12 point font/double spaced. Research your topic. Start by reading the module content and note any references in the module. Then, find websites, articles, and/or books on your topic. Your research must include at least two journal articles or books. That is, websites can be very helpful and informative, but your final paper must include full articles (whether from the Internet or elsewhere) or books on the topic. Sources should be reputable and consistent with what you learned in the module as well as other sources. GoogleScholar and PDF articles from the Internet can be helpful resources. This paper requirement means that you need to include at least two primary sources in your paper; articles from the Internet can be included, but they would be in addition to the two minimum primary sources. Primary sources are firsthand accounts; thus, they involve the author writing about his or her own work. Primary sources include books or published journal articles.
Format:
I. Introduction. Introduce your topic and explain why this topic was of interest to you.
II. Body of paper. Fully address your topic and all the components of it. Support your points with your cited research. The topic should be explained in full. This section should be at least three pages long.
III. Application. Discuss your topic’s application component. Be sure to mention what applications are recommended by others and what you recommend. You must include your own views about what the application should be, and clearly state them and why. This section should be at least one to two pages
IV. Conclusion. Conclude your topic with a wrap-up paragraph. Some suggestions for a good conclusion: a) end by summarizing what was learned about this topic; b) end by emphasizing a particular application of the information; c) end by suggesting where future research and discussion should go on this topic.
The point distribution for the papers is as follows:
20 points: Writing. Criteria: appropriate grammar, appropriately edited for syntax and phrasing, complete sentences, structured in paragraph and essay form, meets page length requirements.
20 points: Follows the prompt: all portions of the paper are complete. Answers fully address the questions in the prompt and address them in a sufficiently detailed way.
20 points: Evidence. In each paper, you are required to support evidence for your written points, whether the evidence is specific detail from the modules, the Internet, or your observations (and, in all cases, the evidence needs to be stated in your own words and not plagiarized). These sources should be appropriately cited. For example: (Scott, 2010) or (www.sciencedaily.com, “What is Keeping Your Kids Up At Night,” para. 2). Sufficient referencing and integration (without plagiarism) of other sources is necessary to achieve full points in this area. A reference page is also needed. At least the minimum number of primary sources (see above) is also needed.
20 points: Evaluation. In each paper, you are to include your own thoughts and evaluations. Each paper option involves you thinking further on a topic in psychology and making some evaluations and decisions about the topic. Your thoughts need to be described in sufficient detail and identified as your thoughts, compared to information that you may obtain elsewhere. Sufficient explanation is necessary to achieve full points in this area.
20: Content. Accuracy of your written positions and appropriateness of content given the question prompts are necessary to achieve full points in this area. This is the heart of the papers—answering the questions correctly, accurately, and appropriately. In the cases of providing your opinions, these should still be grounded correctly in the theory or module topic that you are addressing.
