The written assignment for this course is designed to expose you to a number of important skills that will be useful throughout your academic careers. It will involve a combination of basic research skills, critical evaluation of literature sources, and proper APA formatting.
To begin with, you will need to locate a popular media article that has been written about a scientific study that relates to one of the topics covered in this course. Popular media sources can include newspaper, magazine, or blog articles, basically any media source that is easily available to the general public.
To find a media article, I recommend that you search terms like “popular science article,” “popular psychology article,” “recent study shows,” or something similar should get you started. You are looking for a media article that talks about a research study. They should either link you to that scientific article, or include a reference to it. As an example, you might find a Buzzfeed article or blog post that says something like “Dr. Martin and colleagues study ravens and found that ravens can recognize individual faces.” That would be a great candidate.
Once you find a media article that talks about a scientific study, you will need to find the study that they’re talking about published in a scientific journal. Follow the link provided in the article or look up the authors and the study name in Google Scholar.
Then you’re ready to compare the information in the popular media article and the information in the scientific article (you really just need to read the abstract of the scientific article to get a brief overview of what the study actually found – don’t spend too much time trying to understand the whole article!). Popular media doesn’t always do a great job of sharing scientific research findings. They may have misrepresented the finding (e.g., media likes to use the term “proven”) or overstated the importance of the finding. They may have left out some limitations, or ignored important details. I want you to think about what might be missing and evaluate how well the media article matches the research it was based on. Answer the three questions below as part of your analysis.
1. What does the popular media article claim? What do they say the research has found? (2 points)
2. From the Abstract of the original scientific article (Note: You don’t have to read the whole article!), what does the research actually show? (2 points)
3. How does this compare to the popular media article? (4 points)
The written component of this assignment is meant to be short (aim for less than a page). Your answers must be clearly numbered.
On a second, separate page, you will need to include an APA-formatted reference page. My preferred resource for APA formatting guidelines is the Purdue Online Writing Lab, but there are lots of options that you can choose from. This reference page should include a citation for your scientific article and your popular media article. Your references are worth 2 points.
After completion, the document should be saved as a PDF and uploaded to eClass through the “Written Assignment Submission Portal” (below). Only PDF files will be accepted.
Please consider submitting early to avoid late submissions resulting from not properly saving as a PDF or issues with the Moodle portal.
Deductions:
Late submissions will have a 10% deduction for each 24 hours after the deadline, starting at the deadline (e.g., 1 hour late = 10% deduction, 26 hours late = 20% deduction). Papers submitted more than 5 days late will receive a grade of 0. Cases of plagiarism (presenting someone else’s words as your own) will receive a grade of 0.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FrJRJllJ-0 This is a video of how to write this paper.