History of Aids Custom Essay

Although the subject of the research paper is open, the objectives of this paper are to have you become familiar with the literature in an area related to Human Sexuality and to have you research that aspect in some depth. While the specific topic/subject area is your choice, you must write your research paper from an international perspective (a perspective that extends beyond the United States). The most important thing in choosing a paper topic is to make sure that your interest is sufficiently engaged so that you can sustain the effort necessary to produce a work that is satisfying both to you and to your instructor.
1. Make an outline that proceeds logically to make all of your points and stick to this outline. The outline should take the form of a brief introduction (See #2), a brief statement of any methods you will be using other than literature review, a critical review of the published research that is relevant to your paper, a conclusion where you consider limitations of your study, compare your findings with those of others, and project areas of potential future research based on your findings. A well organized paper should never contain redundancies or statements about redundancies such as `as mentioned above`. You should use your outline headings as section labels in your paper.
2. Your introduction should be no more than a couple of paragraphs and should end with a concise statement of the purpose of your paper (`The purpose of this paper is to. . . `), and how you intend to accomplish it, following your outline.
3. Your primary research technique will be a review of the literature on your topic.
4. In reviewing the concepts and literature on your topic, be critical. Simply because something is published, even in refereed sources, does not mean the authors are interpreting their findings correctly. Examine your sources to make sure the authors are justified in their conclusions. Consider alternative explanations of the findings if applicable. It is fine to have an opinion so long as it is based on a reasonable consideration of the available information.
In reviewing your sources, there are several rules to remember:
a. DO NOT MAKE UNSUPPORTED ASSERTIONS. This is the most common error made in research papers. If you wish to make a point, present the evidence, as specifically as possible, that applies to the point, and evaluate its relevance. Use the literature sources you have uncovered. The only statements not attributed to some author or authors should be those based on your own firsthand experience, or your conclusions and your criticisms of the published work you are including in your paper.
b. Present REAL DATA from your studies, do not just discuss what the authors found. Just citing the source is NOT presenting evidence–the evidence is in the source, but you must dig it out and present it.
c. Appeals to authority do not constitute valid evidence in support of an argument. I.e., statements such as, `most agree,` `several studies show,` or `Dr. Joe Blow of the Harvard School of Public Health says. . . ` For this reason, first names and affiliations are inappropriate. Who says it does not count, it is the quality of the evidence–as reviewed by you–that the author presents that counts.
d. Always go to the original sources. Review articles and texts are good for building your bibliography, but do not trust the authors of these secondary sources to get the facts correct or to interpret them correctly. Encyclopedia articles and popular magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Discover, are NOT appropriate sources for research papers.
e. When incorporating tables or figures, you need to re-label them with the appropriate table or figure number for your paper, not the number from the original source. Also, make sure the legend or title you put on the table or figure relates to its use in your paper. You MUST refer to and discuss each table or figure in the text of the paper, it is not enough to simply stick it in among the pages.
f. Use direct quotes only when they are especially pertinent and cover an important point. Reserve the use of quotation marks for direct quotes. You must give the page number. You should keep direct quotes to an absolute minimum in any research paper.
Sentence structure with quotes: The sentence that includes the quote must be grammatically correct. Your material will have to be written so as to place the quoted material in appropriate grammatical context. If this is not possible the quote will have to be edited using [brackets] and/or ellipses ( . . . ) to denote changes.
Omitting material from a quote: Ellipses (space period space period space period space) are used to denote the omission of material from a direct quote. Ellipses are generally not to be used at the beginning or ending of a quote.
Long quote format: If the quote is more than one sentence, or more than three text lines, go to long quote format which is indented from left and right margins and is single spaced. No quotation marks are required, although the citation must go at the end of the last line. To indent both margins in Word, use the Format, Paragraph menu commands and in the dialog box, under Indentation set both left and right at 0.5`. You can also set the line spacing to single in this dialog box.
g. When not quoting, paraphrase succinctly. It should take you substantially fewer words to get the point across than it did the original author. There is no BS credit in research papers, and in fact, the more irrelevant verbiage I have to wade through to get your point the more annoyed I will be, so include only the most relevant material.
5. A research paper is not a mystery. Do not introduce critical material at the end of the paper to come to a dramatic conclusion. We should have all of the relevant information by the time the discussion commences.
6. Run your spell checker on your document twice before submitting.
7. Proof READ your document. The spell checker will not pick up missing lines, misspelled words, basic grammar errors, and seriously deficient logic.
8. Have someone else read your paper. If you have flawed logic embedded in your work, it has been part of your creation process, and you are unlikely to catch it. Let another person help you find the glitches. Consider using the Writing Center on campus!
9. Other information: The paper should be at least 7-10 pages. Margins should be no wider than 1 inch and font no larger than 12 points. You must have a Title Page that includes the following: Title, your name, the date, the number of text pages, number of reference pages and number of tables/figures. The outline for your paper is due on Tuesday, February 10th the outline should include most of the article references you are planning to include in your paper. The final research paper is due on April 30th.

Special thanks to Dr. Bindon, Anthropology Department, University of Alabama for the above requirements.
http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant570/pap_rule.htm