Essay:
This essay is, simply, a proposal for your research paper and will include a background discussion of the criminal justice policy and program topic, actual and potential data sources, a discussion of the theoretical framework that you are working from and a short literature review.
Your essay should be no less than three pages and no more than five pages.
Research Paper:
I recommend using the APA or MLA manuscript style dictates how your paper should appear on the page. Regarding the APA manuscript style, there are two types of APA manuscripts: copy manuscripts (those submitted for publication) and final manuscripts (those not submitted for publication). Copy manuscripts are much more formal and may contain multiple sections. Specifically, they will have an abstract (a one-paragraph summary of the paper). Your required paper will be in a final manuscript format. Unlike copy manuscripts, final manuscripts do not, unless you choose, require an abstract. They do include:
o A title page
o The paper itself (the "discussion")
o A references page
A title page contains three items: a running head (a short version of the title), the paper's title, and your name. Traditionally, the author's (you) affiliation (the university he or she attends or works for) appears below the author's name; however, many college instructors prefer students to put the course and section number in this place (since we all know which institution we are at). The running title appears in the top right corner of every page, including the title page, right before the page number. The title, the author's name, and the author's affiliation (or course and section number) appear in the center of the title page.
Formatting the discussion, or body, of the paper, is also quite straightforward. APA final manuscripts are generally double-spaced. As mentioned above, the running head appears in the top right corner of each page, right before the page number. The full title also appears, but only on the first page of the discussion. For subsequent pages, the running head is the only "title" present.
New paragraphs should be indented (which is the default setting for the Tab key) and there should not be an extra blank line between paragraphs. The last thing required is the references page. This page, like the others, has the running head and page number in the upper-right hand corner. Sources should be alphabetized by the author's last name (or, for sources without authors, by the first letter in the title) and the second line of each source should be indented a half inch (the first line is not indented).
Here are a few additional formatting standards to keep in mind:
· Use standard margins: 1" on all sides.
· Use standard 12-point font size.
· Use standard double-spacing: average of 22 lines per page, and between 20 and 24 lines per page.
· Use left-aligned text. Do not right-justify.
· There should be no subtitles or spaces between paragraphs within the paper.
· When citing a quote of more than four lines, you should indent the entire quoted passage 10 spaces from the left margin. It is not necessary to indent these block quotes from the right margin. Continue with the usual double-spacing, and give the usual acknowledgements at the end of the quote. Block quotes do not require quotation marks.