Fall 2020 online Unit 1 Paper #1—Pseudoscience
Goals:
Reading about a concept is not easily remembered unless you relate it to real life situations–called the self-reference effect (you will read about memory aids in Chapter 6). Writing assignments in this class are intended to help you remember psychological concepts from each chapter through applying them to your own experiences.
Required format for your papers:
Papers must be written and stored in Microsoft Word. The documents you create must be uploaded into Canvas before the due date/time. Use Microsoft Word so I can easily open and grade them. Canvas will accept only .doc, .docx, or .pdf formats. Please don’t store and upload your documents using other word processors.
Writing assignments must be at least 1 ½ pages long. Grades are partially based on length.
Margins must be 1-inch at the top, bottom, and sides (for most word processors, the default is 1 ½ inches, be sure to change margins to 1 inch).
Papers must be double-spaced and written in 11-point Ariel or Times New Roman font
Not following the format rules will result in low scores, rejection of your paper, or a zero.
Do not include a title page. Write your name at the top of page one at the top 1-inch margin. Begin writing on the next line. Don’t include the date, my name, the due date, or other information you have been trained to use.
Do not double space twice between your name and the body of your paper, don’t double space twice between paragraphs.
Paragraphs are identified by indenting the first line.
Use complete sentences and logical paragraphs. Paragraphs are required to separate your thoughts so that the reader (me) can follow your thinking. If you have little experience writing college papers or have received low grades on writing assignments in the past, you need to know that I am a grammar, spelling, and logic nerd. I will reduce your score if I cannot understand what your paper is about, if I have to read it multiple times to try to understand, if your paper is not in logical order. A clue to good writing is to write like you are explaining something to a friend who is not at all familiar with the topic. See the Syllabus for information about JCCC’s Writing Center for help.
The writing assignments are my only link to each student’s personality. I enjoy reading them. The guidelines will ask you to describe and explain concepts or information from the textbook. That means to describe and explain your thoughts and ideas thoroughly. Simple definitions are not what I want—I want to read about your thoughts and ideas rather than read the textbook definition of a concept.
When you have finished writing your paper, re-read it using the questions I ask in the Guidelines as a check list to be sure you have written about all of the assigned topics.
Plagiarism reminder: Be conscious of the tendency to copy. Sometimes we justify copying from the textbook or other sources “because we couldn’t say it as well ourselves.” Don’t fall into that trap.
Specific guidelines for Unit1 Paper #1:
In the Science versus Pseudoscience section of the textbook on page 21, your will find 7 pseudoscience strategies that are used to convince us that are used to convince us that something that is not true is true.
This is an election year and we are consistently bombarded with campaign ads that try to convince us that one candidate is better than the others. First, choose one ad that you have seen, heard, or read and describe it as completely as you can. Include information about where you saw or heard it and who sponsored the ad if you are able to read the fine print, or whether there was no sponsor listed.
Second, choose three of the pseudoscience strategies listed in the Pseudoscience section in the textbook and describe/explain each of them.
Third, describe/explain how each of those three strategies were used in the campaign ad you chose. Be sure to explain thoroughly so I understand how you are applying the strategies to the ad.
Re-read your paper, check the spelling, grammar, format, and be sure the paper is understandable and logical. Be sure that you discussed all three of the parts of the assignment.
