Question: All students are required to complete a term paper. The purpose of this paper is to give you an opportunity to explore and learn more about a particular aspect of adult development and aging. The paper will be a critical review of a popular press article about some aspect of adult development and aging, e.g. physical exercise helps prevent Alzheimer's disease. The article must have been published within the last year (January 2017 - April 2018). You may use newspaper articles, magazine articles or online articles (no blogs). It is recommended that you clear your article with the course instructor or T.A. via email or in person before you begin your literature search.
Your critical review of the article must be based on current research from peer-reviewed literature. The paper should integrate and evaluate scholarly sources (peer-reviewed journal articles) that may be obtained through library research. You must provide support for your position from at least 5 peer-reviewed journal articles (you may use more). You may also provide additional information from scholarly books if you so wish. The majority of sources should be as current as possible, i.e. published within the last 5-10 years.
The paper should include:
(a) a title page
(b) an abstract
(c) the body of paper
1. a basic introduction and description of the topic and popular press article
2. descriptions (purpose, methodology, findings) and critical analyses of your scholarly sources (and how the findings relate to the assertions of the popular press article
3. a reflection of unanswered questions and directions for future research
4 a conclusion to your exploration of the topic
(d) the reference section
(e) a copy of the popular press article
The paper must be in APA (American Psychological Association) format. This format is found in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition (2009). The manual is available at Scott Library, Scott Reference, Steacie Science and Engineering Library, Leslie Frost Library and the Osgoode Hall Law School Library. It is best to use the sample paper at the end of the manual as a guide, especially for the title page, abstract and how references appear both in the body of the paper and in the reference section. Further information on presenting references appears in specific chapters of the APA manual.
APA formatting information can also be found online. As you are not conducting an empirical study, your paper will not include the "Method", "Results" or "Discussion" sections. The paper should be 6-8 pages (excluding title page, abstract and reference section). It should be typed single-sided and double-spaced. Secondary references should not be used - you should read the original articles and cite the original articles. Do not use direct quotes from sources unless absolutely necessary. Instead, paraphrase information taken from sources. All material from sources must be properly referenced according to APA guidelines.
Your paper will be marked on the following components: introduction of topic and popular press article, use of at least 5 peer-reviewed journal articles, description of these journal articles, arguments supporting or refuting the popular press article based on research evidence, reflection of unanswered questions and possible directions for future research, conclusion, APA format, grammar, spelling and general form of writing.
There are links from the main university library webpage to resources, guides and tutorials to help you with your research and how to formulate a thesis. The main search engine that we use in Psychology is "Psycinfo", but you are free to use articles from any of the search engines.