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RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINES
Remember that the grade you receive on your paper will account for a full 20% of your course grade, so careful reading of and adherence to the following REQUIREMENTS is advised.
1. Choose one topic from the Research Paper Topics listed below to write on. The research paper must be typed in the English language on 8 ½” x 11″ format utilizing Microsoft Word, with black text color and white background color. An electronic copy of your paper must be uploaded to Turnitin no later than Sunday, November 25, 2018. You must post or send your paper as a Microsoft Word attachment. Click on the Turnitin button on the course Moodle page and follow the submission instructions. Also, you must send an electronic copy of your Research Paper to me at
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Send the complete paper, including the Bibliography, as one single file. Sending separate parts of your paper for me to piece together is entirely unacceptable and you will be deducted accordingly.
The paper should be written in normal “caps and lower case” style. It should be double-spaced throughout, except for footnotes and bibliography which should be single-spaced. Each paragraph must be indented one-half inch or 12.7 millimeters from the left text margin, i.e. one and one-half inches or 38.1 millimeters from the paper’s edge. Your page setup must include a one-inch margin on the left, right, top, and bottom of the page. Do not insert extra space between paragraphs; that is, the body of the text should be double-spaced throughout, except for blockquotes, footnotes, and the bibliography, which should be single-spaced and follow the guidelines below.
You must use NOT MORE than a maximum 12 point font size and maximum double-spaced text with EXACTLY a one-inch margin on all sides. Footnotes may be smaller than body text point size but in no case smaller than 8 points. Times New Roman font is strongly recommended; however, if you use an alternative style, make sure your font is not italic nor bold text. Also, Comic Sans MS font is not allowed. The hard copy of your paper should be stapled in the upper left-hand corner and turned in as such. Binders or folders or enhancements of any sort are to be avoided. Except for the cover page, all pages must be numbered in the upper right-hand corner. Do not use Running Heads other than your name.
Also, DO NOT use contractions in your research paper (e.g. use “it is” instead of “it’s” or “do not” instead of “don’t”, etc.). And when using acronyms, write out the full phrase the first time it is used along with the corresponding acronym, e.g. “American Political Science Association (APSA)”. When using numbers, write out all single digit numbers between zero and nine, and utilize numerical digits from the numbers “10” and above. In addition, DO NOT place borders around the edges of your cover page or around any pages. And do not include any pictures or alternate colors; i.e. keep it black and white in your research paper.
2. The paper should be at least seven pages long with at least five of these pages composed of text, i.e. a minimum of five full pages of text. DO NOT REPEAT verbatim the Research Question you select to write on in your paper; your subject matter should become obvious to the reader. A COVER PAGE, complete with title, author, course number, instructor’s name, and date of submission—in this order—must be attached. As well, a Bibliography or Works Cited page, complete with a list of all references cited in your paper, must also be attached at the end of your paper as a separate page. Parenthetical documentation within your text should be utilized to acknowledge wherever you incorporate another’s words, facts, or ideas. In your parenthetical documentation, you are REQUIRED TO IDENTIFY THE SOURCE, LIST THE DATE OF PUBLICATION (BOTH ORIGINAL AND NEW IF THE TEXT IS A REPUBLICATION), AS WELL AS THE PAGE NUMBER(S), so that the reader may locate and verify such information. A table of contents page is optional and should follow immediately your cover page. Any subheadings in the paper should be left justified and in bold type. The paper, at a minimum, should adhere to the following basic outline:
I. Cover Page
II. Paper Text
a. Introduction
b. Body of Paper
c. Conclusion
III. Bibliography
3. PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION, FOOTNOTES & BIBLIOGRAPHY: Parenthetical documentation, footnotes, and bibliographical references MUST FOLLOW THE STANDARD CITATION GUIDELINES set forth in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Seventh or latest edition, by the Modern Language Association, or those guidelines set forth in the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, Third or latest edition, by the Modern Language Association, or those found in The Little English Handbook: Choices and Conventions, Longman Classics Edition, MLA Update Edition, Eighth or latest edition, by Edward P.J. Corbett and Sheryl L. Finkle, or those found in A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Eighth or latest edition, by Kate L. Turabian, or those guidelines set forth in The Chicago Manual of Style, Sixteenth or latest edition, or those put forward in Diana Hacker’s and Nancy Sommer’s A Writer’s Reference with Resources for Multilingual Writers and ESL, Seventh or latest edition. Any other standard guidelines must be approved by me beforehand. If you quote directly from