Course Paper

Please revisit this site periodically for updates.
April 18, 2004
Some MORE course paper tips added 3/26, click HERE

OVERVIEW

READINGS

CLASS PRESENTATION

EDP 5285-01
GROUP PROCESSES
COURSE PAPER
SPRING 2004

UPDATE	THIS YEAR'S TOPICS	MARCH 1 UPDATE	EARLIER INFORMATION
	PRIOR EXAMPLES	TIME GUIDELINES	WRITING CONVENTIONS

YES, TIME FLIES!

DUE APRIL 26: FINAL PAPER
MY MAILBOX 307 STONE BUILDING

ALL papers are due April 26 (Monday), whether you elect the rewrite option or you do not.
Last semester, our department paid $320 back to the university because of grades filed late.
Therefore April 26 is the FINAL due date so that I have time to read your paper.
(Of course, you may turn it in earlier.)
If you wish to stay with the grade on your March 29th draft, that is OK too, and you do not need to turn in your paper again on April 26.

If you wish to elect the rewrite option you MUST turn in BOTH the original AND the rewrite.
Please be sure you have turned in your original draft that has my comments on it.

SOMEWHERE IN THE FIRST TWO PAGES, PLEASE BE SURE YOU HAVE DELINEATED:

WHAT YOUR TOPIC IS

WHY THAT TOPIC IS IMPORTANT, AND

WHAT SPECIFICALLY YOU WILL DO IN YOUR PAPER.

WHEN YOU TURN IN YOUR DRAFT AND RECEIVE IT BACK...
Don't be disturbed by my pink marker. I do this the first time I read your paper to highlight what I think are your major points.

Do pay attention to my notations in regular ink. I usually jot these by the side of the paragraph. Please carefully consider these comments as you revise.

Work that is referenced in the text of your paper needs to be cited in your bibliography.
PLEASE BE SURE THAT YOU INCLUDE A BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Be sure to check out the writing conventions, listed at the very end of this page.

COURSE TOPICS 2004
UPDATED AND ANNOTATED APRIL 2004

Individual	Topic
Ron Clark & Jim Zboja See their presentation in Blackboard.	Group antecedents and status consumption in consumer behavior. "Relaxed consumers" too.
Travis Creason See his presentation in Blackboard.	Effects individuals with mental handicaps have on work groups; integration into work groups.
Mike McAuley	Media influence and science knowledge and reasoning
Melissa Noland	How athlete and entertainer behavior influence youth and social groups. Social identity. Identification.
Taner Yigit See his presentation in Blackboard.	Web based learning, synchronous or asynchronous communication, group structure and group tasks
Feng (Rita) Zhou	Cooperative learning, social loafing, and learning English in China

DUE MARCH 1:
PROJECT UPDATE

Since each person has a unique topic and project, it can be difficult for me to give a set of generalized instructions for the project update that "fits" everyone. Just recall that the true purpose of this update is to keep all students on task! If you meet the milestones set at intervals throughout the semester, you are virtually certain to submit your first draft on time (March 29) and then you will be able to revise it, if you so choose, for the final deadline (April 19).

This is now the time to set down the exact journals, books, coding categories, any standardized tests or minute experimental manipulations that you plan to use or to read.

So, keeping these individualized caveats in mind, here's what you need to tell me by March 1:

(1) What is it that you are going to do? Literature review? Empirical study? WHAT KIND of empirical study? A brief--but cogent--review and a study design?

(2) What is your topic? BE SPECIFIC! At this point, you are involved in a subtopic (from below, you need to include it again, and if you have changed it, now is the time to tell me!) For example, if you are studying group cohesion, that is a gigantic literature. What subfield are you examining (e.g., how sports teams coordinate their actions or how cohesion influences work performance.)

(3) Do you have team members? If you are working with someone else, now is the time to tell me if you haven't already.

(4A) IF YOU ARE DOING AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OR DESIGNING AN EMPIRICAL STUDY: This is the time for me to see your procedures, see your questionnaire (if appropriate), star the variables you plan to analyze, review your field observation codes, etc. (And the Human Subjects Committee can take several weeks so please keep that in mind if you plan Human Subjects approval. If you would like your measures put into action at a future date, now is probably the time to explore Human Subjects (IRB) approval.

(4B) IF YOU ARE DOING A LITERATURE REVIEW: Now is the time to describe know some of the journals, the books, the site, the other people or literature that you are investigating. Give me a topical outline of the areas that you will review. If you must interpolate from a related literature (e.g., from individual emotional intelligence to emotional intelligence in groups), describe that parent area.

IT WILL BE HELPFUL TO YOU AND TO ME: Give me a total outline of your project as you envision it. Delineate the subareas clearly.

DUE FEBRUARY 9:
PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

Here's what you need to tell me:

(1) What is the general area of your project?

