Research Paper: The final 25% of your course grade will be determined by the quality of the research paper you will be writing. That is, in addition to the tests, you will be required to write an approximately five-page term paper (typed, double-spaced in APA style) not including a cover page and references. All papers will be graded on 100-point scale using four major criteria: Thoroughness (0-25 pts), Writing Clarity (0-25 pts), Paper Organization (0-25 pts), and Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling (0-25 pts). Papers will be due on Monday, November 21 at class time
For the paper itself, you are to find two motivation-related articles that are of interest to you. Any topics discussed in the class lectures are acceptable so long as the two articles address the same research area. The course lectures are designed to expose you to a wide and diverse array of topics in the field. The purpose of this paper is to afford you the opportunity to gain a more in-depth view of a specific area of research. The articles can be found using one the research search engines available on the BSU Library site or simply by looking through the actual journals in the library. The articles you choose must report original data. Reviews, meta-analyses, editorials, and magazine articles are not acceptable. In addition to expecting you to report the authors’ hypotheses, methods, results, and conclusions, I want you to make a strong effort to tie the studies together and critique them thoroughly in terms of theoretical logic, methodology, and conclusions drawn. Make sure to attach the abstracts from the actual articles to your paper.
