Term Paper on "Social Influence in January 2004 Upper Level"

Quoted Instructions for "Social Influence in January 2004 Upper Level" Assignment:

Read this document in its entirety before writing your paper.

Attend one of the writing workshops.

Read the helpful hints below.

Be sure to look over the grading criteria before you write your paper.

Follow the format provided in the grading criteria below. We use these criteria in grading the papers.

Meet with a TA or writing preceptor to review a rough draft of your paper.

Overview

Choose a topic of interest to you from among those listed below. The propositions below are propositions with which you may agree or disagree. You should choose one of the propositions and, after an objective overview of the topic, agree or disagree with the proposition.

The paper must be between 3 and 5 pages in length (double-spaced, 12 point font, 1-inch margins; no hand-written papers). Papers less than 3 pages will not receive full credit; papers longer than 5 pages may not be read after page 5. The paper must include at least 3 research citations (see below). Although an objective review of the topic should comprise the bulk of the paper, I encourage you to risk your own opinion as well and back it up with citations.

Paper Format and Grading Criteria

The paper must follow the format below to receive the maximum of 50 points.

Title Page with title of the paper, your name, id number, date, and course number

Paper begins with a clear statement of the proposition that will be argued. <1 paragraph>

Paper then provides an empirically-supported overview of the topic <2-3 pages>

After the overview, your opinion is clearly stated and backed up with citations.<1-2 pages>

Reference list at the end in APA Style

The paper will be graded according to the following criteria (see grading sheet at this link):

Criterion

Points

Title page contains the title of the paper, your name, id number, date, and course number

5 points

Paper begins with a clear statement of the proposition that will be argued. You must indicate verbatim (i.e. word-for-word) which proposition you will argue for or against. A good paper usually provides a few introductory sentences and concludes the first paragraph with a statement such as "I will therefore argue against [in favor of] the proposition that *****¦"

5 points

Paper then provides an empirically-supported overview of the topic (e.g., what are intelligence tests and what do they measure and what behaviors do they predict) that is objective balanced and informative, including at least three empirical research citations (see below) <2-3 pages>, as indicated by:

Includes at least 3 empirical research citations, summarized in the article, and listed in a reference list at the end of the paper in APA Style.

10 points

Research from citations appropriately summarized and referenced showing student understood the article (e.g. not just quoted, not taken out of context)

5 points

Citations clearly apply to topic, and provide some balance (not all just in support of the author's position)

5 points

After the overview, the author's opinion is clearly stated and backed up with citations.<1-2 pages>

10 points

Exposition: grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity

10 points

Empirical Research Citations

One objective of this writing assignment is to help students gain experience in evaluating psychological research evidence with respect to a topic of importance. Although some non-empirical sources (e.g. textbooks, magazines) can give you a good idea of the general issues relevant to your paper, they are no substitute for reading the original research yourself. In this paper, you must cite 3 research articles. A research article involves a study using one of the methods we discussed early in the semester (e.g., survey, experimental manipulation, direct observation, etc.). The easiest way to find research papers relevant to psychological topics is to use PsycINFO via the University of Arizona library webpage (http://www.library.arizona.edu/ under "Article and Database" then "P" for PsycInfo) or Medline from the Health Sciences Library (http://www.ahsl.arizona.edu/databases/medline.cfm). More help on using these sources is available at this link. The point of using the research citations is to provide evidence upon which you base your own conclusion. Therefore, avoid quoting other people's opinions.

In terms of citing, you should strive to use your own words to present the main points of the research, using direct quotes only when the exact phrasing is impossible to substitute. In other words, merely extracting large quoted sections will not suffice as a reference. To avoid plagiarism, you must provide citations for ideas you found in other works, and avoid quotations whenever possible. If you need to quote, however, make sure you cite exactly where the quote appeared (article and page number). You must link your citations listed at the end of the paper to the appropriate sections within the paper. If you do not provide the citations within the paper, the reader has no way to evaluate the quality of evidence. Worse yet, the reader may think the paper is plagiarized. If you have questions about citations, please see one of the teaching assistants before writing your paper. When citing evidence within the paper, make sure that the reader knows which source you are citing. For example, instead of simply making the claim that intelligence tests predict school performance, you could claim that in a large sample of school children, the relationship between intelligence test performance and school performance was quite strong (Smith and Jones, 1996). Put the names of the authors and the year of publication in parentheses following the claim that derives from that reference (as in the example just given). Then, on the reference page, provide the full citation in the form of Authors, Year of Publication, Title, Journal, Volume, and pages. By example:

Smith, S.S., & Jones, J.J. (1996). An example article on intelligence. The Imaginary Journal of the Assessment of Intelligence, 99, 101-105.

Internet citations may be used, but only in addition to, and not instead of, the three required empirical citations as indicated above. For Internet citations, indicate the title of the page, and the actual Internet address. By example:

Unverified Facts about Your Research Topic. http://www.absoultelybogus.com