Paper FAQ

Q1: When's your extra office hour?

A: Tonight (Wed) 7:10-8:10, at my office.

Q2: I've e-mailed you a draft of my paper. Can you fix it and then send it back to me so that I can get an A+ on this assignment? [Okay, so this question is a little exaggerated.]

A: Nope, the department policy is that that's not allowed. First of all, you can imagine how long it would take to read everyone's drafts if it were allowed! (Because, of course, everyone would want to take advantage of that service if it were allowed.) Secondly, you're expected to develop your own writing and proofreading skills in university (it sure would be nice if we could get other people to do our hard work for us, but then our own skills wouldn't improve!). What I can do for you, though, is to go through your paper outline with you during office hours, so we can make sure you're on the right track as far as content and organization go, and I can also read a paragraph of your actual paper to work on grammar and style issues. In my experience, doing that is a great balance between making sure you're doing what you need to do to get a good grade on one hand, and on the other hand, learning what you need to learn (particularly, knowledge about communication and research methods, plus paper-writing skills).

Q3: In our paper, should we use the present tense or the past tense?

A: When writing a proposal for research that hasn't been conducted yet, people usually use the future tense, but when writing a research report (like this paper), scholars usually use the past tense. I can't think of any time when the present tense would be used, besides maybe in the lit review section, e.g., "Zillmann (2007) maintains that arousal from media can carry over to other situations," but even here, the past tense is usually preferred.

Q4: How should I cite on-line sources?

A: Try this webpage: <http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite6.html> . On-line sources can be tricky to cite, so just do your best.

Q5: We had random assignment to conditions, but we didn't have a control condition that got no exposure to a stimulus. Is our study a true experiment?

A: You don't need a strict "no exposure" condition to have a true experiment, you just need the "key elements" that Prof. Mullin mentioned in the May 15 lecture. "Control" refers more to keeping all variables other than the manipulated variable constant than to having a strict no-exposure control group.

NOTE: the "third-variable problem" is usually a problem with the survey/correlational method (see your May 8 lecture notes), and not with true experiments, because all pretreatment differences between groups should be equalized with random assignment. However, there can be "third variables" if the internal validity of a study is low, like when there's a treatment confound (e.g., the manipulation is different in ways besides just the variable in question, like if you show participants 2 different TV shows, 1 violent & 1 not -- the shows are going to be different in ways other than the violence).

Q6: Do we need to include the TV shows we used as stimulus material in our references list?

A: No, you don't need to formally cite the shows in APA format in the references section, but you should give enough info about the show that readers can identify it (e.g., channel it airs on, date it aired, episode title if you know it).

Q7: When we quote or paraphrase within our paper do we have to write all the researchers' names in parentheses?

A: Yes, when you cite articles in the text, you need all the authors' last names and the year of publication of the article. The only exception is when there are more than 6 authors, in which case you give the first author's last name followed by "et al." and the year.

NOTE: In APA style, you don't include an article or book title unless that title is somehow part of your argument (e.g., if you're analyzing titles for some reason). All you include is the authors' last names, in the order given in the article, then the year of publication, and, when (and only when) you're using a direct quotation, the page number of the source of the quotation.

Q8: Are we allowed to change the info we gave you (e.g., change the hypotheses, use different research articles, use different data analysis methods, etc.) and/or use different info from what the rest of our group is using?

A: Yes. (I won't have your group information next to me when I grade.) BUT, be careful when you change things that you're not breaking any rules/guidelines of the scientific method (e.g., make sure you don't change your hypotheses after the fact to match your results, don't add hypotheses after you analyzed your data because you found some interesting things when "fishing" through your data, etc.).

Q9: Will there be a penalty for going over 8 pages?

A: Yes, there will be some sort of penalty for going over the page limit (we TA's haven't discussed with Prof. Mullin exactly what that penalty will be yet), because it's not fair if some students have to cut out information to get under the limit (and potentially get a lower grade, if they don't choose wisely), while other students just include everything without cutting extra info. So that means you'll need to look through your paper for stuff that's not necessary and/or that's relatively unimportant, and otherwise condense your writing.

If your paper is under the limit, that's probably because you're forgetting to include something, and/or not going into enough detail. Make sure to check the assignment prompt for stuff you're missing, and check published articles for examples of the depth you should be going into.

Q10: Should we include a title page with our paper?

A: I don't think the assignment prompt mentioned a title page, but yes, including one is a good idea, because title pages are required according to APA guidelines. And remember, the title page shouldn't include your name. THE ONLY PLACE YOU SHOULD INCLUDE YOUR NAME IS ON THE BACK OF YOUR LAST PAGE. (That'll probably be on the back of your last questionnaire page.)

Q11: Do we need to attach our questionnaires to our paper?

A: Yes. See the assignment prompt.

Q12: Do we need to attach our 2 published articles to our paper?

A: No. See the assignment prompt.

Q: Do we need to attach our data to our paper?

A: No. See the assignment prompt.

Good luck, everyone!