SCHOLARLY RESEARCH TERM PAPER GUIDELINES

The Research Term Paper Assignment
Your Paper Will Consist of the Following Sections:
1. Cover Page
2. Abstract
3. Literature Review
a. Problem/Social Issue Defined
b. Target Population
c. Practice Methods
d. Social Worker Role
e. Presenting Problems
f. Barriers to Service for the Target Population
g. Individual & Environmental/Societal Causes of problems
h. Ethical Issues & Value Issues for Social Workers in this field
i. Anticipated Income
j. Personal Assessment
4. References Page
5. Annotated Bibliography
Steps to Success:
1.) Pick a problem or social issue: Social workers attempt to address all sorts of problems.
What’s your dream job? Is there a problem or social issue that exists that you think you
want to make a career out of solving? If you cannot think of one you can use the list
below to get you started:
Child Welfare Family, Youth and Children Pregnancy & Parenting
School Social Work Mental Health Older Adults
Substance Abuse Military Social Work Medical Social Work
Grant Writing International Social Work Refugees and/or Immigrants
Disabilities Crisis and Trauma Administration
Violence, Victims and
Criminal Justice
Community Organizing
2.) Next Step: Study The Assignment Questions: You will have to do research in order to 

answer the following questions:
a.) Define the problem or social issue
b.) Who is the target population? Who are the clients in need of service? Include
information regarding the age ranges, gender, and socioeconomic status.
c.) What are the practice methods that social workers use in this field? Indicate micro
and/or macro practice methods and provide example(s). If they do micro, such as
case management, you would need to say micro and give examples of case
management that they do.
d.) What is the role of the social worker in this field? What do social workers do to
help solve the problem? Example: Case management
e.) What are the presenting problems in this field of service? Example: what are
the challenges Child Welfare Services face? Insufficient funding? Not enough
employees? Etc.
f.) What are the barriers to service for the target population? What gets in the way of
clients of the problem you chose getting services? Example: lack of
transportation.
g.) What are the individual and environmental/societal causes of problems? What do
clients do that get them into the situation to where they need help with the
problem? How does society ‘cause’ the problem to exist?
h.) What ethical and/or value dilemmas do social workers face in this field of
service? Example: conflict of interest, confidentiality, sexy clients.
i.) What is the anticipated income for social workers in this field of service?
j.) What is your assessment of your continued interest in the field of service? (This is
the only part of the paper that can be written in 1st person) Example: After
completing this assignment I realized I really love this field. The reasons why
are…
3.) Research: Begin your research for appropriate and relevant reference materials.  Use the
questions above to help you find relevant books and articles.
a.) What are the Literature Requirements?
i.) You will need at least one book or e-book
(1) Choose a book that focuses mainly on the problem or social issue
that you have chosen (textbooks can be used as a supplemental
source, but not the main source).
(2) The course textbook from Social Work 110 cannot be used as a
reference.
(3) The book should be written by a professional in the field of social
work or a closely related field
ii.) You will need three scholarly articles – What is a scholarly article?
(1) A scholarly article is written by a professional and is usually
contained in a  professional journal.
(2) Social work journals and articles written for the National
Association of Social Workers (NASW) are good examples of
appropriate references.  
(3) “Social Work Today” is an online/hard copy magazine that often
has scholarly research articles available; it is available in the