Developmental Term Paper

Item	Deadline
Deadline	Fridays at 11:59pm of each week indicated on Moodle
Weight	20% in 4 milestones
Length (Guidance)	2k - 2.5k words
Format	APA 7.0 Strict with modifications: - No “Abstract” section required - Do not use direct quotes. Always paraphrase - References section: omit “Retrieved from” element, use doi instead

The goal of this literature review paper is to show how well you comprehend, summarize and critique scientific information about the theories covered in this course. The paper will be a roughly 2000-2500—word essay in which you review a minimum of two theories based on textbook readings, peer-reviewed publications, and evaluate the quality of the knowledge.

Topic Selection

You will choose the topic of your term paper based on topics covered in your required readings. You may refer to a variety of sources, including textbooks, other review papers, Wikipedia, but you will need to find 5 peer-reviewed empirical research articles connected to your topic.

An empirical research article (or also known as primary research) describes an experiment that the authors conducted themselves. This is different from a review article (secondary research) where others’ research is summarized. You can include review articles, but they do not count towards the minimum 5 peer-reviewed primary research article count. Same goes for books. Wikipedia and other Internet sources are not to be used in your paper, but I encourage you to use them as ways to get acquainted with your topic, and to help understand what your paper will be about.

Paper Structure

There is “more than one way to skin a cat” but generally speaking, picking two contrasting/ opposing theories and showing support for each is one particularly great way to write a review paper. Assessment Structure

You will be assessed on the (1) development of your review paper and the (2) final product (the quality of the actual paper). Assessment is broken down into 4 milestones and you must meet each milestone before you can progress to the next one within the deadlines given in the course outline. Failing to complete a milestone means failing the entire term paper requirement.

Set up

Create an account on GitHub.com
Submit your username in the assignment module
Wait for an automated email from GitHub: You will receive an invitation to join a private repository
Look around in the repository where you have been added

Punchcard

GitHub uses a punchcard to show you activity levels while working on documents. The more bits of text you change in your document, the more activity will be shown on your punchcard. Activity levels on your punchcard will be used to determine your grade on this term paper. Consequently, it is worthwhile to extend or space out your document editing to just a little bit each day, rather than to doing it in one shot.

Milestone 1

Weight: 2%, must complete to progress to the next milestone

Create a folder in the repository with the following structure: LastName_StudentID
Create a new file within the repository and name is “master.md” a. Your paper will be in “markdown” extension. This is different from Microsoft Word or OpenOffice. b. Here is a cheatsheet for creating headings and lists in markdown: https:// www.markdownguide.org/cheat-sheet/
Create a References section in your master.md document and enter the APA formatted reference for 3 papers you will consider in your paper (don’t worry, it’s okay if you change your mind and swap these references to another)

Milestone 2

Weight: 4%, must complete to progress to the next milestone

Increase your reference count to 5. Swap papers as needed.
Write a 1-paragraph summary for each of the papers in the references section. a. The paragraph can be as short as 4-5 sentences in total. Try writing one sentence to describe each section of the paper (Intro, Methods, Results, Discussion) b. These paragraphs can be simply written under the reference item in the References list (for now)

Milestone 3