APA Style Psychology Essay


 2
 A)
Assignment
Description



 Overview
of
Assignment
Content
 Students
will
complete
their
reflective
thought
paper
on
any
one
major
issue,
concept
or
 topic
that
has
been
covered
in
the
textbook
(specific
people
or
cases
are
not
permitted).
 Students
have
the
liberty
to
choose
which
issue,
concept,
or
topic
they
would
like
to
write
 about.
Topics
should
be
chosen
from
the
indicated
readings
for
each
assignment
(see
 above).

 
 PART
A:
Introduction
–
In
part
A
students
will
do
the
following:
 
 1.
Properly
introduce
and
fully
explain
the
topic
about
which
they
are
writing.
Provide
the
 textbook
chapter
and
page
number
on
which
this
concept
can
be
found
(1
paragraph).
 Direct
quotations
are
NOT
permitted.
Students
will
discuss
the
textbook
entirely
through
 paraphrasing
in
their
own
words.
 
 2.
Explain
the
reason(s)
the
topic
is
interesting,
appealing,
challenging,
surprising,
 disturbing,
or
exciting,
etc.,
to
them
(1
paragraph).

 
 PART
B:
Academic
Article
‐
In
part
B
students
will
do
the
following:
 
 1.
Students
will
locate
1
relevant
peer‐reviewed
academic
journal
article
that
 concretely
addresses
the
topic,
issue,
or
concept
they
have
selected
(instructions
for
 locating
academic,
peer
reviewed
journal
articles
will
be
provided
in
week
1,
and
are
also
 located
below).

 
 2.
Students
will
summarize
the
key
points
of
the
article
(2‐3
paragraphs).
Direct
 quotations
are
NOT
permitted.
Students
will
discuss
the
article
entirely
through
 paraphrasing
in
their
own
words.

 ‐
Students
should
focus
on
summarizing
the
following
aspects
of
the
article:
 



 3
 ‐
Purpose
of
the
article
–
What
were
the
authors
hoping
to
achieve
with
this
article?
 What
was
their
research
question,
hypothesis,
or
area
of
focus?

 
 ‐
Methods
of
the
article
–
How
did
the
authors
achieve
what
they
were
hoping
to
 achieve?
Did
they
do
original
research,
an
experiment,
or
a
study,
etc.?
Did
they
review
 other
authors’
research,
or
perform
a
meta‐analysis?

 
 ‐
Findings
of
the
article
–
What
did
the
authors
find?
Did
their
experiment,
study,
etc.
 support
their
hypothesis?
What
are
the
implications
of
these
findings?
 
 
 
 



 4
 B)
Detailed
Assignment
Instructions



 
 Reflective
thought
paper
assignments
will
be:
 


‐
Typed
on
a
computer
(hand‐written
assignments
will
not
be
accepted)
 ‐

 ‐
2‐3
pages
in
length
 ‐
Double‐spaced
 ‐
Times
new
roman,
size‐12
font
 ‐
1”
margins
(2.54
cm)
 ‐
APA
style
 ‐
Stapled
in
top
left‐hand
corner
 ‐
Pages
numbered
in
top
right‐hand
corner



 
 Additional
Information
 All
assignments
must
be
stapled
in
the
top
left
hand
corner
–
any
assignment
not
stapled
 will
receive
a
5%
deduction.
APA
Style
will
be
used
for
citations
and
references
(details
 provided
below).
Additional
instructions
will
be
provided
in
class
and
on
FOL.




 A
title
page
is
not
required
for
the
assignments;
please
include
the
following
information
 in
the
top
left‐hand
corner
of
the
first
page:
 


Name
 Student
Number
 Date
 Assignment
Number



 6
 D)
General
Suggestions
for
Successful
Writing
in
Psychology



 ‐
Writing
in
psychology
is
scientific
and
formal.

 
 ‐
We
do
not
use
‘witty’
or
‘flowery’
language,
jokes,
or
informal
sayings,
also
known
as
 colloquialisms,
etc.

 
 ‐
The
more
straightforward
and
fact‐oriented
the
paper,
the
better.

 
 ‐
Writing
in
psychology
is
concise,
to
the
point,
and
academic.

 
 ‐
For
some
people
it
takes
time
to
learn
this
skill,
whereas
for
others
it
comes
naturally.
 Learning
to
write
in
this
manner
is
a
very
important
skill
that
students
will
take
forward
 into
their
professions/careers.
 
