Paper Guidelines

Content – The content of each of the four sections of the paper should closely follow the instructions as indicated above. Each section has a minimum page range. Please keep in mind that these are minimum page ranges, not maximum page ranges. What this means is that the first section of the paper, for example, may be longer than three full pages, but it should not be less than two full pages.
Quotations – Quotations should be used sparingly and should generally be limited to just a few words at a time directly attributed to a specific individual or organization. You do not need to include quotations for facts or statistics (e.g., According to one study, more than $600 billion is lost to cybercrime each year.) Instead, you should use the facts or statistics in your own sentences, properly citing the sources of the facts or statistics. Quotations of one or more complete sentences, including block quotations, are not allowed in this paper. Students may not under any circumstances insert unattributed quotations into the paper – unattributed quotations are quoted words that are inserted into a paper without directly attributing the words to a specific individual or organization. All attributed quotations in the paper must be properly cited – e.g., On December 16, 2015, President Xi Jinping called upon the international community to “respect the right of individual countries to independently choose their own path of cyber development and model of cyber regulation and participate in international cyberspace governance on an equal footing” (Xinhua News Agency, December 16, 2015). If applicable, the page number of the quotation should also be provided in the citation.
Format – The entire paper should be double-spaced (2.0), Times New Roman 12 pt. font, and one inch margins on all sides (top, bottom, left, and right). There should be no extra spacing between paragraphs within a section of the paper or between the sections of the paper. Page numbers may be inserted at the center bottom of the pages. The paper should include a separate cover page containing the title of the paper, student name, course name, and date. None of the information required on the cover page should be included on any other page of the paper. There should be no running header in this paper. The paper should include all four bolded section headings as indicated above.
Style – The writing style for this paper should be the Academic Style, which among other things means that the language in the paper should be precise, detailed, and informative. Do not use other writing styles, such as the Creative Style, in this paper. The tone of academic writing is formal, as opposed to informal or conversational. This paper is not a speech, so it should not be written as though you are giving a speech. In this paper, do not express that you will be “talking” about a particular topic (although it is alright to express that you will be discussing a particular topic). Among other informal writing practices, please do not use contractions such as don’t or doesn’t in this paper.
Sources – Academic and other professional sources of information should be used in this paper. Both primary sources of information (international treaties, official government documents, and organizational reports) and secondary sources of information (scholarly articles, published essays, and news articles) may be used in the paper. Most of the sources cited in this paper should have an identifiable author (John Smith) and publication year (2020) or an identifiable organization (BBC News) and publication date (December 15, 2015). Since this is a university-level writing assignment, information from dictionaries, encyclopedia, and other online reference resources, such as Wikipedia.com, InfoPlease.com, FactMonster.com, Dictionary.com, and History.com, should not be cited in this paper.
Citations – All sources with identifiable authors or organizations and publication years or dates should be cited at the end of a sentence or the paragraph using parenthetical citations. The Political Science Style Manual, which is similar to Chicago Style Manual, is the recommended citation style in this writing assignment (see pages 37-40 in the Political Science Style Manual). The Modern Language Association (MLA) citation style should not be used in this paper since it is primarily used in the humanities, not the social sciences. Parenthetical citations should contain an author’s last name and publication year – e.g. (Johnson 2015). In the case of news articles or reports published by organizations, the parenthetical citation should contain the name of the organization and the full date of the article or report – e.g. (BBC News, June 15, 2015). If only one source of information is used in a particular paragraph, only one parenthetical citation needs to be inserted towards the end of the paragraph. If more than one source is used in a particular paragraph, a parenthetical citation should be inserted at the end of each sentence or group of sentences in which a different source was used. In this paper, sources that do not have publication years or dates should only be cited using footnotes. Under no circumstance should an internet address be inserted into a parenthetical citation – e.g. (UN.org). Citations of primary sources, such as national laws, international treaties, government documents, and organizational reports, should generally be cited using footnotes, especially if there is no identifiable author and publication date. For footnotes, all of the information regarding the source should be provided in the footnote the first time that the source is cited in the paper. Each subsequent time the source is cited, only some information regarding the source needs to be provided in the footnote. If a source’s date includes a month/day and year, the full date should be included in the footnote. Single (1.0) line-spacing should be used in footnotes. Papers with fake citations will be considered as a form of cheating (see Plagiarism and Cheating below).
Writing and Grammar – Prior to submission, the paper should be carefully proof-read for grammatical, spelling, and other writing errors. Each section of the paper should be divided into paragraphs. The start of each paragraph should be indented using one tab. Each of the paragraphs should include three or more complete sentences. In this paper, countries such as China and the United States should be referred to as “countries” or “states”. In this paper, do not refer to countries as “nations” – the word “nation” is essentially a cultural term, not a political term. Not all “nations” are located in a single country (e.g., Kurds), and not all “countries” consist of a single nation (e.g., United Kingdom). Some countries may be more or less culturally homogenous (e.g., Japan), but most countries are multinational (e.g., Canada). After the first mention of country or organization names that are commonly abbreviated, such as the United States (U.S.), United Kingdom (UK), United Nations (UN), and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), please use the abbreviation.
Plagiarism and Cheating – The paper should be written entirely by the student enrolled in this course. Papers with one or more sentences that are copied-and-pasted from a source on the Internet or elsewhere will receive a score of zero [0] and a failing grade in the course, even if some of the words are changed in the copied-and-pasted sentences. While there are many appropriate uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs, such as ChatGPT, in academic courses and in professional jobs, the use of an AI program to generate one or more sentences of this writing assignment will be considered as cheating since the purpose of the assignment is to assess the ability of a student to critical think and write, not the ability of a student to generate a paper using an AI program. Papers that include one or more sentences generated by an AI program will receive a score of zero [0].