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Try to vary your language in your writing to avoid being too repetitive (usually, you can pick up on this while editing – and you should edit!)

total pages should be 5-7 pages.

Formatting

Remember to use 1-inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman or Calibri font. Aside from your name/information at the top of the page, your extra credit codebook, and block quotes (if you use them), the paper should be double spaced. 

Ethics and User Privacy

Although the data you are working with is publicly available, my personal preference is still to provide some privacy to the people are you studying. If you are including a quote from the subreddit in your paper, try to reword it slightly (this is still paraphrasing, but it is being done for a different reason than the paraphrasing you are doing with your literature review). If you need to refer to a specific user, give them a pseudonym (even though they are already using one). 

Editing Your Paper

In terms of some writing conventions: 

  • Numbers one through ten are written out with letters, while 11 and up use numerals
  • Paragraphs should be indented and should be 4-8 sentences long (and nowhere near a full page)

You should include the following sections (with headings): 

  • Introduction (1/2 to 1 page)
    • Cite any information that is not your own original thought!
  • Literature Review (1/4 to 1/2 page)
    • Use 3-5 peer-reviewed academic articles (Links to an external site.)
    • Make sure to cite! Please use any citation format you would like.
  • Methods (1/4 to 1/2 page)
    • How you collected the data/from where
    • Why you made the decisions you made
    • What programs you used for what analyses (this can include word processing documents)
  • Findings and Analysis (3 pages – one per theme)
    • Subsections for themes, which are the patterns you have identified in the data (try to divide space as evenly as possible)
  • Conclusion (1/2 to 1 page)
    • Discuss the broad important points the reader should walk away knowing, but add information on:
      • Limitations
      • Future research 
  • References
    • Please use any citation format you would like.
  • OPTIONAL: Extra Credit Code Book
    • As illustrated in the example, this is just showing how you identified and applied specific theme