-Please adhere to all points below.

– Please, don’t just put a reference at the end of paragraph or sparingly. Every sentence that uses information from a source must be referenced.

-At least 5 empirical evidence journal articles need to be used, details below.

-If you argue that certain practices can be used to increase the effectiveness and therefore FBI profiling should be used, combine in each paragraph the evidence on the ineffectiveness and
processes to increases the effectiveness – this will allow you to make your argument in every paragraph

1) Is FBI profiling effective and should it be used in the criminal justice system?
– Briefly define what FBI profiling is and where is it used in the criminal justice system
– Consider its accuracy and costs associated where errors occur
– You need to outline and evaluate 2 or 3 areas of research which have examined the effectiveness of FBI profiling
– If you conclude that FBI profiling is not effective, are there ways in which then use of it can be adjusted to increase its effectiveness and make it a more useful tool or should it not be used at all?
– You must adopt a position and argue this position throughout i.e. in every paragraph. Possible positions might be that i) FBI profiling is effective and should be used within the criminal justice system; OR ii) FBI profiling is not effective and should not be used; OR iii) that FBI profiling is not always effective but by adopting certain practices, it can still be a useful tool for the
criminal justice system. You should develop this position after reading your empirical articles.

All students should remember to use 12 point font, Times New Roman, double line spacing, appropriate margins, page numbers
Introduction
? Don’t put definitions in introduction – very general introduction to your essay
? Don’t just write out the essay topic and the factors you’re looking at
? State an argument – don’t just state that a debate exists or that you’re going to argue both sides of the question
? State the evidence you are going to present to support argument and how this supports your argument – make sure these links are clear
? State the order you are presenting your information in and follow this in essay
? State all the key points you’re discussing in your essay
? How would you describe what you’ve written in your essay to a friend?
? Avoid using references in introduction (as a general rule)
? Make sure content of introduction is directly relevant to the essay topic
? No longer than one paragraph and must be more than 3 sentences long
? Don’t state the journals etc where you drew your information from
? If you want to talk about the importance of the essay topic, keep this to one sentence – you don’t receive any marks for talking about this
? Don’t copy the introductory sentence from the HD essay
Argument
? Use empirical evidence to support your argument – 5 journal articles where the authors have conducted their own research. Don’t use books, movies, magazines, websites, Wikipedia, case studies (e.g., Phineas Gage) etc
? Give a short description of what was done in the study e.g., number of participants, number of interviews/questionnaires, location etc.,.
? Outline the results of the study that are relevant to your essay topic. E.g., 60% of offenders in the study were found to… If you write that Johnson (1999) stated – this doesn’t sound as if the authors conducted a research study.
? Don’t make causal statements – family problems etc don’t cause criminality, they are associated/correlated with criminality.
? Don’t make broad, unsupported statements e.g., all crimes are caused by… Use words like most, some, a small percentage.
? State your argument in every paragraph – make the link clear between the evidence that is being presented and the argument that is being made

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? Make sure you link the evidence and the argument – don’t just state e.g., therefore interventions are effective. You need to state the links.
? If the information you’ve presented doesn’t link to your argument, it’s irrelevant and needs to be taken out.
? You may very briefly acknowledge alternative points of view to your argument (one sentence)
? Don’t rely primarily on only one or two sources throughout essay, particularly not the textbook.
Structure
? Provide signposts. Four important research results were discovered in a study by Johnson (1999). Firstly, … Secondly,…
? Guide your marker through your essay. The first theory that will be discussed is…
The second theory….
? Need to work on logical flow of ideas (don’t leave it to the reader to figure out the logic)
? Don’t just list research throughout essay study by study (such as Smith said …Jones said…). Try and use the references to mount your argument. Demonstrate what the authors have said or researched that is relevant to the topic and how it adds to your argument.
? Only explore one idea per paragraph. Group the same factor/idea from all the studies into one paragraph, then in the next paragraph focus on the next factor/idea
incorporating the evidence from all the studies
? Each paragraph should have a topic sentence that indicates to reader what the paragraph is about (and relevance to topic). Then the body of the paragraph should be followed by a summary sentence that clearly notes how what has been
discussed adds to the argument.
? A theory is not a fact. Use journal articles to mount evidence for argument.
? Don’t use rhetorical questions
? Don’t give personal opinions and don’t use first person – I, we, you
? Include a title so it’s clear what essay topic you are addressing
Conclusion
? Not a conclusion of your own opinion
? Don’t just say ‘in conclusion’ or ‘therefore’ to make an argument. Conclusion should summarise the argument made in the essay and the evidence outlined.
? Include a sentence or two for each factor discussed in the essay and then state how these factors contributed to/supported your argument
? This is a summary, not a place to suddenly make your argument. The argument you make here should be the one made throughout the essay and should logically flow from the information that was presented.
? Don’t introduce new information
? Must be more than one/two sentences long.
? Don’t copy and paste your introduction
Referencing
? Errors in referencing are common – please carefully follow your referencing
guides

