Social Work Services and Professional Academic Writing Guide

The Request for Money Assignment (RMA) Cycle and Program Details

• The RMA Cycle is a core component of the course, functioning as a "mini grant proposal" assignment.
• It allows students to focus on a personal topic of interest within social work contexts.
• Potential focus areas for the RMA include:   - Target Populations: Specific groups the student currently works with or intends to work with post-graduation.   - Systems: Social work systems in need of focus, analysis, or systemic improvement.   - Environments and Locations: Under-researched geographical locations or specific problem-ridden environments.
• Research Question Development:   - This is the initial step and is considered one of the easier assignments.   - Students must first identify a general concept or issue (e.g., the issue of homelessness in Eugene).   - Students then refine this into a specific research question (e.g., "What is the opinion of people using housing services in Eugene on what needs to be improved?").

Assignment Timeline and Requirements

• Research Question: Deadline is Wednesday.
• Systematic Review Assignment: Due Friday the 15th.   - Designed as a "point-booster" to recover lost points from previous papers.   - Worth approximately 50 to 100 points.   - Requirement: Locate two actual systematic review articles. Points are lost if the articles do not meet the definition of a systematic review or if the submission is late.
• Initial Submission: Due Friday, May 22nd.
• Peer Reviews:   - Assigned through Canvas.   - Requirements: Students must provide "actionable feedback." This involves specific suggestions for improvement or clarification rather than vague critiques like "you suck at writing."
• Final Paper:   - Must incorporate feedback from three sources: peers, the instructional team, and the professor.   - Feedback Incorporation Policy: This is the most significant part of the grade. If a student submits the final paper early before receiving feedback, they risk losing points intentionally, as the professor will not micromanage adult schedules.

Advanced Writing Skills: Claims and Evidence

• Structuring Claims: In academic writing, particularly when summarizing others' work, one should provide a large claim followed by specific examples.
• Example of Effective Claim Structure:   - Claim: "AI use has serious consequences for cognitive development (Author, Year)."   - Evidence: "For example, youth who use AI regularly for school assignments show less brain activity on MRIs (Author, Year)."
• Clarity in Claims: Broad terms like "inequity" must be defined specifically before deployment. Is it resource management inequity, community inequity, or identity-based inequity? This differentiates professional writing from AI-generated content, which often makes broad statements without specific context.

Technical Formatting and Citation Standards

• Acronym Introduction: Write out the full term first, followed by the acronym in parentheses.   - Example: "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" or "Family and Human Services (FHS)."   - After the first introduction, use only the acronym throughout the paper. The full term may be used again in the conclusion for emphasis.
• Punctuation Rules: In American English, punctuation (commas and periods) must be placed inside the quotation marks.
• Consistency in Citations:   - Always include the publication year after the author's name (e.g., Smith, 2024) to distinguish between various publications by the same author.   - If an author has multiple publications in a single year, use suffixes: 2026a, 2026b, 2026c.
• Citation Mechanics: When citing a quotation at the end of a sentence, use elipses if needed, then the closing quote, then the parenthetical citation, and finally the period ($". . ." (Author, Year).$).
• Formal Tone:   - Avoid the use of contractions (e.g., use "is not" instead of "isn't").   - Avoid first-person perspective ("I," "me") to maintain professional distance, though it may be acceptable in specific methodology sections of the RMA (e.g., "In this project, I plan to…").

Crafting an Exhaustive Conclusion

• The Philosophy of Conclusions: A conclusion should not merely look backward; it must focus on moving the discussion forward.
• Restating the Thesis: Start the conclusion by restating the thesis in a new way. It should remind the reader of the point without repeating the introductory thesis verbatim.
• Essential Elements of a Conclusion:   - Remind the reader of the main points succinctly.   - Highlight "The Gap": Discuss what is missing from the current story or research.   - Identify future directions for thinkers and readers.   - Reiterate the solution: The conclusion should not be the first time a solution is mentioned, but it should explicitly state it.
• Harmony with Introduction Models:   - Model 1 (Contentious Issue): Revisit how your position offers a new perspective to the existing discourse.   - Model 2 (Irresolvable Problem): Revisit the proposed solution to the problem introduced at the start.   - Model 3 (New Aspect of Well-Known Issue): Revisit the surprising aspect identified in the introduction.
• Strategies to Avoid:   - Cliches: Do not use phrases like "In conclusion," "In closing," or "To sum up."   - Thesis Drama: Avoid wandering through facts only to reveal the goal or thesis at the very end.   - New Evidence: Never introduce new statistics, quotes, or subtopics in the conclusion. Use the conclusion to look at existing evidence through a "big picture" lens.   - Sentimental Appeals: Maintain a professional tone. While a conclusion can be slightly more personal or opinion-based when discussing recommendations, it must still utilize professional jargon and avoid being overly dramatic.
• Instructional Exercise: Students are tasked with spending ten minutes drafting a conclusion that mirrors their introduction to ensure structural harmony.