Writing assingment

In the previous two steps, you performed searches, first to identify industry trends, and then for information about an issue in one of those trends that you consider to be important to your industry.

Now, you should be ready to draft your paper. This would be a good time to review organization in writing and paragraphs.

You might also review the Effective Writing Center's Online Guide to Writing, a valuable reference to students who seek to improve their writin

Review your tasks. You are to provide a research paper that provides a summary of the three top trends in your industry (with associated NAICS codes).

Provide sufficient background for your reader that the trend is clear and supported by resources you have found.

Review resources in References and Citations to ensure that you are using "in text" citations to give credit for the ideas of other authors and to build your credibility as a researcher, neither ignoring sources nor quoting excessively.

You will develop a paper that accomplishes two objectives:

It will identify the three top trends in your industry and your rationale for your choices based on the resources you found;

It will discuss an issue within one of the trends that you deem important, based on the current state of the industry, and will be supported by your analysis of facts and a well-reasoned conclusion of what it means to the industry.

Start with an outline and flesh out the main themes with supporting statements. This will become your road map to an organized paper. Draft, sleep on it, and edit. Repeat.

Your paper will be 5-7 pages, not including your cover page and References page(s), double-spaced, and set up in APA standards. It does not require an abstract.

Your citations, both "in text" and in References, will be in accordance with the APA Style Manual Sixth Edition. You may also find this sample APA paper helpful.

Your headings will follow this general pattern:

Introduction (First level heading)

Findings (First level heading)

Top Trends of the _____ Industry (Second level heading)

An important emerging issue in a trend (and what it means in context to the industry) (Second level heading)

Conclusions (First level heading)

References (First level heading)

MILESTONE: Many students are asked to resubmit their papers based on incomplete or inaccurate citation formats. This milestone will get you off to a good start with APA citations and enable your instructor to check your trends to make sure that you are off to a good start. By the end of Week 2, submit a shell of your paper with the following elements:

a cover sheet in good APA format; a "template" for your paper that includes the headings; your opening paragraph that will introduce the industry, the top trends, the issue that you have chosen, and the question that you pose to answer; and,your draft References page.