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? In the reference list, ensure you use capital letters in the correct places (e.g., for journal titles but lower case for article titles and book titles) and italics for book and journal titles (not for articles). Books, articles etc appear differently in the reference list.
? No floating references e.g., …conducted a study in America. (Johnson, 1999) The in-text reference comes before the full stop, otherwise your reference then relates to the following sentence.
? The only things that should appear in-text are the authors names, the year of publication, and if it’s a quote, the page number.
? Et al. – used when there are 3 or more authors, but only the second time you’ve mentioned that article and thereafter. On the first mention you must list all authors. When you have more than 5 authors, you use et al. in every in-text reference.
? If you say, many researchers found… you need to reference all of these researchers.
? Need to improve paraphrasing (think about the concept and analyse it and its relevance to the topic, don’t just restate the work and insert it in essay)

Q. I’m having trouble understanding exactly what empirical research is or what it is meant to
look like. I am reading all of these journal articles and don’t know whether they are credible to
use… please help.
A: Empirical articles are where authors have conducted a study (i.e., research based study) and they will often contain the following sections (some of the sections may be worded slightly differently), but will follow this general outline:
? Abstract
? Introduction
? Methodology
? Results
? Discussion
? Conclusion
? References

Q: Am I only supposed to be looking at research relevant to Australia (or conducted in Australia) or can I also look at studies conducted overseas?

A: You are welcome to use research from other countries. If possible, try to stick to research conducted in the western society (e.g., America, Canada, Australia, UK, and New Zealand) for sake of generalisability.

Q: When including journal articles in our essays, do we have to give an overview of the
methods, sample size etc.?
A: Yes, please, provide a brief overview – just a couple of sentences – to reflect the validity and understanding of the results.

Q: When using research articles etc. how many years back are we allowed to go? When is a source considered outdated?

A: Please try to use more recent articles (no older than 10 years). If you cannot avoid using the older articles, please use them sparingly.

Q: Am I allowed to include tables in my essay and state, “refer to Table 1”?

A: No thank you. All information should be discussed in text.
Q: Should I define key terms in the Introduction?

A: The Introduction should contain the question/topic being addressed, the point of view/answer, and the main points (as well as the essay plan) that will be discussed to support your answer. Leave the definitions for the second paragraph (i.e., the paragraph after the Introduction).

Q: Is it true that you should not use references in your Introduction?

A: It depends. Generally, the Introduction just needs to contain the question/topic being addressed, the point of view/answer, and the main points (as well as the essay plan) that will be discussed to support your answer. However, if you decide to refer to anything that is from a source, it always needs to be cited, regardless of its place in your essay.

Q: Are in-text references included in the word count?

A: Yes.

Q: Is the reference list included in the word count?

A: No.

Q: Does the 10% over/under word count rule apply to this assignment?

A: Yes, the word count is 2,000 words (+/- 200 words). So please avoid writing under 1,800 words
or over 2,200 words, otherwise you will be penalised.

Q. Can I write in ‘first-person’?

A: No thank you. Please write in third-person.

Q: Should I include an Abstract?

A: No thank you.

Q: Should I use APA6 Referencing?

A: Yes please, this is part of the assessment criteria. I highly suggest you refer
to: https://sites.google.com/a/griffith.edu.au/redbook/referencing/references

Q: Do I need a title page?

A: Yes please, this is an APA requirement. This link tells you what information goes on a title
page: https://sites.google.com/a/griffith.edu.au/redbook/research-reports/title- pages

Q: Should I use APA format (e.g., double-line spacing, size 12, Times New Roman font, etc.)?
A: Yes please.