✔ Research Assignment: The World's Shortest Research Paper

Research Assignment The World's Shortest Research Paper

 Instructions

Important: Make sure to take the quiz titled "World's Shortest Research Paper Quiz" immediately after reviewing this document as it will ensure you know everything you need to as your prepare for this writing assignment.

Write the World's Shortest Research Paper. Use the college library databases to find a scholarly journal article in the form of a research study (see note below) on a topic of your choice from Chapter 9 (Lifespan Development) or Chapter 11 (Personality). You must search for full-text articles as you will need to download the article and attach it to your assignment. See Tips section below for instructions on finding an appropriate journal article.

To be clear, journal articles are journal-style scientific papers and focus on research by reporting the details of the research conducted by the author(s). Accordingly, these articles contain sections that coincide with the experimental process:  abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion.

Be sure that the article you find has these sections and that the study was published within the last 15 years. Here is a good example of what a journal article looks like: Journal Article Example Links to an external site.. Please do not use a meta-analysis (or an article that focuses on reporting the findings of many studies).

Find an article that has its own subjects or participants (not a meta-analysis of other people's work), to see how the researchers employed their own experimental design and/or survey/case study analysis.

The Paper

Once you find your article, write a 1000-1500 word paper in APA format, following these steps:     

1. Be sure the topic of the article directly relates to one of the topics in Chapter 9 or Chapter 11 of the textbook. If the topic is not related, you cannot earn credit for this assignment. 
2. Carefully read the article. 
3. Write a 2-4 paragraph summary of the article. In the summary, describe:
        a. the purpose of the study (5 pts)
        b. the participants (5 pts)
        c. how the research was conducted (methods) (15 pts)
        d. the results (15 pts) in your own words. Be specific. Explain what you mean. 
4. Discuss how the results relate to the material you read in Chapter 9 or Chapter 11. (20 points)
   Note: This should be more than one sentence and include more than "the authors discussed this topic in Chapter 9." How do the findings of the study relate to the information in the textbook?
5. Include a relevant image or related video somewhere in your posting. The image does not have to be from the article itself. Instructions for adding images to your posting, both written and video demo, are posted below. (5 points)
6. Include the full APA citation of the journal article at the end of your posting. Use this Scribbr APA citation tool Links to an external site. to create your appropriately formatted citation (3 points)
7. Attach the journal article to your assignment. Please do not simply provide the link. Much of the time, links to scholarly studies in the college library databases do not work or require that I have to take multiple steps to access. Simply download the article you are going to work with and then attach to your assignment. (7 points)

TurnItIn

There is nothing you need to do for this. I will be using TurnItIn to scan your work for plagiarism. Here are a few key points you want to know:

• TurnItIn is embedded into Canvas, so you do not need a separate enrollment key.
• Anything below 20% similarity is considered acceptable.
• Anything between 20-40% similarity will either receive a low grade, or a student can request a rewrite submission. The rewrite submission will receive a lower score than is turned in on time with a similarity score lower than 20%, but will likely be higher than the original score.
• Anything above a 40% similarity score will receive a zero score, and the student will likely be referred to the office of Student Affairs for plagiarism.

To summarize, make sure you credit your sources and use your own original work for the vast majority of your paper.

 Important!

  This assignment is about analyzing an actual research study. General Psychology students must demonstrate their ability to engage in research and write an analysis of that research. Typically students must write a traditional 5-7 page research paper to demonstrate this. However, I think I can assess the same skill set with this much shorter research assignment!

The first thing I do is check the article you used. Please do not choose an article that simply reports the findings of a number of studies (called a meta analysis) or is simply an article on an interesting topic. The article must have methods, results, and discussion sections (see the Journal article example I posted above). If you choose an article without these sections, you are not fulfilling the requirements of this research assignment, and I will not be able to award credit (nor will I accept a late submission). If you are unsure about the article you've selected, then feel free to ask me about it (before it is due, not after). 

 Tip

To access the databases, you need your College of the Desert login details. This is the same ID and password you use to login to our class. Follow these steps:

1. Go here to the College of the Desert Library website and select the Psychology Databases using this link. Links to an external site.
2. You can try Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) or PsycArticles or any other database that you think might lead you to what you are looking for. 
3. Use this video tutorial from Clovis Community College where they navigate the process similarly at their college. Links to an external site.
4. You may be instructed at this point to login using your Foothill login.
5. Do your search. You can search for author, title, subject, etc. In the "Search Options" under "Limit  Your Results," be sure to limit your results to "Full Text" and "Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Journals" by checking the appropriate boxes.

If you would like library resources or support, you can visit this page. Links to an external site.