Assignment:
My Major is Psychology
The goals of this assignment are to help you:
• become more knowledgeable about finding and using varied research sources in your major.
• further develop your critical thinking skills and back up your points with evidence.
• become more adept at synthesizing information and developing informed views.
• discipline yourself to follow a scholarly research format to document in-text sources and a reference page (bibliography).
• compose awell organized, clear, concise, research paper to expand your knowledge on a subject in your major.
Topic: Your research paper project begins with a fact-finding search on some current issue in your major to advance your knowledge. After you brainstorm about possible subjects and then select one, narrow your topic down to a manageable issue. Investigate possible approaches to your chosen topic and map out your strategy. Your final product will be judged on how well you succeed in producing a well though out, clear paper which shows you can interpret and intelligently discuss the issue and how well you can backup your findings with evidence.
Approach: Your paper does not have a chance to be substantive unless you have substantive sources. Find at least 3 to 4 VARIED (NOT all Internet sites, for example) sources - including professional journal articles and professional publications, Internet sources, and possibly (but not required) an interview. It is a balancing act to find sources that you can understand - that relate to your level of study in your discipline, and, at the same time, challenge you intellectually. In this paper I do not want you to try and solve a problem or necessarily reach a conclusion. You must show evidence that you can gather a body of knowledge on a particular subject, narrow it down to a particular focus and show that you can synthesize the information and make some intelligent, insightful observations about the subject. A significant part of the paper should be your interpretation of the information and how your knowledge about the subject has been enriched.