Child Development

Article Review

Fall 2004

 Purposes of the assignment:

1. To become familiar with research journals in psychology.

2. To see the scientific methods described in the textbook as they are applied in real research.

3. To gain more detailed knowledge of a particular issue in Child Development.

 Doing the assignment:

¨      Read this whole assignment before you proceed.

¨      Read the article carefully.

¨      Take notes as you read, using your own words.

¨      Leave the article behind at this point.

 Many students do not realize the seriousness of plagiarism.  Writing about complex material is difficult, and often it seems that the author has said it so well that your own words will be inadequate.  There are however two important reasons for doing it the hard way.  

1.  If you can’t put something in your own words, it usually means you don’t understand it yet.  If you don’t understand it, it has no business in a paper you are writing.  Please see me for help understanding difficult articles. 

2.  Plagiarism is theft.  

It can result in an “F” for the assignment, being dropped from the class, or even dismissed from school. 

 Writing the paper:

• Cite the article using APA style at the end of your paper.  HELP!  I don't know APA style
• Connect your article to the course. State which era of childhood and what aspect of development it is relevant to and why it is interesting or important to study.
• Include a summary of the article. (Write your own abstract.)
• Describe the methods the researcher used. Include how subjects were selected for the study, and the procedures used. Is this a descriptive (survey, observation, correlational) study or is it an experiment? Are the subjects representative? Evaluate the methodology. If the author did not use any systematic way of gathering data, critically evaluate the confidence we should have in his or her conclusions.
• Describe and discuss the findings. What did the researcher(s) learn? Do the findings confirm the accepted view in Child Psychology presented in your book? Is the article surprising? 

Ask me for help. I will assist you at any point in the process, including meeting you in the Library.

Grading

Short guide to APA style:

At the end of your paper cite articles like this:

Author(s), last name, first initial (Year) Title. Journal. Volume, Number, pages. For internet sources add URL here

For books:

Author (year) Title. Publisher. City. Pages.

In the body of your paper, indicate which source you are using like this: (Author’s last name, Year). For quotes add the page number(s).