might improve your grade by a maximum of one-half of the unearned points allocated to the assignment (e.g., The assignment can maximally receive 100 points. If you earn 86/100, then a satisfactory rewrite may increase your points to 93. Thus, you may earn an additional half of the remaining points, i.e., 7/14 in this case). Remember you may optimize the maximum points available to you if you submit your best work the first time and can only improve your score by revising, rewriting, and submitting your work a second time. It is to your advantage to have a peer review your paper for clarity before submitting your paper for initial grading. Peer review in advance of submission is the norm for writing that is submitted for publication.

 

 

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