Please develop a research question (*see note at the bottom). You will use this research question throughout this course. Your paper should include a paragraph or two to provide some background about the topic and explain how your research would fit into existing literature on the topic. Also, explain your search method (library, other university or scholarly databases, academic journals, or Google Scholar) to access the most relevant information about your topic.
If you are wondering what a search method is, it is a process or technique. It is “how” you go about researching a topic. Typically, you will have criteria (a way of measuring what you find to determine if it is relevant) and you will have search terms (which are specific references to dates, places, events, people, concepts, or authors, that can be used in a search engine). A search method might include examining a wide variety of databases; it might include using the references in books and articles to find more sources. It might include restricting yourself to peer reviewed journal articles and government publications. No matter what paper or what topic, you will always be using some method for searching for the information you need.
Conduct a search for articles in peer-reviewed, academic journals or books about your topic. Choose two (2) scholarly articles pertinent to your topic and provide a citation for these articles using APA format.
TECHNICAL GUIDANCE:
- Type in Times New Roman, 12 point and double space.
- Students will follow the APA Style as the sole citation and reference style used in written work submitted as part of coursework.
- Use scholarly or other relevant sources.
- Do not use Wikipedia or encyclopedic type sources. It is highly advised to utilize: books, peer reviewed journals, articles, archived documents, etc.
- Your responses are to be in your own words with minimal quotes.
***Choose a topic related to Homeland Security such as Terrorism, Homegrown Violent Extremism, Critical Infrastructure, Importance of Information Sharing, etc. This will be the 1st of a 4-part series on the topic that will span over the next 8 weeks. I will be requesting the same writer for each one. The next paper I will request is choose a scholarly article pertinent to your research topic and write a review of it. You will “de-construct” the article for the reader, analyzing the claims that the author is making and how well he/she supports those claims. You will also explain how this article fits into your research strategy to answer your research question. Does it provide some insights but still leave you wondering?
