Running head: APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE Assignment Title Submitted by Name of Student El Centro College Psychology 2301, Section 5X00, Fall/Spring 201X 1 APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 2 Abstract The abstract is generally written AFTER you have completed the assignment, as it is a summary of what you have written. Beginning on the following page, please note that the words Summary, Review, and Comments are at the left margins and are underlined. This is the one time you ARE allowed to use font effects (i.e., bolds), as in this instance you are using American Psychological Association (APA) (2010) style to call attention to section titles. Those section titles must be in your narrative. Follow the directions under each section as to what information belongs in that location. Note that the Abstract is the ONLY paragraph in the entire document that is NOT first-line indented. Your Abstract paragraph is flush with the left margin of your page AND it is ALWAYS by itself, on page two of your document. COMMENTS: This document is a TEMPLATE. That means you can highlight what is in this document, and type your own material over it. DO NOT USE THE ENTER KEY TO MOVE FROM ONE PARAGRAPH TO THE NEXT. If you do that, you will muck up the embedded formatting in this template, and your spacing, alignment, etc., will be incorrect. That will cost you significant points on formatting. USE THE FOUR ARROW KEYS ON THE KEYBOARD TO MANEUVER FROM ONE AREA OF THE DOCUMEN T TO THE NEXT. Using the arrow keys - ← ↑ → ↓ - will maintain the embedded formatting in this template, and you will not have to worry about losing points for incorrect formatting. Formatting correctly in APA Style constitutes 50% of your grade on all your assignments, so it is important that you get it done correctly …particularly since I am GIVING YOU a correctly formatted template for your use. APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 3 Assignment Title – COPY this from your Cover Page and Paste it on this Line Introduction American Psychological Association (APA) style is very formal, both in how we write and in how documents actually look on the printed page of the computer screen. APA does not sanction fonts that are “fun” or in any way unusual. The fonts indicated in the lines just below are acceptable, and the size that should be used is indicated for each. I have indicated each font with the font itself so that you may see what it looks like on the page. It is very important that you understand that when you select the font you wish to use that you use ONLY that font and size in your document, and that includes the font used in your header. Whichever font your select MUST be used CONSISTENTLY throughout your document, from the first letter in your header to the last punctuation mark in your last reference. Changing fonts and/or font size constitutes what APA calls font effects, and that is strictly prohibited in APA style. Here are the fonts you may use for assignments in this class. Calibri, 12 point. Calibri is somewhat similar to Candara. Candara, 12 point is the font used in this document. Trebuchet MS, 11 point. Times New Roman, 12 point, is the default for Microsoft Word, and it is the industry standard in the legal field. Verdana, 10 point, is the last of the list of fonts you may use for assignments in this class. I am aware that the fonts we use are an expression of our personality and personal taste, and I have attempted to give you a range of acceptable fonts and APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 4 sizes in hope that you will find one in the list that you can live with. Please DO NOT use a font that is not on this list. I will notice immediately if you do, and your grade on that assignment will be dropped by one full letter. I have many students and many assignments to grade, and it is important that the font you choose be one that does not tire the eyes unduly or that annoys me simply by looking at it. As my colleague Dr. Mark Thames (2009) has said, “You want your grader HAPPY.” Select a font from the list above, use the size indicated, and use it consistently. Summary/Review Look at the article(s) on which your assignment is based and notice the Abstract, which is the first part of the article. Read the abstracts of all your articles, and you will begin to get a “feel” for what is contained in an abstract. On completion of your assignment, summarise the content of your paper in ONE PARAGRAPH. That one paragraph is your abstract, and it is the second page of your assignment. DO NOT QUOTE THE AUTHOR(S) VERBATIM. A verbatim (i.e., direct) quote is formatted entirely differently than the balance of your paper, and YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO USE DIRECT QUOTATIONS IN THIS CLASS. Any material you use in your work that is not your own original thought MUST be paraphrased, and you MUST CITE THE SOURCE(S) IMMEDIATELY within the body of your assignment. Failure to properly credit the source(s) of any material that is not your own, original idea constitutes plagiarism, and that will get you an immediate zero (Ø) on the assignment. APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 5 You will be basing your assignment on at least one (and possibly more than one) article or source, and it will be necessary to tell me what you learned from your readings and viewings. Much of your work will constitute what is termed a review of the literature. As soon as you state something that you learned in your research and reading, you must IMMEDIATELY cite your source(s) within the narrative as well as entering it on the References page using APA Citation format. If I find you have plagiarised authors – using the work and ideas of another individual without having given due credit – you will receive a zero (Ø) on the assignment, and there will be no entertainment of ‘excuses.’ I will report your behaviour to Dr. Betty Moran, the Executive Dean, Division of Arts and Sciences. In addition to the academic penalties imposed by this institution and the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD), this offence is criminal in nature, and it is prosecutable in the Courts. Plagiarism is punishable by both monetary fines and imprisonment. When using psychological terms, be SURE to define them as if the readers of your paper have no idea as to the meaning of those terms. Presume that you are writing your assignment for an audience that does not understand psychological terms, and ALWAYS DEFINE THE TERMS FOR YOUR READER(S). You have free access to the APA Psychology Glossary by clicking on the link in the ECC Library & Help button on the main page of the website for this class. When you encounter unfamiliar terms, use this online psychological dictionary, and indicate the word’s meaning in the manner illustrated below: Aggression as used in psychology refers to behaviours that cause APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 6 psychological or physical harm to another individual or an animal. Notice that I have indicated the psychological term – aggression – and then followed it with an explanation/definition in everyday English. Once you have clearly defined the psychological term, you may use it throughout the remainder of your assignment. After having read the material for your