CHOICE C: Brain lateralization is a popular subject of study. Your textbook mentions some information on certain abilities being located on one side of the brain or the other. Write a paper describing what the current understanding of lateralization is, and explaining how that is misunderstood into the myth of being “left brained” or “right brained”.
Unit Paper Guidelines for PY 101
Professor Pirrotta
Purpose and Basic Content Information:
The purpose of these papers is to get you to explore, in greater depth, some topic covered in the current unit that you found interesting. These papers are a study technique – while spending time with this information, you’ll be rehearsing things we went over in class and also getting a better understanding of the material.
Because the goal is to get deeper knowledge of the topic, these papers require research. Every paper must have at least three outside sources – something that you have found outside of class (not in your textbook, not taken directly from your in class notes) that fits in with the theme of your paper. Your textbook will often be an additional source, but you need three others. Papers without outside sources will always receive a grade of 0 and have no chance of being changed to any other score. Do not, under any circumstances, write a paper without sources.
Your writing should stick close to the content covered in the given unit. If you are spending the majority of your writing on something not at all related to what we have covered, you are not writing a valid paper. For example, we will be covering psychological disorders in Unit 4. Thus, papers on topics like depression or schizophrenia would be relevant only in Unit 4, and would not be valid papers. Invalid topic papers will receive a failing grade, but not necessarily a 0.
Papers should not use the same examples used in class or in the book. When I explore how a movie, story from my life, or other example illustrates a given concept, it is done to give you an idea of how that concept works in the real world. If you are covering the same concept in your paper, you MUST find your own, new, original examples, showing you’ve put thought into the idea. Papers should not be transcribed class notes.
There will be a number of topics provided for each unit, posted in the relevant folder. If none of these topics strike your interest, you can suggest a topic of your own to me – but you must approach me with your ideas AT LEAST ONE WEEK before the paper is due. Topics will be approved at my discretion (in the past, rejected topics have usually been too broad to be covered in a paper of this length, too narrow to possibly have enough information on it, or unrelated to the unit). You MUST get my approval to write on any original topic, or your grade will suffer.
Sources:
Every paper must have at least three outside source – something that you have found outside of class (not in your textbook) that fits in with the theme of your paper. Your textbook will often be another source. Main sources should not be reference books/websites, such as encyclopedias and dictionaries (these can be used as a second or third source, however). Newspaper, magazine, or journal articles are often your best sources. Sources should be scholarly and professional – not the opinions of people without proper education in psychology. If you aren’t sure if a source is a good one or not, feel free to send me an e-mail with a link and I’ll let you know.
Many topics ask you to talk about a personal experience. In those topics, you STILL need to find sources – something that better explains the psychological issue you’re looking at.
Do not use other Intro Psych textbooks as your sources. I want you learning MORE about an issue, while another Intro text will likely cover info at the same level.
Never cite a dictionary. Just don’t. You don’t need to, and it doesn’t add anything of substance to any piece of writing, be it an academic paper or a toast at a wedding.
The source must be related to actual psychology – if you are talking about something that happened in a movie or book as an example of something, you must still find an additional source.
Similarly, your source should be tied to the greater point of the paper – don’t use one statistic to show a minor point and assume you’re done with the research. These papers are about the findings of your research, so your research needs to be about central issues.
While three sources is the required number, the best papers typically involve the integration of more sources – many papers cannot be effectively done without finding a few sources. In general, if you are ever guessing or assuming about something, that means you need to find another source.
Formatting (These rules are in line with the APA’s 7th Edition guidelines):
All papers must be between 3-5 pages, double spaced. The minimum is 3 full pages, not 2 pages and a few lines on the third page. Please use Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial in a size 11 font. The recommended fonts/sizes are the defaults for most word processing programs, but you should check and make sure.
Margins should be 1 inch on all sides – again, the default on most word processing programs, but make sure. Papers with overly large fonts or overly wide margins will be graded accordingly.