an author, you must put the author’s exact words in quotes and parenthetically document it. Make sure to utilize the author(s)’s surname or family name (usually one’s last name in the Western hemisphere or first name in the Eastern hemisphere) in referencing them; do not act as if you are on a personal name (or given name) basis with the author. If you use another author’s ideas, you must document reference to the fact. Simple rule to follow is: When in doubt, provide parenthetical documentation! The more references, the better, though your paper should NEVER contain more than 15-25% of references from other sources, i.e. at least 75% of the paper must be written entirely by you. The same holds true with the Bibliography or Works Cited page: the more books and articles you refer to, the more credible your paper will be in demonstrating that you have researched the topic by yourself and are aware of the different perspectives on the subject being addressed. Remember that you are the author of your paper and, hence, you hold ultimate responsibility for its content and style. Each Bibliographical or Works Cited reference is single spaced if it exceeds more than one line, with a double space between each bibliographical entry. Note also that Works Cited or Bibliographical references are placed in alphabetical order and are NOT numbered nor bulleted. Two types of footnotes are allowable with Parenthetical Documentation: 1) content notes offering the reader comment, explanation, or information that the text cannot accommodate; and 2) Bibliographic notes containing either several sources or evaluative comments on sources (MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 2009, 6.5, p. 230).
An example of parenthetical documentation with both an original date of publication as well as a newer edition from which you are referencing follows:
“I am an American,” wrote Mark Twain of the stranger in his novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The stranger goes on to assert: “I was born and reared in Hartford, in the State of Connecticut—anyway, just over the river, in the country” (Twain, 1889/1962, p. 1).
A Bibliographical or Works Cited reference should include the following:
Author’s Last name, First name. Date work was first published/and date of the work you referenced, if different from the original publication date. Title of Work in Italics. City and State of the publication: Name of publisher.
An example of a Bibliographical or Works Cited reference follows:
Twain, Mark. 1889/1962. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Another example of a Bibliographical or Works Cited reference which draws from a particular story within a bounded collection follows:
Twain, Mark. 1938/1974. “Letters from the Earth.” In New Uncensored Writings By Mark Twain: Letters from the Earth. Edited by Bernard DeVoto. New York & Cambridge, etc.: Harper & Row, Publishers.
4. BLOCKQUOTES: Note also that if any quotation exceeds three line lengths, then you MUST block off such a quote, either align the blockquote text left or justify the quoted text, indent the block on both the left and right margins (one-half inch from the one inch text indentation), and single space it. Quotation marks are not used in block quotes, unless you are quoting already quoted material, in which case single—and not double—quotes are used. For example:
Men often use religion to justify earthly events. Indeed, it is a practice which goes back to the dawn of humanity. Commenting on this practice, Mark Twain wrote in his Letters from the Earth:
When exasperated men rise up and sweep away an age-long tyranny and set a nation free, the first thing a delighted pulpit does is to advertise it as God’s work, and invite the people to get down on their knees and pour out their thanks to him for it. And the pulpit says with admiring emotion, ‘Let tyrants understand that the Eye that never sleeps is upon them; and let them remember that the Lord our God will not always be patient, but will loose the whirlwinds of his wrath upon them in his appointed day’ (Twain, “Letter VII,” 1938/1974, p. 36).
In the above statement, Twain comments on the common practice in human affairs to attribute to a deity that which was done by humanity. But the practice begs the question of who is ultimately responsible for the affairs of mankind?
NOTE: You should never place a blockquote in immediate succession of another.
5. INTERNET CITATIONS IN YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY or WORKS CITED: Information taken from the Internet must be cited just as written material is cited. Do NOT list only a URL address as a reference. See the Writer’s Workshop at for online citation standards. Remember that each Bibliographical or Works Cited reference is single spaced if it exceeds more than one line, with a double space between each Bibliographical or Works Cited entry. Bibliographical or Works Cited references must be listed in alphabetical order; they should NOT be numbered nor be bulleted. An internet Bibliographical or Works Cited citation reference should include the following:
Author’s Last name, First name. Date work was first published/and date of publication on the web. “Title of Work” or “Title of Complete Work” or title of the website. Name of organization that is hosting this resource. The URL .
An example of an internet Bibliographic or Works Cited citation follows:
Twain, Mark. 1889/1993. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in “Project Gutenberg” .
