ring around the posey

  This includes the assignment and responses to others.  Please note: the final discussion is due on Thursday.

            You must use the headings from the paper description.  By headings, I mean the section headings throughout the paper (the running head is something else).  Additional headings could be added, but the paper must include APA style level one headings that are centered, placed in bold and have each word capitalized.  The required headings are Introduction, Vision and Goals, Professional Competencies, Professional Requirements, Self-Assessment, Action Plan, and Conclusion.  You can modify the specific heading titles (for example, you could write Professional Competencies in Applied Behavior Analysis), but the paper should still have the same elements.

· The Introduction should discuss your passions and interests and how they relate to your previous personal and professional experiences.

· The Vision and Goals section should be the most current version of your vision and goals.  Please do not copy them verbatim from your prior papers.  They should be paraphrased.  You can quote a sentence, if you cite yourself correctly, but not an entire paragraph.  I will be checking to make sure it is paraphrased.  To cite yourself, look at the APA examples that I provided in Updates and Handouts at the beginning of class.

· In the Professional Competencies section, you should discuss the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for success in your vision.  Be sure to include common skills important for success within psychology such as critical thinking, effective decision-making, problem solving, applying evidence-based solutions, and conflict resolution skills.  This is a good place to add interview comments.  The paper should discuss the importance of ethics in this section (including a citation for ethical standards).  Include ethical competencies related to your specific profession or use the APA ethical principles.  Include any key responsibilities associated with positions related to your future career.

· The Professional Requirements section should outline the requirements for your future career including Capella University program and specialization requirements, credentialing, certification, licensure, and accreditation practices and standards, additional training, etc.  If your vision does not require licensure or certification, please state that.  It should also include what is required for your Capella University specialization.

· Self-Assessment should reflect on and assess your current knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to the professional competencies you described.  Then, reflect on and assess your previous experiences and achievements that help you meet the professional requirements you described and any gaps you have in your knowledge, skills, attitudes, and credentials.  Finally, identify any areas in which you need further development to achieve your goals and vision as a psychology practitioner-scholar.

· The Action Plan refers to creating an action plan to achieve your goals.  This means translating the requirements for your profession and the development areas you identified into specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timed steps to achieve your vision.

· The Conclusion section should explain the benefits of becoming a practitioner-scholar in the field of psychology and explain the importance and relevance of your vision and goals to your personal and professional aspirations.

           Please do not forget to discuss the interview.  Without it, you will lose points.  Use critical thinking tools to synthesize and integrate your professional interview and other sources into the paper.  You should add an interview comment wherever it is relevant to support your writing.  Please do not include an interview transcript.  Paraphrasing is always best.  If you have not conducted a professional interview, you can use information from a Meet the Chair meeting.  The format for citing interviews is (A. Interviewee, personal communication, Month, Day, Year).  Interviews should not be added to the reference section.  They are only listed as an in-text citation.

            A good rule for the number of references is one for each page of text.  This means that you should use 7-9 references in your paper.  Many of them can be electronic because this is a career paper and much of the information is online.  I recommend that you use a chapter from the Sternberg text (making sure that you cite the specific chapter instead of citing the entire book), the McClintock article (from the first paper), something from your research paper, and the relevant ethical standards for your specialization.  Please make sure that your citations and references are all in APA style.  This means that quotes MUST be followed by the page number (p. x) or paragraph number, if it is from an electronic source (para. x).  The Sternberg text should not use Sternberg as the author unless you are discussing the entire book in general or a section that was written by Sternberg.  You should instead cite and reference the author (not Sternberg) of the particular chapter that you are using for your paraphrasing or quotes.

            If you use a part of one of your discussions or papers, you must cite and reference it.  An example is on page 211 in the APA Manual.  It should look like this

Your last name, A. (2014).  Title of paper written in italics.  Unpublished manuscript,

            Department of Psychology, Capella University, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Here is how to reference your discussion postings in your paper.

Author, A. (2014, October 14).  u01d1 Title of the discussion in italics [Msg 25].

            Message posted to http://www...

            Please use Smarthinking and Turnitin.  Although they are not required, they can improve your paper significantly.  You should plan on three extra days for receiving feedback from Smarthinking.

            I can see that most of you have been consistent and progressive with your work toward becoming a psychologist.  All of you have made impressive improvements with APA format and style.  If you are still struggling with APA, it will come with conscious effort and practice.  Please do not hesitate to contact either our teaching assistant or me for assistance.