PSYC 255
Essay: Research Topic, Interests, and References Assignment Instructions
Overview
In this assignment you will demonstrate your understanding of research topics, research questions, identify research related personal interests, demonstrate library search skills and demonstrate correct APA formatting. This is a major written assignment in our course.
Instructions
In preparation for this assignment students will need to know and understand the course content up to and including the reading assignments for the current module and know how to find information in the
Publication Manual. Students will also need to know how to find scholarly content in the Jerry Falwell Library, and how to properly use APA formatting throughout the document. Utilize the resources in the
Research Topics, Questions, and References Resources section
for this essay.
Download the
Essay: Essay Research Topic, Interests, and References Template, save it on your computer and rename it so you can create a properly formatted title page using this phrase as the title: Research Topics, Questions, and References. This will become the actual title page that you submit with this essay. Fill in the rest of the information on the title page with your information. The assignment includes a title page, three pages of content to answer the questions, and a references page. The three pages of content is the minimum; you may need more than three pages.
On your next page where you begin your content, re-write the title at the top of this page, and write a brief introduction statement relating to the entire assignment (follow the
Essay Research Topic, Interests, and References Template).
After writing the introduction, begin addressing the following parts of this assignment. Introduce this first section of the assignment with a level one heading using the phrase Research Topics and Questions. Answer the following questions based on the information in the
Introduction to Research textbook. Write your answers in your own words. Do not simply copy/paste information from the textbook. Then, after your answers in your own words, include the in-text citation for the location where you found this in our
Introduction to Research textbook. Do not use bullets. Do not re-write the questions. Use your own complete sentences. Each of the questions in this section will be a new, properly formatted paragraph.
· What is meant by the term research topic?
· What is meant by the term research question?
· How are these terms similar? How are they different?
Introduce this next section with a level one heading using the phrase Personal Interests. Answer the following questions based on your current interests in your own academic and/or career pursuits at the present time. Write your answer as one paragraph combining all the answers in this section into that one paragraph. Do not use bullets. Do not re-write the questions. Use your own complete sentences.
· What is your major?
· What career or careers do you anticipate entering?
· Based on your career area, what is a research topic that interests you? (For this assignment, just identify one, even if there are a lot of topics that interest you.)
· Based on that research topic, what is a specific question that you would like to investigate?
Introduce the next section with a properly formatted level one heading using the phrase Review of Literature. Answer the following by using information found via the Jerry Falwell Library. See link for Jerry Falwell Library in the
Research Topic, Interests, and References Resources Section. You must be signed into your Liberty University account to access this link.
· Using the Jerry Falwell Library, locate two journal article scholarly sources that are somehow related to what you want to discover as you investigate the research topic that you identified above. You will probably need to find and review many scholarly sources in the process of finding two that you like, that relate to your selected topic. While searching, you will not need to read the entire scholarly source to determine if it applies to your topic. Start by reading the abstract at the beginning of the journal article; that will help you know if the article will have information you want. You will use the information for these two scholarly journal articles for the next part of this assignment. You do not need to go to the physical Jerry Falwell Library. You can access the information electronically.
· Now that you have located your two scholarly journal articles, write the reference for each source you identified in the previous part of this assignment, using current APA format for references. Use the
Publication Manual for help with the proper formatting. Then, beneath each reference, write one or two sentences briefly describing how this article you selected somehow contributes to your selected research topic that you identified earlier in this assignment. Use the format for an annotated bibliography when writing your brief description of the content of the journal article you selected. Look in the index in the Publication Manual for the term, “annotated bibliography;” that will point you to the pages in the manual where you can find information about this. Use your own words. Do not simply copy/paste from the abstract of the article.
Write a reference page. For this assignment, you will have a reference for each of the two scholarly journal articles you found in the sections above and the Introduction to Research textbook. Use current APA formatting for the references page and for the references.
Review the following requirements before submitting this assignment into Canvas.
· Length of assignment: Include the title page, references page, three pages (minimum) of content.
· Format of assignment: APA Student Paper.
· Number of sources: The Introduction to Research textbook for the Research Topics and Questions as an in-text citation and listed on the references page. Additional scholarly sources for the Review of Literature section, also listed on the references page.
· Acceptable sources: Scholarly sources as described in the assignment instructions.
· Address the assigned topics fully: See the topics described in the assignment instructions.
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
Career Choice is to become a Psychologist.
Wants to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and continue to Master’s in Social Work.
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