General Psychology Research Paper Information and Resources

Objective

The goal of this page is to help you learn about how to create a high-quality college-level research paper in general, and to navigate the research paper expectations and assignments specific to this class.

Learning Outcomes

Once you have reviewed and applied all the research paper supporting materials and completed all the research paper assignments, you will have:

Learned about the general expectations for a college-level research paper
Systematically created a research paper step-by-step
Applied principles of quality writing to your paper
Applied APA formatting appropriately and fully to your paper

Due Dates Summary (see To-do List for detail/links)

Proposal: July 5
Rough draft: July 11
Paper: July 25

To-do List

To write a successful paper, you need to first familiarize yourself with the process and expectations.

It is critically important that you integrate the feedback I give you from one step of the project to the next. You absolutely MUST read the comments I provide on your returned assignments, and in any rubric used to grade them. You will NOT do well on this if you don't do that! Remember, this project is worth a total of 160 points -- it can make or break your grade in this class, in addition to being an invaluable learning experience around learning to write at the college level. If you don't understand the feedback you have been given, please come talk to me!

Questions? Come to Zoom office hours Friday from 5 - 6pm (or contact me for another time to meet). The code is 497261 and you will be in the waiting room until I admit you. Typically this will be immediate, but if I am already speaking to someone you will have to wait. I will meet with everyone who is waiting even if we go past 6pm!

Resources for Getting Help

Remember that there are many resources available to help you with your paper process, from start to finish! Remember to see "Contacting me" in the "Communication Reminders,"box below for all the ways I can help you personally, and we have a class discussion specific to the paper (Research Paper: What are your questions? Help each other out and earn extra credit!)but also remember that CCSF has many resources available to support your success! Please make sure you check out the Virtual Campus Academic Support page, and here are the places you can specifically get paper/essay writing support:

Communication Reminders

Active Participation

You are expected to be an active member of this class -- that means that you participate as instructed in the required discussions and as needed in the optional ones; it means you complete your assignments fully and promptly; it means that you are checking your e-mail and Canvas regularly so you are aware of changes and announcements; and most importantly, it means you understand that the activities in this class build on each other sequentially, so if you don't understand something you need to reach out and get help before it gets away from you!

In exchange for your active participation in this class, it is my commitment to you to grade your assignments and, most of the time, provide you written feedback on what you did well and what might need improvement at the time they are graded. If I see a pattern or theme emerging in your performance, I will discuss it with you.

Contacting me

Remember that I am here to help you learn! Except for weekends, the maximum response time to your messages is 48 hours... but I definitely try to get to them as soon as I can. Always let me know if there is anything that I can do to help you be successful in this course. You can e-mail me, use Canvas Inbox, post to the weekly discussion (see last item above), or respond to any comment I've made on your assignments.

Connecting with your classmates

For the first few weeks, you will be working with your peers in classwide discussions (both assigned and the weekly ones to help each other out) and have Pronto and Canvas messaging available to you. After we have a bit of work under our belts, you will begin a project that will span the rest of the semester with a smaller group. It will be up to you and your group mates to decide how best to communicate in that context. No matter what, though, your classmates are all around you and are just as willing to support you as you are to support them!

General Information and Support Reminders

Remember that this course includes a General Information page where you can find not just information for this specific course (such as links to the syllabus, announcements, and the general Q & A discussion post), but also information about resources available to support you as a student at CCSF (both in-person and virtually), and information about using Canvas and other technology tools.