Essay Instructions: This paper was already started. I had 3 pages wrote, and I need to add 5 more pages to this research, and it has to be turned in to turnitin.com , so please a good part of it has to be original and all sources need to be cited. Please do not use GPA( that is not used in high school) just use the word Grades.
General Format and Organization
• Compile your evidence. For Paper 2, you will be compiling what we “in the discipline” call a literature review??"a moderately comprehensive overview of the available research findings related to the topic. The lit review is intended to give the reader an idea of what scholarship exists in the area as well as a general idea of what to expect from the “featured study” conducted by the author. You should gather information from scholarly research articles (more on this below) and reflect critically and thoughtfully on their findings. With this evidence in mind, draw some conclusions as to how you think your proposed study (from Paper 1) would have turned out.
• Use standard academic formatting (a reminder!). Papers are to be typed, double-spaced, and composed in 11- or 12-point Times New Roman font, with left alignment for ease of reading. Please leave 1-inch margins on all sides and place your name on a cover page, along with a title, the name of the class, the assignment and the date it was completed. YOU WILL LOSE POINTS FOR NOT FOLLOWING THE PRESCRIBED FORMAT!
Narrative and Flow
• Keep your main research question in mind. One function of the lit review is to tell a story??"that is, a story about what is known about your chosen topic. You, then, are essentially constructing a narrative: not simply listing studies but giving your reader evidence and implications as to why your topic is important. So summarize the articles you have read in a logical order, and pay particular attention to structure, transition, and clarity throughout this section. By the end of the lit review I should have a pretty good idea why measuring that topic (i.e., with your proposed study) is justified.
• Keep it active. A strong paper will avoid using the passive voice whenever possible. That is, try to say, “Sternberg (1988) proposed the triarchic theory of love” rather than “the triarchic theory of love was proposed by Sternberg (1988).” Put another way, phrases like “A study was conducted…” should never, ever be used.
• Avoid sweeping statements. In a psychology paper, never say things like, “This proves that the bystander effect was a factor….” Instead, use phrases like “the research indicates” or “the results strongly suggest…” (we’ve mentioned this in class). It sounds wishy-washy, I know, but science is rarely so definitive as to preclude ALL doubt.
Research Sources and References
• Make friends with online databases. For Paper 2, you should be using scientific databases that are specific to psychology. The Woodbury library has online access to PsycNet, which offers access to over three million peer-reviewed journal articles, edited book chapters, and other scientific essays. Once in the database, use combinations of keywords relevant to your topic (e.g., “motivation”; “gender differences”; “parenting styles”) in order to find a handful of research articles to read that best pertain to your original question. These sources will provide crucial, independently-confirmed information about your topic that will add considerable weight and authority to your discussion of the concept. Aspiring social scientists will want to refer to www.apa.org or the APA’s Publication Manual and Style Guide for specifics on APA style.
• Corollary: Wikis are not acceptable. Don’t rely on Google or website-based articles in your research, please. Non-psychology-specific databases/search engines like ProQuest and GoogleScholar frequently include popular (i.e., nonscientific) sources in their searches. You wouldn’t base a paper just on amateur opinion, or on your family’s dusty old Encyclopædia Brittanica??"so make sure to rely on those peer-reviewed scientific sources from PsycNet, not “educational” web pages or Wikipedia or unsubstantiated blogs. In fact, if I were you, I would never use Wikipedia at all for a school paper. It’s just not a good idea.
• Cite your sources. Any strong declarative statements that could conceivably be argued the other way (e.g., “Schizophrenia is most common among low socioeconomic classes”) need to be backed up with evidence??"i.e., citing a relevant study. Don’t make absolute claims if you can’t demonstrate whether they’re true. (Common knowledge is an exception??"you don’t need to cite support for a statement like “Adolescence is the developmental period between the approximate ages of twelve and eighteen.” So what exactly constitutes common knowledge? No one can say for certain??"so be judicious!) If you don’t know whether or not to cite in a certain place, always cite. In the body of the paper, it should be author(s) and date only (with no title), as in the following example: “Multiple intelligences are a hotly contested topic (Slife, 2006)….” If you are using a brief direct quote rather than paraphrasing, include the page number in the in-body citation, as well: (Slife, 2006, p. XXX). At the end, on a separate References page, citations should include the full reference, with source, volume and page numbers where appropriate. The first fictitious example here is a book; the second is a periodical (i.e., a journal):
Jones, B. (1999). How to get results without doing any work. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Jones, B., & Smith, D. (2001). Falsifying data: A lazy student’s guide to publication. Journal of College Fraud, 26, 47-65.
Hint: copy the style used in your textbook if you don’t know how to cite something. Make sure everything you have cited in-text is listed in the references page and that everything listed on the references page is mentioned in the text.
Psychologists use the notation “n.d.” (for “no date”) when the publication year for a reference cannot be established. However, this is a very rare occurrence. If you can’t find a publication date, that’s a good sign that perhaps you should using a better source.
• Seriously??"cite your sources. Look, I know I just said this, but I cannot stress it enough: You need to cite ALL sources (i.e., ANY thought that is not originally yours), both in the text and at the end of the paper. If you don’t do so, it’s bad news: most instructors now have excellent plagiarism detection software??"see below??"and I am no exception. If you engage even mildly in cut-and-paste copying of someone else’s writing, or even “crib” parts of that material without acknowledging it, I will almost certainly find out and you will fail the course. No exceptions. Don’t do it.
Some students think that citing sources weakens a paper because it makes them sound insufficiently original. However, when sources are properly used and cited, a paper is actually considerably strengthened because it becomes more authoritative??"by citing, you are supporting the impact of your own arguments with those of numerous others!
Using Turnitin.com
• Create an account. Once your paper is finished, I will check it to make sure it is “on the up-and-up,” as it were. In addition to the hard copy you turn in to me, you will need to upload an electronic copy of your paper to the Turnitin.com website. (Some of you may already have accounts there from other classes; Moodle actually provides a direct link to the site if you need or want to learn more.) The information you will need for this class is as follows: Class ID #: 4704073; Password: IntroSpr12.
• Submit your paper. Follow the instructions to submit an electronic copy of your completed paper to the Turnitin website. You do not have to submit any documentation of this to me; I will be able to see the list of who has/has not submitted. However, I will NOT grade any papers that have not been checked through Turnitin!
• Plagiarists beware... I am allowing you to see the “Originality Report” that your paper has generated on Turnitin.com. This is a numerical rating that cross-references your paper with those of millions of other students and professionals to estimate how much of your writing is your own and how much is someone else’s. As you might expect, a very high “similarity rating” is generally bad because it can indicate that you are committing plagiarism by passing off someone else’s words as your own. However, even if you have responsibly cited the original author(s), a high similarity rating can also signify several other things common to bad papers, such as excessive block-quoting and/or reporting research findings verbatim without understanding what they mean. In these cases, you may have cited your sources but you’re still not personally demonstrating a working knowledge of the topic, which is what I’m looking for in the long run, and your grade will likely suffer for it.
• … But don’t just make stuff up. On the other hand, a “similarity rating” at or near 0% isn’t good either! That could mean you haven’t cited any authoritative research at all, and your entire paper is just you waxing poetic on a subject without any theoretical or research justification at all! The more good sources you find and use, the more that similarity rating is going to creep up. Just don’t let it get too high!
Finally, if you have any doubts whatsoever as to your scientific writing ability (or just want to check something in the APA Style Guide), use the Whitten Writing Center, your peers, or other resources. Don’t be too proud to seek help.
GOOD LUCK!
There are faxes for this order.
