Assignment: Discipline Integration Paper Instructions

Assignment: Discipline Integration Paper Instructions

You will write a 3,800–4,400-word research paper (title page, bibliography, and citations not included in the word count) on an interdisciplinary studies topic surrounding the integration of your 2 areas of study. This is a course on interdisciplinary research—and you take it to apply these lessons to your academic career and to what you do or will do in your field. For your Discipline Integration Paper, you may write about any integrative topic relevant to your areas of study or suggested in your coursework, and that you think holds value for you as you pursue a career or further your education.

Remember, you choose the topic or issue for the paper as long as it integrates your 2 areas of study by adding to the field of interdisciplinary studies. You will utilize your work and instructor feedback from the Annotated Bibliography and Discipline Integration Paper Outline to build this assignment.

Your Discipline Integration Paper must have the sections below. All  of them should be formatted according the current format of your declared Area of Study I.

• Abstract• Introduction/Thesis or Argument• Literature Review• Integrative Approach (how you reached a position on this subject—in this case, your literature review)• Results/Recommendations• Suggestions for Further Research/Study• Conclusion• Bibliography (the works cited in your paper)

Note: Not all sections are created equal. Some of the above may be a paragraph or 2, while others may be a few pages.

At least 15 academic, peer-reviewed articles are required along with citations from your textbook and the Bible. The sources you use must be less than 5 years old. The research you conducted during previous coursework throughout this course and utilized in our Discussion Board Forums can be used for the paper (though not taken word-for-word and must be rewritten to fit the context of this assignment). There must be a focus and flow that integrates all of the research together.

SafeAssign

Safe Assign software is an educational tool that shows students the originality of the work they are submitting. Since any research paper you write will include ideas or quotations that do not belong to you, it is important that you not only give credit where it’s due. However, also strive for originality. The overall score is an indicator of what percentage of the submitted paper matches existing sources. This score is a warning indicator only and papers should be reviewed to see if the matches are properly attributed.

• Scores below 15 percent: These papers typically include some quotes and few common phrases or blocks of text that match other documents. These papers typically do not require further analysis, as there is no evidence of the possibility of plagiarism in these papers.
• Scores between 15 percent and 40 percent: These papers include extensive quoted or paraphrased material or they may include plagiarism. These papers should be reviewed to determine if the matching content is properly attributed.
• Scores over 40 percent: There is a very high probability that text in this paper was copied from other sources. These papers include quoted or paraphrased text in excess and should be reviewed for plagiarism.

Submit this assignment by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Friday of Module/Week 8.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Assignment: Discipline Integration Paper Instructions states that Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, including a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two-sentence responses, simple statements of agreement, or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’s level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’s level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation
Welcome to class
Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week
course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication.
Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I
have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for
this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You
could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to
contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you
have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow
up text to
I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your
assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to
present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the
requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have
posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you
watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the
instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to
instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with
me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a
15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note
that I will NOT call you.
Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues
with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If
you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the
deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or
overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your
assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be
accepted.
If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the
appropriate department to request accommodations.
Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA
7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the
appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned
back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in
APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.
Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a
minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number
of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your

response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts.
If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite
your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course.
Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a
resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial
substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor
for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you
need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question
each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX
discussion posts for the week.
I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in
Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like
this, we are encouraged by God's word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His
strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally
as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the
course!
Hi Class,
Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and
participation posts.
Contact me if you have any questions.
Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
 Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of
references)
 There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional
journal article.
 Include in-text citations in your response
 Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
 Follow APA-7th edition
 Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
 A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
 Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed
journal article
 Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of
references)
 Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further
enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the
word count.

 Follow APA 7th edition
 Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
 Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion
questions, and participation points.
 Here are some helpful links
 Student paper example
 Citing Sources
 The Writing Center is a great resource

