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Topic:  This research paper should be an informative essay on some topic related to international students.  The following on-line journal gives some topics that may give you some ideas:  https://jistudents.org/

General guidelines for the essay:

·      900-1100 words (not including title page and references page).  You must have an abstract, which should be at least 100 words, but not more than 150.  (This abstract IS included in the 900-1100 words.) 

·      You must use APA formatting correctly throughout the paper—especially in-text citations and the reference page.  You have to take the time to get your reference page right.  Figure out how to do the references correctly and make sure that you get all of the information that you need about your sources while you are doing the research.  Please realize that I am not going to correct your reference page for you.  Part of the grade for this paper is to show that you know how to format the entries on the reference page correctly.

·      You must use at least 5 sources in your paper. 

o   At least 3 of the sources in your paper must be academic sources, like professional journal articles or books. Your other 2 (or more) sources can be magazines, websites, newspapers, etc.  If you use websites, you must make sure they are reliable websites, like .gov, .org, or .edu websites, usually not .com websites.  YOU MAY NOT USE WIKIPEDIA AS A REFERENCE.

o   You should evaluate your sources using the CRAPP Test handed out in class. 

o   You will use more information from some sources than others, but you need to show that you can integrate information from more than one source to support a point.

o   You should not have most of your information coming from one source. 

·      Make sure that you clearly cite any information that you use from your sources and also make sure that you paraphrase accurately so that you do not plagiarize.  In addition, you should only use brief “phrase” quotes, not whole sentences, and you should not use an excessive number of quotes.  Keep in mind as you are reading and taking notes that I am going to require you to include page numbers for any information you use from your sources.  Make sure you keep track of the page numbers where you get various pieces of information.

·      Any time you use information from a source, you should introduce that information and explain to the reader how the information relates to or adds to your topic.  In addition you should also comment on the source information after you give it.  The sources should be supporting your ideas and main points. The structure of the essay should be yours; you should not be summarizing one or two of your sources as your essay.  You should use some variety in how you cite your sources.  In other words, do not always just put the information at the end of the sentence.

What is the difference between an abstract and an introduction?

An introduction may provide background information and a hook as well as the main points and a thesis statement.  The purpose of an introduction is to get the interest of the reader and to tell the reader what to expect in the essay.  You do not need this kind of introductory information in an abstract.  An abstract is a very short summary that tells the reader what information will be in your essay.  It states the main points of your paper but more specifically than an introduction; you may also give a brief description of some of the subpoints if you have room.  The abstract is not another introduction, and it does not replace the introduction.

Structure of the paper:

·      Your paper should present your information in an organized way, which means that the information is presented in a logical order, and all of the information is closely related and supports your main idea.

·      You should present the main points in the introduction and review main points in the conclusion. 

·      Each paragraph should have a good topic sentence that tells your reader what you are going to talk about in that paragraph.  Each paragraph should contain only the information that is indicated in the topic sentence for that paragraph. 

·      You should have transitions at the end of one paragraph and/or at the beginning of the next paragraph that show how the information in the two paragraphs is related.