NOTE: Notice that the URL citation is in black text and is not highlighted. DO NOT HIGHLIGHT URL CITATIONS and MAKE SURE THEY ARE IN BLACK COLORED TEXT AND ARE NOT HYPERLINKED, i.e. NO HYPERTEXT IS ALLOWED. DO NOT SUBMIT A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL or WORKS CITED REFERENCE WITH JUST A URL. If the website resource has no identifiable author or there is no identifiable organization hosting this website, then IT IS NOT A CREDIBLE REFERENCE SITE AND CAN NOT BE REFERENCED IN YOUR PAPER. You must use credible reference sites, and these are sites where there is either an identifiable author or an identifiable organization which is hosting the sourced website.
6. As stated above, the author of this assignment must be you—the registered student for this class—and only you. Copying papers off of the internet or submitting papers written by anyone other than you, or stealing and passing off as your own whole papers, presentations, paragraphs, entire sentences, multiple words in succession, or ideas and concepts of another, without attribution, constitutes plagiarism and is a violation of the Bluefield State College Statement on Academic Honesty (http://www.bluefieldstate.edu/student-life/academic-honesty-and-proctoring). If you are found to have engaged in plagiarism, I will deduct an additional five points off of your grade for every 10 percentage points of similarity with other papers as indicated by Turnitin.com software, though any similarity with other papers exceeding 50% will result in a grade of zero for your paper and may subject you to disciplinary action by the College. Note that plagiarism is a serious offense, and I urge you to begin working on your presentations and research papers early so as to avoid the temptation to copy the work of others. Engaging in plagiarism can jeopardize your entire career. Students should be aware that assignments may be submitted to Turnitin by the instructor for the purpose of checking for possible plagiarism. Submitted assignments will be included in the BSC dedicated database of assignments at Turnitin and will be used solely for the purpose of checking for possible plagiarism during the grading process during this term and in the future.
7. The purpose of this research paper is to acquaint students of political science with the research process, the campus library, online sources, the fundamentals of developing a logical argument, and politically-related topics. In addition, the work you put into this paper will hopefully build your confidence and prepare you for more involved and much more detailed papers in your future academic efforts.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Chicago Manual of Style, Thirteenth Edition, Revised and Expanded: For Authors, Editors, and Copywriters. 1906/1969/1982. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Seventh Edition. 2009. New York: The Modern Language Association of America.
RESEARCH PAPER TOPICS
Following STRICTLY the instructions in the Research Paper Guidelines above, you may now select one of the following topics for your research paper.
1. In Federalist, No. 78, Alexander Hamilton, wrote: “The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges as, a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents” (Hamilton, in Burns, et al., 2001, p. A-7). In so arguing, Hamilton asserts that the Constitution is synonymous with the intention of the people; hence, when a law is subjected to judicial review, it is scrutinized as to whether it does not violate the Constitution or, in other words, the people’s intentions. But is not judicial review also an action which merely reflects the intention of the people’s other agents, specifically the thinking of the presiding judge(s)? If so, then how can a judge, or anyone else, ever determine what the original intent of the wording of the Constitution implies, so as not to violate the people’s intentions? Moreover, if original intent of the Constitution can never be determined, what purpose does judicial review serve?
2. The authors of our text Judicial Process in America define law as “a social norm the infraction of which is sanctioned in threat or in fact by the application of physical force by a party possessing the socially recognized privilege of so acting.” As the authors note, this definition suggests that law is comprised of 1) force; 2) official authority; and 3) regularity. Together, when combined, these three components of law, the authors write, “differentiates law from mere custom or morals in society.” They go on to write that:
In an ideal society, force would never have to be exercised; in an imperfect world, the threat of its use is a foundation of any law-abiding society. Although substitutes for physical force may be used, such as confiscation of property or imposition of fines, the possibility of physical punishment must nevertheless remain to deter a potential lawbreaker. The right to apply this force constitutes the official element of the definition of law. The party that exercises this right of physical coercion represents a valid legal authority. Finally, the term regularity, as used in the legal sense, can be likened to its use by scientists. Although the term does not reflect absolute certainty, it does suggest uniformity and consistency. The law calls for a degree of predictability, of regularity, in the way individuals are expected to behave or to be treated by the state. In American society, this emphasis on regularity is manifested by adherence to prior court decisions and precedents (the common law doctrine of stare decisis) and also by the mandate of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids the state to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law” (emphasis added) (Carp, Robert A., Ronald Stidham, Kenneth L. Manning, and Lisa M. Homes, 2016, p. 2).
