1)Double space 2)12 front 3)minimum 7 scholarly resources 4)based on your understanding of the causes of crime. 5) Abstract should not be indented, should be doubled spaced, 120 words or less and is written in the past tense. 6) Do not quote unless you have to. Unnecessary quotes may be penalized. 7) Do paraphrase and cite all sources. 8) All cited sources must appear on reference page and vice versa (except personal communication). This is a major infraction if it is not followed. 9) Do not use contractions. 10) Left justify the paper. Do not full justify. 11) Put header in the header/margin area, not the first typed line 12) make sure you have an introduction, a conclusion, and the body which relates to both. 13) If you use any statistics, make sure they are cited. 14) Do not use author’s first names. 15) make sure the title is on the top to the page where your paper begins. 14) Make it as engaging as possible. 17) A general rule of thumb is that there should be at least one citation in every paragraph. That may be true in your conclusion. 18) Do not use the your of publication the 2nd time you cite the same source in the same paragraph. 19) Generally whenever you say “Researcher(s)…” or “Studies….(have found…)”you should site the studies or researchers you are talking about. 20) Do not say that a study “proved something. It may “sugguest” “support” or “indicate” but it does not prove. 21) Do not use salutations. 22) Acronyms should be explained/written out the first time they are used. After that they can be used interchangeably. 23) Wikipedia.com should not be used as a reference (this is a personal thing for me).