You must have an APA style cover page. Do a quick look on the internet for how to set one up, it’s simple. UAB has a nice setup here https://guides.library.uab.edu/APA_7th/formatting
The second page of your paper should then start with your paper’s title centered up top, and then the second line should be you writing your paper.
Do not spend parts of your paper writing out a long set of headings at the top of your page – get right into writing.
Whenever you use information from your sources, make a citation at the end of that sentence. Citations should be written as (Authorslastname, year) i.e. (Pirrotta, 2012).
Please note – that’s (Lastname, Year). Page numbers should not be included.
Always be citing your sources. Anything that isn’t your own original thought should be cited – tell me where that info came from. If you’re reporting something interesting (or possibly incorrect), I need a citation – that way I know which source it came from, and I can go look at it myself..
In Psychology, you should try to avoid directly quoiting information – especially more than one sentence at a time. Instead, summarize what someone else said (note: summarize. Reword. Not “copy and paste from somewhere”), and then cite the source. http://www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/psychology/paraphrasing.htm explains how you should do it. Direct quotes should be used sparingly, and only when you have a good reason for them (such as information coming from a highly notable source) – if you use direct quotes every single time, expect to lose some points.
If you take what someone else wrote, then change one or two words, or slightly tweak their sentence structure, that is NOT valid. You need to put things in YOUR OWN WORDS.
Seriously. I absolutely hate quotations. Expect to lose points if you’re direct quoting from your sources, when it’s something that easily could have been summarized. Summarize it, then cite the source.
Again, you still do a citation after a summary. Without citation, you lose points.
Large block quotes should never appear in these papers. If you’re taking a paragraph from someone else, you should be summarizing it into your own terms.
Don’t say things like “In an article titled “X”, in Journal “Y”, researcher “Z” found …” If I want all that info, I’ll check your References page (see below). Just say something like “Research has shown…” or “It’s been demonstrated that…” or something similar. Keep the sentence focused on the findings, not the finders.
The researcher’s name belongs in the citation at the end of the sentence. Don’t say “According to Smith….” – tell me what the finding is, then at the end (Smith, 2014).
All cited works should then appear on an APA style References page (not a Works Cited page, not a Bibliography, a References page) at the end of your paper (which does not count as one of your 3-5 pages). To set it up, consult me or a webpage on APA style. The one that I use, and that is highly user friendly, is https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
Please note that for any source obtained from a website, you MUST include a link to the page you read. Anything saying “Web” without a link is a clear sign you’re citing in MLA, which will lead to deductions.
You should include page numbers in the upper right corner of your pages. To do this, please, use the “Header” option in your Word Processor (in MS Word, click “Insert”, then move over to “Header”. In other programs, Google to find how). Do not write them manually on each page.
Your cover page and your references should each be on their own page. To put things on their own page, please do not just hit “enter” a bunch of times. Every major word processing program has a feature called “Page Break” that automatically puts a page ending somewhere. In Word, go to “Insert” -> “Pages” -> “Page Break”. In other programs it’s probably similar.
As for other format issues – there are no other special rules. An abstract is not necessary. You do not need to use headings within the body of your paper. If you want to use the word “I” during your paper, you can. You should not include footnotes or endnotes (again, a References page is how you will tell me about your sources). Write your paper in basic English, make sure you check your spelling/grammar, and you’ll do fine.
If you have more questions about ANY part of this, please contact me and I will be happy to clarify.
Some final, general notes
Make sure that you stay close to the content covered in the unit for these papers – focus on the psychological impact of the issues you’re discussing.
To verify that you have, in fact, read this document, please include a cute animal picture at on the cover page of your first paper (only the first, not on the other three). If you ask me about this item in class, I will pretend I do not know what you are talking about.
There are also specific topics that will be provided for each individual unit, giving specific questions for you to answer. Topics will be provided shortly after each unit starts.
And if you don’t like any of the provided topics, you may come up with your own. Topics must have a fairly specific focus, and must be approved by me at least one week before being handed in. Come with an idea, and we’ll discuss if it is a valid topic. Good enough topics may even be added to the available ones next semester.