Overall: Your final assignment in this class will be writing a 3-5 page paper in which you choose a topic from the course to evaluate and make an argument of some stance toward it. This could be how the topic should be viewed differently or studied differently in the future, how its findings are wrong, how it ignores different perspectives, etc. This is a fairly open assignment; there are no right or wrong arguments. You can think of this assignment as a kind of “Editorial” or “Opinion Piece” that must draw on material covered in class. The main component is to form some kind of informed opinion, stance, ‘hot take,’ etc. about something from the course that you want to weigh in on. You must use supporting evidence (see below for examples) from at least 3 sources – one of which must be class material.
While this may seem strange if you have not had an assignment similar to this, do not worry. This is actually a pretty normal idea for Psychology and science in general! Many researchers have surprisingly passionate opinions and will push them on the basis of a study, logical conclusion, literature review, meta-analysis of papers, TedTalk, etc. You deserve to share your thoughts too!
How to write this – There is no required format for this assignment, but a coherent structure will improve your grade. I recommend an intro paragraph, followed by body paragraphs and a conclusion paragraph.
You should make your stance/argument very clear early on in the paper. Introduce the topic clearly and identify an issue you see. Then, make your argument based on the material you believe supports your argument.
Your paper and argument can rely on multiple kinds of supporting evidence. You can use class material, personal experience, real life news/articles, books, and scientific articles. Pretty much anything is acceptable unless you use clearly opinionated sources and cite them as facts. For personal experiences, make sure to be explicit that you are writing about your own experience.
You need to have at least 3 different kinds of sources. That also means you need at least 3 sources total. One of them must be drawing on class material, which should be fairly easy if you are already discussing the topic from a class lecture. Expect an even higher grade if you can tie in other class topics, especially when you discuss ideas of active/passive, nature vs nurture, and continuity vs discontinuity. For the other (at least) 2 sources, they must be different kinds of sources.
Formatting – Double or single spaced, that’s up to you! You can turn in double spaced 3 pages or 5 pages single spaced. You will not be penalized for writing short or long unless it significantly affects the readability of the paper. Anything shorter than 3 pages double or longer than 5 pages single will be penalized. Please submit in a clear font of no larger than size 12 font. No being silly with changing specific characters larger to make it seem longer please. I am aware of all the tricks 😉
I also highly recommend making some kind of outline for paragraphs and points! Please do not turn in a 4 page single paragraph ramble. This class is not intended to be a writing course, so I am being fairly relaxed about guidelines. That being said, the easier it is to read your paper, the higher score you will receive.
