Innovator Short Paper Overview & Instructions
The Innovator Paper is to be written as a narrative which each student will create based on the ideas and information gathered from doing their research. The research materials will be comprised of original documents, works, secondary, and tertiary sources. Additional materials to explore are published collection of original documents, diaries, and memoirs; and secondary sources, such as newspaper articles, scholarly articles, and/or books that others have written which contain information concerning the Innovator you choose to examine.
For this short paper you will do research on the Innovator you choose, analyze the data and create a brief paper in which you explain why the historical person you chose deserves to be considered an Innovator. Your choice of “Innovator can be either one who made positive or negative innovations in history. Your short paper will contain the information found in many different sources, which serve as the support and proof of the status of “Innovator” that you bestow on this person.
Selecting a Major Contributor
In selecting original documents, treaties, collective security agreements, and/or doctrines to analyze and to use to create your short paper, be sure you it is within the time period of this course. Look through web links provided in our text, and learning modules, as well as other resource. If you are having trouble choosing one, email me and I will help you.
Selecting Sources
Once you select your Innovator, find at least three sources you can use to do your analysis and write your short paper. Select sources that are directly related to your choice of Innovator. You can consult the textbook, encyclopedias (printed, software [Encarta, for example], on-line [for example, Wikipedia], and general histories to learn more about your issue. Try to use a good mixture (50%-50%) of printed sources (books and articles) and internet sites. You must use a minimum of three sources (references).
Mechanics of Formatting the Position Paper
The paper must have one inch margins top and bottom and left and right for a standard (8½” by 11”) page. The paper’s length must be at least eight pages in length. You can use any generally accepted font style (Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier) but no script or non-standard styles. The font size must be size 12, Do not separate the paragraphs with “points” or lines set by the formatting function of your word processing program. Just indent each paragraph five spaces in length like shown in the highlighted example here:
This is the beginning of paragraph 1. It is easy to do. Just follow this example. You will be absolutely correct. No worries, just follow this sample paragraph.
Great! You are ready to do your analysis and create your short paper. I think you will learn a lot, and be ready to take on such a project in your career. So it is time to begin.
The entire paper should be double-spaced with the following exceptions: long quotations (keep to a minimum of six quotes) set off by indentation, each separate footnote/endnote, and each “works cited” entry. All of these are single-spaced.
Citing a Source
In presenting the material you find, you have to be careful how you present it and how you document the information in the paper through endnotes or footnotes. Presenting the words, ideas, or opinions of someone else as one’s own is plagiarism. When quoting directly from a source, repeat the source exactly, including punctuation and exact spelling and phrasing of words. Be sure to give credit to the source by citing it in an endnote or footnote. A research paper is usually composed of approximately 10% quotations, 70% paraphrasing, and 10% your own words.
- Paraphrasing is rephrasing an authority’s words. Ideas taken from other sources and put in your own words must also be cited to give credit to the sources. In writing college research papers, most students failto adequately document paraphrased material.
- Quoting is rewriting, word-for-word, someone else’s words. You must pay close attention to the original wording, spelling, and punctuation, and follow them exactly.
Short quotations, consisting of only one or two sentences, should be included in the text of your paper, set off by quotation marks.
Examples:
It is the abortion restrictions imposed in the sixties by Bucharest’s leader that “helped topple Ceausescu’s regime 23 years later.”
Or
According to John Q. Adams, head of fuels and lubricants at General Motors Research Laboratories, unleaded premium gasoline has become a “marketing phenomenon, causing people to buy higher octane gasoline for their cars than they really need.”
Use block quotations for quotations with four or more printed lines. The entire quote should be indented five spaces (1/2 inch if using a computer) from the left margin. Note: the number for the footnote/endnote is placed immediately after the quote for blocked quotes.
Example:
The Navy has conducted research on dolphins in an effort to gain more knowledge:
Scientists and engineers have found that the dolphin has a yielding skin. This skin gives slightly when the dolphin swims fast, without making its prey aware that it is coming. A similar skin has been adapted for use by atomic submarines.2
Note: When indenting an entire paragraph that begins with an indention itself, such as the one above, indent an extra three spaces in the first line. Documentation is the means that you use must show the reader where you got the information in the position paper that is not your own personal knowledge and ideas.
For my papers, you must use one of two means to document this information, footnotes or endnotes. Footnotes are citations or explanatory notes found at the bottom of the page on which the cited material is found. Endnotes are citations or explanatory notes placed at the end of the paper. The APA style guide provides examples of footnotes/endnote for each type of source material, including internet web sites, you would probably use for your paper. Please do not mix types in the paper.
What to Document
The style guides provide examples of what you should document. In ALL cases you must document direct quotes, statistics, and data as these are usually unique to your specific source. Additionally, you should document paraphrased ideas and material that are not your own ideas or general knowledge.
Writing a Works Cited (Bibliography) Page
The Works Cited page, located at the end of the research paper, contains a correct listing of all sources from which you quoted or paraphrased. ONLY SOURCES ACTUALLY USED IN A PAPER ARE TO BE CITED. Each entry on this page must contain all of the information needed for identification and library research. Entries on this page are listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name (or the title of the source if no author is given). For detailed instructions on how to construct your Works Cited page and how to use citations in the essay, refer to the style instructions specified any recognized writing style guide, such as APA, Turban, Chicago, or MLA.
Putting It All Together
Your completed short paper project must be TYPED and DOUBLE-SPACED; top, bottom, left, and right margins should be one inch, and the paper should be compiled in the following order:
Length of short paper is a total of nine pages
Title Page- Is a required first page
The title page should include the title of your paper, your name, the number and title of the course, the name of the institution, and the date of submission. This information is normally centered between the top and bottom, and left and right margins. A title page is not numbered. You must use a page break to separate the title page from the narrative of the paper.
Content Pages are a total seven pages
These pages contain your narrative explanation of the person chosen as an innovator.
Page One
Center the title of the paper, followed by your name, just above the first line of the research paper. The first page of the paper is not numbered but counts as page number one. You began your narrative several spaces below the title and your name.
- The Remaining Pages
Your first paragraph introduces your topic. It should have a brief summary of the topic, why the topic is important, and/or an interesting story to get the reader’s attention. The introduction must contain your thesis statement and brief means of how you are going to prove/support your thesis.
Remember you must write seven full pages of content.
- Last Page
This page contains your References
You must have the three references listed from your Mini-proposal plus two new references totaling five references used in this paper.
The Innovator Short Paper, due dates are listed in the Course Schedule Weeks and must be submitted in the assignment folders titled Innovator Short Paper #1; and Innovator Short Paper #2. The exact due date is given in the learning module week when the paper must be submitted