Format: Introduction: Include a brief introduction where you outline some of the background information on the topic. Be sure to mention the significance of the topic (why is it important to write a whole paper on this issue?). You are strongly encouraged to use in-text citations throughout your introduction. Thesis statement: Include a clear and concise thesis statement that outlines your main argument. Pair your thesis statement with a statement on what the counter-argument is/are for your selected topic. Scope: Define the scope of your paper (i.e. the extent of the topic that you plan to explore in your paper). While you will want to have enough material to critically analyse the topic, you also do not want to explore too much that will result in a superficial analysis. Reasoning: Include a brief explanation of why you are choosing your topic. For example, do you find it relevant to your personal life? Does the topic relate to your field of study/personal interests? Potential references: Include a list of at least three different resources you can use to analyse your selected topic. You do not need to provide a summary of these sources, only a list. Include academic and/or governmental sources. List your references using proper APA formatting (see the Owl Perdue website (Links to an external site.) for detailed guidelines). You do not need to repeat these "Potential References" in your reference list, unless you used them as in-text citations in other parts of your proposal. Length: You paper proposal should be about 1.5 to 2 pages in length. Use 12-point font, with 1-inch margins and 1.5-line spacing. Reference list: Since you are encouraged to use in-text citations in your paper proposal, you must also include a reference list at the end of your assignment. Use APA formatting to reference these in-text citations. Your reference list is excluded from the page length guidelines above.