Assignment Instructions

This assignment consists of a single activity requiring you to produce a research paper that is at least five (5) FULL pages (not including title page and reference list), to test knowledge and assimilation of the course objectives.

Pages are to be double-spaced utilizing Times New Roman 12 point font, and have one inch margins.

Students will follow the APA citation and reference style used for this assignment.

Additional information concerning this writing style can be found within and attached to your Week 1 announcement.

Instructions

As we bring this study to a close, we now take a look at the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review which established the following five basic homeland security missions to address threats and hazards for the near term:

Mission 1: Prevent Terrorism and Enhance Security

Mission 2: Secure and Manage our Borders

Mission 3: Enforce and Administer our Immigration Laws

Mission 4: Safeguard and Secure Cyberspace

Mission 5: Strengthen National Preparedness and Resilience

For this final assignment, offer specific information as to how the private sector can have a direct impact on at least two of these mission areas moving forward.

Make sure you read the instructions carefully and that you focus your paper on answering the assigned questions. This assignment is a research paper, not an opinion paper, so you need to use scholarly sources to support your thesis.

Use formal academic writing and do not use the first person such as I or my; see the OWL site on academic writing style. Make sure you use APA style in-text parenthetical citations at the end of every sentence where you are quoting another's ideas (or any information) that is not your own thoughts and words, like this (Bergen, 2015, para 14).

Citations are required for paraphrases as well, but not the page or paragraph number in that case. I highly recommend you use the APUS writing guide which can be found in the university library or at this link: APUS Research Writing and Style Guide.

You are welcome to use supplementary sources to compliment the assigned readings based upon your research, but make sure you use scholarly and credible sources (do not use open websites and you never want to use wikipedia for a college level paper).

Also, dictionaries and encyclopedias as well as general news sites (like CNN) are not appropriate for college level research papers. Do not cite the weekly lessons as those are only basic information to start off the topic with.

You need to use mainly scholarly and reputable academic books and journal articles. Refer to the guide provided to you as an attachment here titled "How to find scholarly research sources for HLSS Courses."

Also, see the APUS Library Homeland Security Program Guide for good sources, as well as the APUS Research Primer and the APUS Library Research FAQs. For formatting, the best option is to use the example paper attached to the Midterm instructions as a template (for formatting purposes only).

Requirements:

- Written according to the APA style and format;

- Use Times New Roman 12 point font;

- 1 inch margins on all sides with no paragraph indentation other than the first line by .5 inches

- Double space all text (no extra lines or spaces after a paragraph or section headings and no added font sizes or lines either)

- At least 5 FULL pages of content but no more than 6 pages.

- A respectable number of credible resources used, cited in the paper as in-text citations, and included on the reference page. A good rule of thumb is at least 2 scholarly sources per page of content (at least 10 scholarly references for this 5 page paper). Use those sources provided to you throughout the course (listed in the announcements), as well as other material obtained from conducting your own research. Freely utilize appropriate and reputable academic sources, summarize in your own words and cite accordingly.