EXAMPLES: Instructional design; teacher expectations; sports teams; work groups

(2) What is the particular topic within this area that you plan to study?

(3) Tell me the names of all team members if you plan to work with someone else.

(4) GIVE ME A GENERAL IDEA WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WILL DO:

EXAMPLES:an ethnography of relative influence among team players and coaches in discretionary spending on the road; an analytic plan of how familial attachment influences planned college achievement; an observational study (cohesion in religious congregations); an experiment (I will manipulate aspects of bureaucracy and measure work group effectiveness); an archival study (the rise and fall of a national fraternity)

(5) PUT IT ALL TOGETHER IN A FEW SENTENCES:

EXAMPLE: I will use an observational design to study leadership styles in private profit seeking and non-profit organizations. I plan to use two organizations and am currently discussing this project with the organizational administration.

EXAMPLE:I will conduct a literature review on the effects of group versus individual learning styles in algebra achievement. I am reading journals in both group dynamics and math education.

EXPECTED PROPECTUS LENGTH: 1-3 double-spaced typed pages or equivalent.

DON'T: be too specific. I don't need to know your exact journals, books, coding categories, any standardized tests or minute experimental manipulations. That information will be on the MARCH 1 update.

POSSIBILITIES

Here are some possibilities for your paper:

Research existing literature in an area of interest to you.

Analyze or reanalyze existing data.

Design a study to be carried out in the future.

Complete a small original study such as an experiment, survey, or observation.

TIME GUIDELINES

A short preliminary prospectus of your Course Paper is due FEBRUARY 9.

An updated prospectus of your course paper is due MARCH 1.

A initial draft of your Course Paper is due by MARCH 29 to allow you to rewrite it.

The final edition of your paper is due APRIL 19.

ON TEAMWORK

Teams find it easier than individuals to plan and execute a small experiment, survey, or observation. You may choose to work in teams for the Course Paper. Please turn in the names of all team members on the Course Paper by February 9 with the preliminary prospectus. I also will alert you to possible teammates (but the choice is yours).

LENGTH

While there will be individual differences, the typical Course Paper is about 15 pages, including tables, figures, illustrations, and references. Team papers are typically 25-30 pages.

PAST EXAMPLES

TOPICS FROM PRIOR YEARS:

Acculturation and second language acquisition

Bullying and group processes

Classroom "personality" and class achievement

Cooperative learning in middle school classrooms

Deliberations in mock juries

Ethnography of the FSU Jewish Student Union

Ethnography of the FSU Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender Student Union

Focus groups on diverse topics (e.g., student drinking; leadership on campus)

Fostering cooperation among students in online environments

Group effectiveness on group projects

Group factors in learning self-assisted technology (i.e., learning to check out your own groceries)

Group interaction and second language acquisition

How families help children cope with trauma

How preschool teachers interact with girls and boys

Interpersonal processes in African-American churches

Media effects and science

Reference groups and individual outcomes

Social loafing in work groups

Student on student victimization in the schools

Team management in the service industry

PLANNING TO GATHER YOUR OWN DATA?

If you plan to conduct a survey, an experiment, observations for your course paper and you also plan to use the data later (e.g., for a thesis, dissertation, conference paper), your project may need approval from FSU's Human Subjects Committee (also known as the Institutional Review Board or IRB). Plan early if so! A phone call or an email is often sufficient for the Committee Administrator to tell you if you need to make an application. More information and Human Subjects forms are online.

FOR HUMAN SUBJECTS COMMITTEE INFORMATION CLICK HERE

It can take a month, depending on the committee meeting cycle, to check your proposal. Studies that are exempt usually are reviewed more quickly because only a few members need to read your human subjects proposal. But THE COMMITTEE (not you) decides if your research is exempt (read more about that on the WEB site).

If you will submit a study design involving human subjects for your project that you plan to conduct in the near future, say, this summer or fall, I recommend that you submit your proposal to the human subjects committee this semester. Then, if the committee wants more information, you can supply it long before you begin collecting data. Meeting dates are sometimes more erratic during the summer, too.

As a student, your major professor or advisor must sign in on the human subjects documents.

All students will do a class presentationbased on their course paper.

We will also periodically discuss the topics chosen for the course paper.

In this section, I provide some writing tips. A few are "must do" (tell me your topic, its importance, and what you specifically will do in your paper--and please do so in the first 1.5 pages), most are optional. They should, however, help in writing a better paper.

GENERIC WRITING TIPS

These suggestions may also be useful for preparing manuscripts for conferences and publication.

MUST DO: WHAT IS YOUR PAPER ABOUT?

Very early on (hopefully by the end of page 1, if not BY THE END OF PAGE 2), you will tell me the topic of your paper, why this topic is important, and what, specifically, your paper will do and how it will contribute to this topic.

