Question
CONTENTS OF MY RESEARCH PAPER
Topic: Social Security Administration (SSA): Enhancing the
Social Security Disability
Determination Process
For this topic you are going to argue for the implementation
of certain techniques to help improve the determination process. Not only will
you likely discuss existing issues with the SSA determination process but you
will likely examine some prominent techniques used and then potentially provide
your own or someone else’s analysis of how these techniques could be
transitioned to the SSA.
Below I provided an Outline to further clear up any confusion.
This is the outline I submitted to my professor but use it as you see fit. If
you want to use different subtopics by all means, do as you please.
Abstract:
Introduction:
I. The Social Security Administration
1. The SSA’s background
2. The SSA’s mission and objective
II. Existing Issues with the SSA
1. The fairness and validity of applications
2. The wait time for decisions
3. Reconsideration of applications
III. How to Improve the Process
1. Reform the initial determination level
2. Reestablish the reconsideration level
3. Reform the administration funding
Conclusion:
Technical Requirements:
● 10 pages in length. Reference pages do not count towards
the 10 page total.
● Times New Roman & 12pt or smaller font.
● Standard MS Word margins 1” top and bottom and up to 1.25”
right and left.
● Double spaced.
● APA format.
● A minimum of 8 sources; four of these must be peer-reviewed
academic journals. Please note that you need to cite at least four
peer-reviewed academic journals in the paper. If you quote material from a
source, then you should provide a citation for that source. However, be careful
with quotations. Your paper should not just be a series of quotes from other
works; nor should it include lengthy quotes to substitute for you actually
writing material. Instead, you should normally be paraphrasing.
Title
Centered at the top of the first page.
Abstract
Should be 150 to 250 words. Centered, single-spaced, and
italicized on the first page below the title. The abstract is not the
introduction. The abstract states what the paper is going to talk about and
then
summarizes what the paper found or concluded.
Introduction
Should start on the first page following the abstract.
Optimally, the introduction should be one to two paragraphs in length or
somewhere between a half and a full page. The introduction should usually start
with an anecdote or some sort of hook to get the reader interested in the topic
and should then very explicitly say what the paper is going to cover. By saying
what the paper is going to cover, it should mention the elements of your short
outline. At some point in the introduction, you should have an explicit statement
to the effect that “In this paper I am going to discuss <a>, <b>,
and <c>.” Where <a>, <b>, and
<c> are the headers from your short outline. This
helps the reader to know explicitly what will be covered in the paper. It may
not be the most interesting reading but it makes for clearer reading.
Paper Body Section 01, 02, 03, and so on
This section is where you take your first major body point
and its three to four sub-points from your detailed outline and turn it into
the actual first section of your paper. This section should be about three pages
long (double spaced). Provided you have three sub-points to your main point, if
you write two half-page paragraphs for each of your three sub-points you will
have this section completed. You should write all of the paper body sections
first before the introduction, conclusion, abstract, and even the title.
Conclusion
Should be written next-to-last. The conclusion should be one
to two paragraphs in length or somewhere between a half and a full page. The
conclusion should summarize the key aspect of each major body point in the
paper and should then point out the relevance of what the paper discussed
and/or found – that is, it should answer the “Why is this important?” question.
Reference Page(s)
The reference page should start on its own separate page and
be titled “References” at the top. The reference page is an alphabetized list
of the full citations that correspond to the abbreviated citations used in the
text. There should be an entry on the reference page for each unique citation
mentioned in the body of the paper. You need a minimum of eight citations
overall. Four of these can be most anything but should be relevant, e.g., a
government report, website, magazine or newspaper article, books etc. Four of these
must be academic peer-reviewed journal articles.
Answer