assignment and thought about it, give me an overview of its contents. Tell me briefly what the topic of the assignment was. If your assignment is based on material reporting experiments, tell me what the research question(s) was (were) designed to find out and why the authors (and you) feel this topic is important. When reporting on experiments, you must include (1) how the sample was drawn, (2) the demographics of the sample (and thus, the target population), (3) the general geographic location of the study or experiment if provided (e.g., “a large mid-Western University,” “an inner city high school in Chicago, Illinois,” etc.), (4) ages and gender of the subjects, and (5) whether or not parental consent was required in order to assess this sample. Further, when writing about an experiment, you must also indicate (6) what the hypotheses were (there is rarely only one hypothesis, so include them all), and (7) what the researchers expected to find. (8) Did the researchers satisfy the Principle of Falsifiability? Consult your notes on Critical Thinking to remember what this is. (9) State the findings (conclusions) and (10) whether or not they were consistent with what the researchers had anticipated. “Negative results” are all right …we do not always find what we hope to, but we DO report everything. APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 7 It is not necessary for you to give me a synopsis of the statistical and data analysis methods used by the researchers. At this point in your education in psychology and statistics, those methods are most likely beyond your comprehension, and you would be unable to explain them to me. Based on your References page(s) and accurate reporting of where you found the material on which your assignments are based, I can locate and read the material myself to obtain those data. Critical Analysis If you are writing a critiqué of a single article the last section of your critiqué is your opportunity to express your opinions on the article in question. The first two sections should be written in THIRD PERSON (that means do NOT use I, my, etc.). Writing in third person takes us back a step and removes our subjective opinion (i.e., your personal thoughts or opinions) in favour of an OBJECTIVE approach (spoken from the perspective of an uninvolved observer) by such statements as, “The researchers determined that a multiple regression analysis of the data was sufficient to assess the validity of the research methodology.” Third person makes you a reporter of the facts stated in the material you have read. But for the last section of a critiqué, your opinion is not only irrelevant (it does not matter), VOICING YOUR PERSONAL OPINION OR IDEAS IS NOT PERMITTED. We will discuss this further in class. The last section of a critiqué in this class does solicit your opinion, and you may use first person (i.e., in MY opinion, I think they failed to comply with the APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 8 Scientific Method, etc.) in this section ONLY. ALL the rest of your assignment – and ANY or any assignment in this class – MUST BE IN THRID PERSON. In writing this last section of a critiqué, as yourself the following questions: • Were you satisfied with the researchers' findings? • Are there additional questions you would like to have seen them address in their hypotheses? • Did the findings leave you more or less interested in this topic? • Would you like to see this train of research – perhaps with additional questions (hypotheses) – addressed in future research efforts? This is your rare opportunity to actually criticise what a research psychologist has done, so make the most of it. If you disagree with how the research was conducted, say so, and TELL ME WHY BASED ON THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD as discussed in lecture and your textbook. • Did the researchers violate the principles of scientific methodology in any way? • Did they fail to obtain proper consent? • Were scientific principles appropriately followed? Such comments on your part show me that you have actually thought about the article you have read. If your assignment is a homework assignment or mini-paper, you will be reporting on what you have read in preparation for your assignment and responding to a series of questions based specifically on what you have read or reviewed. In this APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 9 event, you will NOT use the subheadings – Summary, Review, and Comments – required when you do a critiqué. You will be writing what is termed a review of the literature on the topic assigned, and you simply tell me what you learned from your reading by answering the questions posed to you. ALWAYS cite your sources within the context of your narrative AND on your References page. NoodleTools as discussed in the lecture by Ms. Linda Baker will help you with these requirements. Failure to cite appropriately constitutes plagiarism, and you do NOT want to fall in to that trap. Remember that any citation in the context of your narrative MUST be documented on your References page(s), and any citation on your References page(s) MUST be supported by a citation within the context of your narrative. That means there is a one-to-one correlation between within context citations and the citations on your References page(s). Your assignments are to be formatted precisely as I have laid out in this example. If you fail to use this template in preparation of your assignments, you will be unable to format the document on your own using the required APA style. Trust me when I tell you that on looking at your assignment, I will know IMMEDIATELY whether or not you have used this template as required. The last page of your assignment will be the References page. Go to the next page to see how that is presented. ALL work in APA Style is double-spaced. Section Headings are flush with the left margin and underlined. Your paper should be left justified, i.e., I do NOT want to see the paper with straight, right-hand margins such as you find in books, journals, or newspapers. Paragraphs are indented at the 0.5” APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 10 level. If you utilise this template as instructed, all requisite formatting has been done for you, and your work will be in the correct APA style. Your assignments should not exceed ten (10) pages, and that includes (1) the cover sheet, (2) the Abstract page, (3) your narrative, and (4) your References page(s). Six to seven pages is the average length of the narrative portion of your work for an assignment in an introduction to psychology class. In response to the oft-asked question, “How long does my assignment have to be,” the answer is quite simple. “It must be as long as it takes you to adequately address the requirements of the assignment.” APA DOCUMENT TEMPLATE 11 References Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (Sixth ed.). (2010). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Thames, M. (2009, February). Major world religions. Lecture presented at El Centro College, Dallas, Texas. *** COMMENTS: Please note that the citations listed above are both cited within the context of my narrative. ☺ EVERYTHING on this page should be DELETED EXCEPT THE Header and the first line that says References.
Purchase answer to see full attachment