I assure you that I am absolutely CRAZED on this issue. Your paper competes with a veritable sea of print including conference papers, book chapters, and journal articles. Almost no one is going to tread through 5 or 6 pages (sometimes more) to discover the topic of your paper. After your introductory paragraph, THEN it is perfectly OK to proceed with literature reviews, etc, but let your reader (that includes me) know what your paper is about and why that topic's important.

As a side benefit, doing so will allow you to organize more succinctly. Obviously if parts of your paper do not relate to this first paragraph, then they don't belong in this paper. No matter how much you love those sections, write ANOTHER paper and stick them in there. That's one nice aspect of word processors.

MAKE YOUR MANUSCRIPT APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE

Typically there are many different facets in a paper that can be combined and emphasized. Tailor the facets that you emphasize in this paper to material that is relevant for Group Dynamics.

For example, if I present my religious congregation data in a Social Psychology paper session, I emphasize concepts such as cohesiveness and "Groupthink" rather than materials that focus most heavily on religion. If I present at a conference for the study of religion, I reverse my emphasis.

BE SELECTIVE

The best paper is not usually the one that mentions the largest number of concepts in the fewest number of pages. This is because one paper cannot adequately define, describe, and evaluate each concept that is mentioned in a relatively small space. Your paper will be better if it selects a small number of concepts and deals with them in depth. (See below)

PRIORITIZE WHAT YOU PRESENT

All concepts are not equally important, all theories not equally fruitful, all empirical studies not equally well executed or unambiguously informative. In selecting theories, concepts, and studies for your paper, emphasize those that are the most important and appropriate for your topic. Examine theories and concepts for internal contradictions, ease of operationalization potential, and the available supporting evidence. Consider whether the studies you select for review could have multiple interpretations of the results or are too limited to be conclusive.

ORGANIZE

It is helpful to write a couple of sentences or a paragraph that summarize the main topic of your paper. Place this paragraph before you as you write. If your sentences, paragraph, or section do not directly relate to that main topic, eliminate it or them, no matter how fascinating. Remember that you will probably be able to include that excised paragraph or section in a different paper later on.

Working from outlines helps organize your ideas and the order in which you present them. It also helps you to remember to include everything that you wanted planned.

Remember that each paragraph should be about one main idea. Beginning and ending sentences make the transitions between paragraphs easier for your reader.

Have a comprehensive introduction. THIS MEANS AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE PAPER! Your introduction, in a few paragraphs, should tell your reader what your paper will be about, why the topic is important to study, and the order of the subtropics that you will examine (see point one).

BIGGER IS NOT NECESSARILY BETTER

A shorter paper is often better, IF it is well organized, succinct, and avoids redundancy. Repetition is a common problem in professional papers. It can be eliminated by reorganizing. Fortunately, word processors make it easy to block and press the delete key, move sections around and make substitutions. The same is true for citations. Although the project is expected to show that you are familiar with the basic research and theory in your area, no one is graded depending on how many references are in their bibliography (see below on bibliography).

THE SPELLING & GRAMMAR THING

If you have problems with spelling, use a spell checker. They are wonderful. Be sure that nouns and verbs agree with respect to singular/plural status and time tense. I suggest that you have a friend or colleague proof read your paper. I have had mixed luck with word processor grammar checks but the spell checkers work well in virtually all word processors. Problems with spelling and grammar (or, conversely, an impeccable paper) can influence your grade up to one-half grade (e.g., from a B+ to an A-).

REFERENCES AND CITATIONS

I basically follow the American Psychological Association's basic guidelines on citations within text and bibliographic references.

Within the text, identify your reference: use the author(s)' last name(s) and the year of publication, enclosed in parentheses. If there are two different authors with the same last name, add a first initial. If an author has two cited works the same year, distinguish them by "a" and "b".

For example, you have two authors with the surname of Jones, Arlene Jones and Jerry Jones. Arlene Jones published two articles in 1999 and you want to cite them both. Here's my brief example with citations:

As Arlene Jones reported in two separate studies (A. Jones, 1999a; 1999b), sociable dogs run in packs. However, Jerry Jones (1985) has reported that this is not true for "Alpha dogs."

In terms of references: they are placed at the back of your paper in a separate bibliographic section (APA style is to reserve footnotes ONLY for substantive asides, and NOT for references). I am a bit less fussy about the order in which you place reference information, but all the following should be present: author(s)' last name(s) and first initial; date of resource; full title of resource; location of resource (i.e., book; journal; Internet); pagination, if appropriate. If book, give year of publication, publisher and publisher's main city. If journal, full journal title must also be included, volume and issue number (usually on table of contents page of journal), and pagination.

The basic idea is that if someone reads your paper and is interested in reading any of your references, complete information should be given to enable your reader to easily do so.

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Susan Carol Losh updated April 18 2004