Psychology 3P51 – Health Psychology Guidelines for Essay Assignment
This essay is an exercise in bringing together previously presented research with comments and ideas given to you during your presentation. You will be writing a paper based on your seminar presentation. You should include a brief summary of your popular press article as well as a summary of your scientific research article. You should discuss the accuracy of the popular press article in light of learning about the actual scientific article that prompted the popular press report. You can discuss other research articles published in any year, insofar as they shed light on the focal articles. You are encouraged to see your TA during office hours while planning your essay. Form: The paper should not exceed 1500 words in length, excluding references. Quality is much more important than quantity. You are required to type the paper and you are advised to use a modern word-processing package. You may single-space to conserve paper, but separate your paragraphs by a space if you do so. Subheadings are usually a good idea, because they help you and the reader to see the organization at a glance. State the purpose of your paper clearly in the introductory paragraphs of your essay, so that the reader knows what to expect. You should have a reference list at the end of your paper. This reference list should include all published sources of information to which you refer in the paper. In the paper itself, be sure to give your sources for every substantial body of evidence that you cite. Give the name(s) and date(s) of the article(s) within parentheses (e.g. Jones, 1993) in the first sentence discussing the work and use proper APA format (you will be graded on your APA format). There are several good books on APA format in the library and a simple google search will also bring up a number of good resources. Your paper should have a title page, abstract, main body and reference section. Please keep the abstract to fewer than 100 words and make sure that it is separated from the main text before the actual introduction at the beginning of your paper. Content: In grading, attention will be given to the quality of your library work, the organization and clarity, the accuracy of referencing, and the cohesiveness of any arguments that you present. Plan the outline and scope of your paper very carefully. Draft and redraft the paper until it is clear. Be concise and to the point. Make it easy to read rather than laborious. That means you should shun unnecessary jargon and avoid long cumbersome sentences. It is important to consult primary research reports, by which I mean scientific papers presenting methods and data. Secondary sources such as textbooks and review articles can be useful, but you should not base your paper entirely on them. Be as objective and scientific as possible. Avoid personal information, sentiment, and unsubstantiated opinion. Material relevant to this course is found in the university's library.