Applying Critical Thinking

This assignment is a continuation of the journal entry from Workshop Five, where you were asked to apply your critical-thinking skills toward choosing a topic that you would then outline in this workshop. To help you with the outline, you will have access to a Word document that describes the specific parts of the outline you need to provide along with a worksheet that walks you through the steps.

It’s no surprise that many students do not feel confident in their research or writing skills. Some of this lack of confidence is driven by a myth that seems to shadow the act of writing. It is this: that to be an effective writer you must have the innate talent for writing; you either have it or you don’t. This myth has put fear and doubt into the minds of countless students who don’t believe they have this innate talent. But the truth is that effective writing is a learned skill. It develops from ongoing practice. You don’t have to develop your writing skill to the level of a best-selling author. You just need to learn to write clearly and organize your thoughts so you can lay out your points in a logical manner and be understood by the reader.

Outlining is one of the best tools to help you develop these learned skills. It forces you to think through each step of the content development process before you actually start writing. The proverbial image of the writer in the throes of writer’s block, who rewrites the first paragraph endless times, is in reality a writer who is not yet clear on what he or she really wants to say.

This assignment will help you avoid writer’s block, think through the content that is most important, and organize it all in a way that makes sense. By the time you finish the assignment, you will be well on your way to having the blueprint for the research paper you will write in the next course, PSY-535, Research Methods in Psychology.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Create a detailed outline for a chosen research paper topic.

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Resources

· File: The Basic Outline of a Paper (Word)

· Web Article: OCLS Introduction to Research Guide

· Website: OCLS Article Databases

· Website: OCLS Evaluating Sources Page

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Background Information

In Workshops One and Five, you were thinking about which of the two specializations interested you more: Positive Psychology or Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

In your journal entry from Workshop Five, you chose one topic under the specialization you picked and apply critical-thinking skills to begin shaping the content of that topic.

In this workshop, you will outline that topic in greater detail. It’s important to note that you are not writing the actual research paper in this course, just creating a detailed outline. The intent is for you to sharpen your research skills in this course and create the outline you will use to then write the research paper in course PSY-535, Research. Use the document provided to guide you through the outline development process.

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Instructions

1. Review the brief tutorial in  The Basic Outline of a Paper (Word)  on how to structure your outline, along with the accompanying worksheet that will help you fill out the contents of your outline. The completed outline is the deliverable for this assignment.

The Basic Outline of a Paper

This is the basic format for most academic papers. Papers typically should contain these three elements:

1. Introduction

1. Body

1. Conclusion

Here is what you should include in each of these sections:

1. Introduction

1. Start with an attention grabber: a short story, example, statistic, or historical context that introduces the paper topic.

1. Provide a brief overview of the subject.

1. Define key terms that are needed to understand the topic.

1. Highlight background information on the topic needed to understand the direction of the paper.

1. Conclude introduction with a thesis statement of one to two sentences that tells what the overall paper will focus on and the main points you intend to cover in the paper.

1. Body

1. Present the main points of the paper that correspond with your thesis.

1. Include strong examples, details, and explanations to support each main point.

1. Provide strong evidence from sources—paraphrases, summaries, and quotations that support the main points.

1. Conclusion

1. Restate your thesis from the introduction using different words.

1. Briefly summarize each main point found in the body of the paper.

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