Select one of the three elements that comprise law—viz. 1) force; 2) official authority; and 3) regularity—and write an essay supporting why or why not the element you have chosen is important for the establishment of law. Explain.
3. Our text Judicial Process in America lists the following as sources of law in the United States: a) the US Constitution; b) laws passed by Congress and the state legislatures and county commissions and boards; c) city councils, school districts, fire prevention districts, water districts, and municipal utility districts; d) quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial bodies; e) the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); f) university and college boards of governors or regents; and g) political executives when they fill in the details of legislation or promulgate executive orders. Select one of these sources of law in the United States and write an essay delineating either why you prefer or detest this particular source of law and explain your reasoning.
4. There are a number of types of law in the United States including codified (code) law, statutory law, and common law. Most countries in Europe and in Latin America utilize code law, as does one state in the United States, viz. Louisiana, which operates under the Napoleonic Code. As Carp, et al. write: “A code is merely a body of laws, but it is one that consists of statutes enacted by a national parliament. These laws address virtually all aspects of the body politic; are often detailed; and are arranged in an orderly, systematic, and comprehensive manner (Carp, Robert A., Ronald Stidham, Kenneth L. Manning, and Lisa M. Homes, 2016, p. 5). Statutory law is a type of law enacted by legislative bodies such as Congress or state legislatures or city councils and consists of enactments in written form which address the needs of society as a whole, e.g. a congressional act which increases Social Security payments or a state legislative statute authorizing the death penalty for first-degree murder. Statutes that have been organized by subject matter can then be termed “codified law” or “the code.” If the statute is not organized by subject matter, then it remains simply statutory law. Common law is less orderly than statutory law and is compiled by “traditions, principles, and legal practices that have been handed down from one generation of lawyers and judges to the next. Because much of the common law is not systematically codified and delineated, as is statutory law, it is sometimes referred to as the unwritten law. However, this is not entirely accurate. Much of the common law exists in the form of court decisions and legal precedents that are in written form. The common law is known for its flexibility and capacity to change as it evolves in response to the changing needs and values of society” (Carp, Robert A., Ronald Stidham, Kenneth L. Manning, and Lisa M. Homes, 2016, p. 5). The legal principle which governs common law is adherence to prior court decisions and precedents otherwise known as the doctrine of stare decisis. Write an essay explaining your preference for either codified law or common law and explain the advantages and disadvantages of both and why you prefer one type of law over the other.
5. According to Marxist theory, class divisions within society create conflict and disorder. Law and, hence, the state, come into existence to address this conflict. As Engels writes in Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884), the state “is a product of society at a particular stage of development; it is the admission that this society has involved itself in insoluble self-contradictions and is cleft into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to exorcise. But in order that these antagonisms, classes with conflicting economic interests, shall not consume themselves and society in fruitless struggle, a power, apparently standing above society, has become necessary to moderate the conflict and keep it within the bounds of ‘order’; and this power, arisen out of society, but placing itself above it and increasingly alienating itself from it, is the state” (Engels, 1884, “Barbarism and Civilization”, p. 92). The state that rises up to maintain order within society continues to perpetuate the conflict as a dominant class wielding power over subordinate classes with less power. Explains Lenin in The State and Revolution (1918): “The State is an organ of class domination, an organ of oppression of one class by another; its aim is the creation of ‘order’ which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression by moderating the collisions between the classes” (Lenin, V.I., “Class Society and the State”, 1918, p. 6). Laws are thus imposed by the state to quell these disturbances. Opponents of Marxist theory admit that the state does only exist where there are class contradictions and divisions between classes; however, they maintain that the state is an organ for the reconciliation of classes. ‘Order’, as understood by these opponents of Marxist theory, means precisely the reconciliation of class antagonisms and not the oppression of one class by another. Hence, ‘moderating the conflict’ means reconciling the differences between classes and providing common ground solutions to lessen class tensions. Marxists, however, argue that moderating the conflict means depriving the oppressed classes of definite means and methods of struggle to overthrow the oppressor. Write an essay in which you argue your perspective on whether law is merely the exercise of power by one dominant class over another or whether law is the attempt to reconcile class antagonisms and, hence, give rise to justice and peace. Explain your position.