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

“Everything is in place. “Everything comes apart sooner or later,” Paul Simon sung in 1971. (Simon, 1971). “Any tiny planet that splits apart falls together again,” Steely Dan responded in 1974. (Steely Dan, 1974). Disciplines collide in new and intriguing ways in today’s academic world, and they split off into disparate specialties. The intellectual currents of our period are moving in opposite directions at the same moment. Should we expect multidisciplinary research to be resistant to these tendencies if disciplines bounce back and forth between integration and fragmentation? The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the conditions of academic dis-
Interdisciplinary Studies: Rethinking Integration The diversity of possible outcomes of multidisciplinary initiatives, as well as the 71 disciplines involved, raises challenges regarding the role of integration in interdisciplinary studies.
according to Assignment: Discipline Integration Paper Instructions, “Interdisciplinary studies may be characterized as a process of answering a question, solving a problem, or addressing a topic that is too vast or complex to be dealt with satisfactorily by a single discipline or profession,” Julie Thompson Klein and William H. Newell wrote in 1997. “Interdisciplinary studies relies on disciplinary viewpoints and combines their ideas by constructing a more comprehensive perspective,” according to Wikipedia. Interdisciplinary research is thus “complimentary to and remedial of the fields.”
(Klein & Newell, pp. 393-394, 1997). Finding a common language or foundation between disciplines might help lead to multidisciplinary integration (Klein, 1990, p. 189; Newell, 2001, p. 15).
The above-mentioned definition has received a lot of acceptance. “Klein and Newell’s term will serve as this textbook’s definition of interdisciplinary studies,” Tanya Augsburg wrote in the first edition of Becoming Interdisciplinary (Augsburg, 2005, p. 8). The National Academies’ definition from 2004 bears echoes of Klein and Newell’s. “Interdisciplinary research is a mode of research… that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline,” according to their report. “Research is really interdisciplinary when… concepts and methods are integrated and synthesized.” (2004, pp. 26-27, Committee on Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research). “Interdisciplinary thinking… entails the blending of disciplinary ideas,” says Harvard’s Veronica Boix Mansilla (Boix Mansilla, 2005, p. 17). When Allen Repko gives a complete definition of interdisciplinary studies in Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory, he quotes many phrases from Klein and Newell and then substitutes “a more comprehensive understanding or cognitive advancement” for Klein and Newell’s “more comprehensive perspective” (Repko, 2008, p. 12).
Some authors are pessimistic about the possibilities for interdisciplinarity. “Interdisciplinarity… has outgrown its own definitions,” says Lisa Lattuca. “Most definitions establish the integration of several disciplines as the litmus test for interdisciplinarity,” she argues, although “the topic of integration” is crucial to her (Lattuca, 2001, pp. 4, 78). Neil Roughley, a philosopher, is concerned about “integrative theory’s difficulty” and those who are “dedicated to some type of epistemological coherentism” (Roughley, 2000, p. 38). “Interdisciplinary groups,” explain Angela O’Donnell and Sharon Derry, “are those that consciously aim to integrate knowledge from the various disciplines involved.” “Most teams incorporating people from multiple disciplines never function as multidisciplinary integrative teams” (O’Donnell & Derry, 2005, pp. 54, 73), and “few organizations in the actual world achieve such aims.” According to Rogers, Scaife, and Rizzo, cognitive science tries to “integrate fields,” but “has primarily been a multi-disciplinary endeavour” (Rogers, Scaife & Rizzo, 2005, p. 266).
Joseph Kockelmans, a pioneering interdisciplinarian, advised against underestimating “the immense hurdles that hinder genuine interdisciplinarity” in 1979. (Kockelmans, 1979, p. 146). According to him, our knowledge system is dangerously fragmented epistemologically because “each separate discipline has evolved its own overall conceptual framework, collection of theories, and methodologies” (Kockelmans, 1979, pp. 145-146). “Specialization makes integration almost impossible” as a result of these distinctions (Kockelmans, 1979, p. 147). While time has proven this last remark to be unduly pessimistic and significantly underestimating the vast capacity for integration, Rogers, Scaife, and Rizzo nonetheless voice integration worries that are reminiscent of Kockelmans’. They claim that “several epistemological hurdles” make “achieving interdisciplinarity” difficult. “Incommensurability of concepts, various units of analysis, disparities in world views, expectations, criteria, and value judgments” are only a few examples (Rogers, Scaife & Rizzo, 2005, p. 268).
There are scholars who believe that integration is a distinguishing feature of interdisciplinarity, as well as those who believe that integration is hampered by conceptual and empirical barriers. “Interdisciplinarity is a disputed notion,” Rick Szostak acknowledges (Szostak, 2007, p. 34). How can the nature of differing viewpoints on the interdisciplinarity-integration link be faced and understood? These debates on the likelihood of integration have been going on for decades and are still going on. The elements that stimulate, complicate, and impede the search for synthesis are examined in this research, as well as the implications for the place of integration in the concept of interdisciplinary studies.
It all starts with a glance at the many disciplines.

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to.

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Sincerely,

Name:  Discussion Rubric

Name:  Discussion Rubric