Instructions: you will write an academic essay that uses the skills you have been practicing and the qualities the class has observed about academic/scholarly writing in public health topics to craft an essay written primarily for an academic readership addressing a topic from either this class or from PSYCH 101.
Purpose
This essay is an opportunity to practice assessing academic writing situations and genres, making context-specific writing choices, and using evidence and analysis in academic writing.
A “Complete” essay will include the following:
Purpose
The purpose will be informative, straightforward, and have applicable takeaways—in other words, not ONLY informative. It will both inform and have specific ideas and/or actions you want readers to leave with, not merely information.
The purpose will be clearly and concisely stated at some point in the essay, and will list/explain your aims in the order you present them in the rest of the essay.
The purpose statement might be listed as goals, listed using “first, second, third,” etc., or with another related structure.
The purpose might address different (related) topics related to psychology.
The purpose might be something that different audiences might view differently.
The purpose might conclude with a recommendation, a moral/ethical takeaway, a hypothesis, or a call for more research.
Content
The content will address the limitations of your findings and/or of current research and discourse about the topic.
The content will address the cultural context of your claims.
The content will introduce relevant background information.
The context will include relevant evidence and explain what that evidence demonstrates (analysis).
The content will include in-text citations for all your evidence—not just for direct quotations.
The content might present past, present, and potential future contexts and impacts of your claims and/or topic.
The content might include an abstract (which does not count toward your overall word count).
The content might be something you have a personal stake in—and if so, you should make that clear in the essay.
Structure
The structure will divide content by sections using titles, headings, and subheadings, transitions sentences that refer to previous parts of the essay, and/or spacing and formatting choices that distinguish separate sections.
The structure of the essay should include a conclusion that explains final takeaways, limitations, and/or calls to expand on the research presented.
The structure will include a works cited page at the end that presents complete citations of all references. (This is sometimes called “works cited,” “bibliography,” “references”—these all mean the same thing.) This is not included in your word count.
The essay might use personal pronouns (“I argue…”)
Checklist for Completion
Is your essay between 1200-1400 words, not counting any abstract or works cited page?
Does your essay include your full works cited page AND in-text citations in the main body of the essay?
Does your essay include a clear, concise statement of purpose?
Does your purpose go beyond merely informing your readers about facts and include specific takeaways about what we should think, understand, or do?
Does your essay include evidence for all of your claims?
Do you explain each piece of evidence you include?
Do you cite each piece of evidence you include?
Do you introduce relevant background information and the cultural context of your topic?
Do you explain the limitations of your findings?
Do you divide the essay into sections using transitions, subheadings, and/or formatting choices?
