Cause and effect formal academic essay 

no position 

no argument

cite in text 

4-5 references

750 word min

APA format

CHECKLIST

As you are revising and preparing for your Unit 8 Assignment submission, please remember the following:

1.  Your paper should focus on a relevant change in your field that HAS ALREADY OCCURRED. Describing an event or a job task is not an acceptable topic. Discussing the issue in general is not acceptable Arguing that a change MUST/SHOULD happen is also not the assignment. 
2. Your paper should address one research question, focusing on cause or effect of this change and must not take a position or be persuasive
3.  Your paper should have a clear thesis that answers your research question.  “This paper will discuss”  or “In this paper, I will.. ” or  any other general, vague statement will not work and will instead lead to an unfocused paper. 
4.  The paper must be organized into clear paragraphs (use topic sentences to help you with this), including an introduction, around 4-5 body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. Your introduction should in some way HOOK the audience and you should have a clear organization plan and use transitions to connect the various paragraphs. 
5.  The paper must integrate 2-3 SECONDARY sources IN ADDITION to the original article you somehow responded to. Your sources should be relevant, reliable and strong. Aim to use KU Library sources. You may not use sources like wikipedia or ask.com and a dictionary is not considered a source for this paper and you should reconsider relying on blogs and newspaper articles.  Please note that these must be SECONDARY sources. A dictionary entry or a court case or an interview will not count as secondary sources. Secondary sources analyze information. 
6.  Sources should not be over relied on and you should avoid a reliance on quotations. Paraphrase instead of quoting.  DO NOT JUST DROP QUOTES OR PARAPHRASED information into a paragraph. This information must be INTRODUCED, ANALYZED, and CONNECTED to the point you are making. Source information should support your ideas, not become the paper itself. 
7.  All source material, quotes or paraphrases or facts or ideas, must be cited where you use them, in the paragraphs. This includes quotes, paraphrases, or factual information not considered common knowledge. 
8. Do not just put a citation at the end of each paragraph. The reader should not have to guess WHERE in the paragraph the source has been used.  
9.  All sources used should be included in the alphabetically listed References page citations
10.  Be sure to revise your paper to be format and appropriate to an academic audience. Avoid first person (I, me, my, we, us, our) and second person (you and your) and write instead in 3rd person.
11. Balance your sources with your own ideas; use sources to support, clarify, develop, and validate your ideas and make sure they do not take over or become the focus of the paper.