WRITING TIPS

INITIAL INFORMATION

TIME GUIDELINES &  OTHER INFORMATION

PRIOR EXAMPLES

YES, TIME CAN FLY!   Due February 8 to our DISCUSSION BOARD: Milestone 1  (click "milestone 1" to see this section!) DUE MAY 2 (by noon): FINAL PROJECT: FIXED DEADLINE! DUE MARCH 22: INITIAL PROJECT DRAFT  Both the first ("rough") and final drafts are submitted through turnitin on our Blackboard Assignments Folder MEANWHILE REVIEW "THE GOOD PAPER" SITE HERE UNLESS CLASS TEAMWORK, PROJECTS ARE 15 PAGES (12 font double spaced or the equivalent)

REMEMBER! Will you collect data for your Groups Project?

Here's the site for FSU's Human Subjects Committee (Institutional Review Board or IRB).

YOU are not the one to decide if your project is exempt from IRB approval--that's what IRBs are for.
In  my experience on this committee, everyone believes that they are exempt! That's a technical term. I saw projects that would curl your hair and almost certainly would have been harmful had they not been revised.
My favorite was the historian who said "we don't need Human Subjects Approval: everyone we study is DEAD."
But (a) that is not always true and (b) the subjects of study have descendents and even surviving friends who care about them.

The IRB can take a month or more to approve a project.

DUE FEBRUARY 8 (11:59 pm): PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

Here's what you need to tell me:

• (1) What is the general area of your project?

• (2) What is the particular topic within this area that you plan to study?

• (3) Tell me the names of all team members if you plan to work with someone else.

• (4) GIVE ME A GENERAL IDEA WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WILL DO:

• (5) PUT IT ALL TOGETHER IN A FEW SENTENCES:

EXAMPLE: I will conduct a literature review on the effects of group versus individual learning styles in algebra achievement. I am reading journals in both group dynamics and math education.

EXPECTED PROPECTUS LENGTH: 1-3 double-spaced typed pages or equivalent. (Obviously somewhat more detailed than my examples!)

DON'T: be too specific. I don't need to know your exact journals, books, coding categories, any standardized tests or minute experimental manipulations. That information will be on the MARCH 8 update.

Since each person has a unique topic and project, it's difficult to give a set of generalized instructions for the project update that "fits" everyone. Just recall that the true purpose of this update is to keep everyone on task!

If you meet the milestones set at intervals throughout the semester, you are virtually certain to submit your first draft on time (March 22) and then you will be able to revise it, if you so choose, for the final deadline (May 2 at noon).

This is now the time to set down the exact journals, books, coding categories, any standardized tests or minute experimental manipulations that you plan to use, review, or to read.

So, keeping these individualized caveats in mind, here's what you need to tell me by March 8:

(1) What is it that you are going to do? Literature review? Empirical study? WHAT KIND of empirical study? A brief--but cogent--review and a study design?

(2) What is your topic?  BE SPECIFIC!  At this point, you are involved in a subtopic (you need to include it again, and if you have changed it, now is the time to describe it!) For example, if you are studying group cohesion, that is a gigantic literature. What subfield are you examining (e.g., how sports teams coordinate their actions or how cohesion influences work performance.)?

(3) Do you have team members? If you are working with someone else in our class, now is the time to tell me who, if you haven't already.

(4A) IF YOU ARE DOING AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OR DESIGNING AN EMPIRICAL STUDY: This is the time for me to see your procedures, see your questionnaire (if appropriate), star the variables you plan to analyze, review your field observation codes, etc. (And the Human Subjects Committee can take several weeks so please keep that in mind if you plan Human Subjects approval. If you would like your measures put into action at a future date, now is probably the time to explore Human Subjects (IRB) approval.)

(4B) IF YOU ARE DOING A LITERATURE REVIEW: Now is the time to describe some of the journals, the books, the sites, the other people or literature that you are investigating. Give me a topical outline of the areas that you will review. If you must interpolate from a related literature (e.g., from individual emotional intelligence to emotional intelligence in groups), describe that parent area.

IT WILL BE HELPFUL TO YOU AND TO ME: if possible, give me a total outline of your project as you envision it. Delineate the subareas clearly.

Coming after March 8, more writing tips.
 

Here are some possibilities for your project:

Research existing literature in an area of interest to you.

Analyze or reanalyze existing data.

Design a study to be carried out in the future.

Complete a small original study such as an experiment, survey, or observation.

TIME GUIDELINES

A short preliminary prospectus of your Course Paper is due FEBRUARY 8.

An updated prospectus of your course paper is due MARCH  8.

A initial draft of your Course Paper is due by MARCH 22 to allow you to revise it.

The final edition of your paper is due Wednesday May 2 by NOON. This deadline is FIRM.
 

Teams find it easier than individuals to plan and execute a small experiment, survey, or observation. You may choose to work in teams for the Course Paper.  Please turn in the names of all team members on the Course Paper by February 8 with the preliminary prospectus. I also will alert you to possible teammates (but the choice is yours).

While there will be individual differences, the typical Course Paper is about 15 pages, including tables, figures, illustrations, and references. Team papers are typically 20-25 pages.

TOPICS FROM PRIOR YEARS:
 

Also, check out our Canvas site for examples; explore Presentations under Modules.
 
 

If you plan to conduct a survey, an experiment, observations for your course paper and you also plan to use the data later (e.g., for a thesis, dissertation, conference paper, article), your project may need approval from FSU's Human Subjects Committee (also known as the Institutional Review Board or IRB). Plan early if so! A phone call or an email is often sufficient for the Committee Administrator to tell you if you need to make an application. More information and Human Subjects forms are online.

FOR HUMAN SUBJECTS COMMITTEE INFORMATION CLICK HERE

• It can take over a month, depending on the committee meeting cycle, to check your proposal. Studies that are exempt can be reviewed more quickly because only a few members need to read your human subjects proposal. But THE COMMITTEE (not you) decides if your research is exempt (read more about that on their WEB site).

• If you will submit a study design involving human subjects for your project that you plan to conduct in the near future, say, this summer or fall, I recommend that you submit your proposal to the human subjects committee this semester. That way, if the committee wants more information, you can supply it long before you begin collecting data. Meeting dates are sometimes more erratic during the summer, too.

As a student, your major professor, instructor, or advisor must sign in on the human subjects documents.

All students will do a class presentation based on their paper topic.

We will also periodically discuss the topics chosen for the course paper.

• THE SPELLING & GRAMMAR THING

• A NOTE ON REFERENCES AND CITATIONS

Within the text, identify your reference: use the author(s)' last name(s) and the year of publication, enclosed in parentheses. If there are two different authors with the same last name, add a first initial. If an author has two cited works the same year, distinguish them by "a" and "b".

For the last 25 years or so, APA style does NOT distinguish by the gender of the author. BOTH male and female authors are designated by initials, not their first names (the old practice of only using first names for female authors functioned more like a red flag than a courtesy and the APA dropped this decades ago.)

For example, you have two authors with the surname of Jones, Arlene Jones and Jerry Jones. Arlene Jones published two articles in 1999 and you want to cite them both. Here's my brief example with citations:

As Arlene Jones reported in two separate studies (A. Jones, 1999a; 1999b), sociable dogs run in packs. However, Jerry Jones (J. Jones, 2003) has reported that this is not true for "Alpha dogs."

The basic idea is that if someone reads your paper and wants to read any of your references, the complete information should be given to enable your reader to easily do so.

OVERVIEW

READINGS

PRESENTATION

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Susan Carol Losh
January 1 2018