In preparation for this paper, select a woman who has made significant contributions to the field of psychology between the years 1850 and 1950. Based on your selected individual, prepare a 1,400 word paper in which you describe her background, theoretical perspective, and contributions to the field of psychology.
USE IT TO GUIDE YOU WHEN YOU WRITE. CONSIDER THIS YOUR RUBRIC:
1) Please meet the length requirement. I find that it is difficult to fully answer the questions at hand in anything less than the minimum length requirement.
2) Format your paper in APA format. There are good references for how to do so on the UOP library page.
3) Make sure your thesis is stated in your introduction and every paragraph somehow ties back to that thesis. A good way to do this is to end your introduction with something like “The purpose of the following paper is to…”
4) Do not use any first person (“I” “me” “we” “our”) or second person (“you”) in academic writing. Try to speak in a scholarly third person omniscient tone. Do not make “I believe” or “I feel” or “I liked this I didn’t like this” statements. Don’t use any first person examples. Use research instead. Use evidence. Let’s save our personal experience for our fun discussions in the discussion forum!!
5) Subject headings are not required, but I find that they really help students organize their thoughts.
6) Do not use too many direct quotes. A few here and there are great, but not too many. I want to hear YOU!
7) DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. I have a sixth sense for it. Just don’t do it.
8) Try to avoid rewriting something you are reading. Read it. Digest it. Then write it in your own words, citing your source, of course.
9) YOU MUST CITE YOUR SOURCES! Whenever you take information from a source, whether it is the text or anything else, you MUST credit where that information came from in the form of an in-text citation. Cite in APA format (never use a url as an in-text citation). This does not mean you have to quote something. Just credit the source with a citation.
10) Aim to use at least two sources in each paragraph…or else you are just rewriting something someone else wrote. I want to see how you can research a topic and integrate what you learn from multiple sources in order to come up with your own answer. Always cite though.
11) Use more than the text book. Its a great place to start. Then venture off to the UOP library database.
12) Only cite sources that you actually read. If you want to cite something that comes out of an old book that you didn’t read, cite the source you actually got it from (i.e. Freud, 1908 as cited in Smith, 2010).
13) Do not use another source’s reference list. This is a form of plagiarism.
14) Wikipedia, about.com, and other such sites are not accepted as good resources. Avoid web sites that basically answer the question for you (like essays-for-sale sites).
15) Please proof read. I find it is handy to read it out loud. Write Point is a good editor as well.
16) Make sure your conclusion ties back into your thesis.
17) Include a reference page in APA format
18) Do not include a lot of biographical information in papers that don’t need it. For instance, with the women in psychology paper bio is ok! But for the theoretical perspectives paper, it is not necessary where Watson went to school or that Skinner wanted to be a novelist. It is just “filler”.
