The purpose of the paper is to study an organic speech, language. or swallowing disorder in depth. Your research paper should be about 5 pages in length using double spacing.
1. Choose a broad subject area then develop a specific question about the topic: broad subject: (traumatic brain injury) or (cleft palate) specific question about the topic: (What is the impact of cognitive deficits on social communication in traumatic brain injury? ) or (How is speech production affected in children with cleft palate?)
2. Gather informational articles and at least 3 research studies that match your topic. Gather as many research studies that you need to write about your topic.
Example: Informational articles may be the textbook, websites, or articles that describe a disorder. Research studies are articles that studies or discusses the effect of variables in a disorder. (sample articles for the question for traumatic brain injury: pragmatics/turn-taking skills in TBI, school reentry issues in TBI, memory deficits in TBI, attention deficits in TBI)
3. Introduce your topic on the first page
4. Then discuss and integrate the information from your research studies on the next 3 pages (see below how to integrate information in this section). Organize the body of the paper around subtopics, not each article. For example if you are discussing TBI, possibly the first subtopic is impact of turn taking skills on social communication, then possibly impact of attention deficits on social communication, then possibly reentry into workforce using social communication skills.
5. Then come to conclusions about the information on the last pages. and develop an idea of your own depending on your topic and based on the research you have studied. Don’t use “I” in your application of your idea, keep wording formal. (i.e. idea of medication of Ritalin, often used for ADHD, for TBI symptoms of attention deficits in order to improve social communication.)
