This assignment is designed to have you write the introduction section of your final paper ahead of time. The introduction is generally the most difficult part of writing a paper, and so a head start on it will help you in getting things done in time. In addition, though, writing your introduction helps to get your thoughts in order for the rest of your proposal. The goal of the introduction section is to do a few things in particular:

Describe the problem and/or research question, including, but not limited to:
What the topic is
Why it’s important
Who this would matter to
Describe what has already been studied in terms of this topic.
What sample sizes are other researchers using? You will need this to have an idea about how large your study should be.
What types of research are people doing? You will need this to decide whether you should do a similar type or if you can do a more rigorous study.
What response variables are people using? You will need this to know whether you will use the same variables or different ones.
What predictor variables are people using? You will need this to know whether you are replicating a study (and possibly expecting a similar effect) or doing something new.
What hypotheses are people using? Your own research may be following a chain of study that is already existing.
Describe how the existing work is insufficient and/or how the existing work could be extended.
This is the whole motivation for YOUR study, in particular
Maybe the existing work fails to control for certain things
Maybe the existing work doesn’t cover a particular task
Whatever!
Describe your study (a brief summary, there will be some elements you may not know yet that you can describe when you do your methods section)
In terms of theory, what is the goal of your study?
What is your hypothesis, in terms of the theory?
What’s your basic procedure to assess this goal?
What results would confirm or disconfirm your hypothesis?
You should look in your textbook for APA format and writing style (Appendix A), and if that doesn’t give you enough to work with, get your hands on an APA publication manual. They probably have some at the library or just in local bookstores. I am expecting this paper to be in APA format, including citations (no plagiarism!), margins, font, etc. Part of your responsibility in this assignment is to find out what proper APA format is, because you never know when a supervisor is going to ask you to write something in a new format.

Each of the above numbered sections is to be worth 20 points. I will grade the APA formatting such that you’ll lose a point for each violation, up to 20 points. I won’t take more than 20 points for formatting problems, though. APA formatting in this case includes a proper title page, running headers, in-text citations, figure and table labels/captions (if you have figures or tables), and a references page.

Please create your assignment in Microsoft Word and save the file to your computer before you upload your assignment. Use the following format: L2 last name first name. (eg. L2 SmithLloyd) for your file name.