 ‐
When
writing
a
paper
for
a
psychology
class,
it
is
very
important
to
support
statements
 with
references
from
your
sources
(e.g.
citing
peer‐reviewed
journal
articles,
textbooks,
 etc.).
This
is
what
makes
a
paper
scientific,
and
ensures
that
no
content
from
the
 assignment
is
plagiarized
or
improperly
cited.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 7
 E)
APA
Style
&
Format



 How
to
Discuss
and
Cite
an
Academic
Journal
article
in
Your
Paper
 
 In
American
Psychological
Association
(APA)
writing
style,
sources
are
cited
directly
in
 the
body
of
the
paper
(no
footnotes,
end
notes,
etc.).
Whenever
information
from
another
 source
is
used
(textbook,
academic
article,
etc.)
in
the
body
of
the
paper,
a
citation
is
put
 into
the
sentence.
The
citations
typically
go
at
the
end
of
the
sentence,
although
they
can
 also
go
in
the
body
of
the
sentence
if
referring
to
the
authors.
Your
in‐text
citations
will
 look
like
this:




 Your
statement
(author
last
name,
year
of
publication).




 OR
 
 According
to
author
last
name
(year
of
publication),
your
statement.

 
 OR


Poster
presentations
are
most
effective
when
…
(Brownlie,
2007).

 
 OR


According
to
Brownlie
(2007),
poster
presentations
are
most
effective
when
…

 
 OR
 
 According
to
Rathus,
Maheu
&
Veenvliet
(2013),
psychology
is
the
study
of
 behaviour
and
mental
processes.
 
 OR
 
 Psychology
is
the
study
of
behaviour
and
mental
processes
(Rathus,
Maheu
&
 Veenvliet,
2013).

 
 


How
to
Cite
a
Peer‐Reviewed
Academic
Journal
Article
in
Your
References
Section
 
 In
APA
style
we
call
the
list
of
citations
at
the
end
of
a
paper
the
References
section
(not
 bibliography
or
works
cited,
etc.).
The
references
section
is
always
in
alphabetical
order,
 according
to
author
last
name.
The
references
section
is
always
on
a
separate
page
at
the
 end
of
your
paper
(the
page
count
of
assignments
do
not
typically
include
the
references
 section).




Notice that the period goes AFTER

the end-bracket

These are two ways to cite your textbook in your paper


 8
 
 Author
last
name,
initials.
(Date
of
publication).
Title
of
article.
Title
of
Journal,
volume
 number,
pages.

 
 For
example:
 Brownlie,
D.
(2007).
Toward
effective
poster
presentations:
An
annotated
bibliography.


European
Journal
of
Marketing,
41,
1245‐1283.
 
 



 
 How
to
Cite
Your
Textbook
in
Your
References
Section
 
 Rathus,
S.,
Maheu,
S.,
&
Veenvliet,
S.
(2013).
PSYCH
(2nd
Canadian
Edition).
Toronto:


Nelson
Education.
 
 
 
 
 Example
References
Section
 
 
 

 


References
 


Rathus,
S.,
Maheu,
S.,
&
Veenvliet,
S.
(2013).
PSYCH
(2nd
Canadian
Edition).
Toronto:
 Nelson
Education.
 



 Brownlie,
D.
(2007).
Toward
effective
poster
presentations:
An
annotated
bibliography.


European
Journal
of
Marketing,
41,
1245‐1283.
 
 
 


Notice that the references title is not underlined or bolded

Notice that the second line is indented

9. Once
you
have
found
a
good
article
for
your
assignment,
read
it
through,
highlight
 and
make
notes,
etc.
Then
read
it
through
a
second
time
to
solidify
your
 understanding
of
the
article.




 10
 


• Focus
your
efforts
on
reading
the
following
sections:
 i. Introduction/literature
review
–
the
authors
introduce
their
research
 ideas,
and
discuss
some
past
literature
on
the
subject


ii. Methods
–
the
authors
discuss
how
they
did
their
research
 iii. Discussion
–
the
authors
discuss
the
findings
of
their
research
in
plain


language

 • Do
not
focus
your
efforts
on
reading
the
Results
section
(unless
you
have
 taken
statistics
classes
this
section
will
not
make
much
sense).