Psychosocial Stress and It’s Cause

EXPOSITORY ESSAY

Each student is expected to write one 8-10 page (double spaced) expository essay. The 10-page estimate includes the title page, abstract, and reference page. The essay may be on any topic of interest in the area of biopsychology, but must focus on some aspect of brain function. The paper must include references to the topic from the course textbook and at least four (4) full-text peer reviewed journal articles. Internet sources are acceptable and should be primarily sources from professional journals (i.e., Journal of Neuroscience). You can also use some information from major government agencies such as the National Institute of Health. WIKIPEDIA IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE REFERENCE! Use your own words. AVOID EXCESSIVE USE OF QUOTATIONS. Papers are due on 03/02 (Initial Submission, for Safe-Assign initial screen, must be done by 11:59 PM on 02/28 see submission notes below). Writing well is critical. Following instructions is critical. See below for more detailed instructions and rubric. See the writing standards at the end of this outline. Read all posted files, read all posted announcements, and watch all posted videos, before submitting your final essay. Pay very close attention to the information given in the Week Four section and in the Course Resources. Pay very very very close attention to the instructions below, regarding the essay.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING THE EXPOSITORY ESSAY

Initial Submission Due: 02/28. Final Submission Due: 03/02. The paper MUST be about brain function. The sources, that are analyzed in the paper, must be about brain function. Papers submitted after the final due date will be penalized by 20% immediately and an additional 20% per day. Failure to meet the Initial Submission deadline will earn a penalty of 10%. What is an expository essay?: In an expository essay you try to explain something to your audience. You begin by reading what your text has to say about a particular topic and then study the available literature related to that topic. Then you form a thesis statement based on your understanding of the material, and explain and support that thesis. The thesis statement should appear at the end of the first paragraph of your essay. What is a thesis statement?: You can think of your thesis statement as the answer to the subject you are trying to explain. Remember that a thesis statement is not the first thing you come up with when writing your essay. It is the result of reading and thinking about the topic of your essay. After collecting and organizing the information about your topic you can develop your thesis statement. As you conduct your literature search, be mindful of conflicting data. Below are two examples of thesis statements for expository essays.

1. Depression appears to be caused by an imbalance in one or more of the biogenic amines.

2. Our ability to perceive color is the result of cells in the retina that are responsive to different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum and the processing of this information by specific cells in various areas of the cerebral cortex. Length: The body of your essay should be 5-7 pages in length. Add three additional pages: (1) title page, (2) abstract, and (3) references. Please try to stay within page limit (10 pages). Topic and Content:

Your paper may be about any topic that interests you within the area of biopsychology. However, the focus of your paper must be on brain function. For example, if you elect to write an essay on schizophrenia, the focus should be on what we know about the biological basis of schizophrenia and NOT on the symptoms of the disorder. Information cited in your paper must be appropriately referenced and based upon textbook and internet material such as journal articles or Government web sites such as NIH, NIDA, etc. WIKIPEDIA IS NOT AN APPROPRIATE REFERENCE. Some Advice About Topics, Thesis Statements, and Sources: Thesis statements are pretty much hypotheses. They state something about the relationship between one variable and another. This is a good way to start out, saying “I’d like to talk more about the relationship between X and Y.” X and Y should be anything that you find fascinating in the book, discussions, slides, etc. In this particular class, you want at least one of the variables (X or Y) to be about brain function. Our textbook is pretty good at exploring hypotheses about psychological phenomena; it’s also a great place to start when you are looking for references. When picking a topic, consider the following: A. Pick something you are really interested in, maybe something that you were interested in before you took this class. This will help you tremendously because this paper won’t even *seem* like work if it is something you enjoy. And, you’ll do a better job if you are really interested in the topic. B. Pick something for which you can find a reasonable number of papers. Take your X and Y variables and go plug them in to pubmed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed) or PsycInfo/PsycLit, or even Google Scholar (but be careful, it returns a lot of fluff). I highly recommend starting with review papers. These papers won’t count toward your “Peer Reviewed Journal Article” total, but they will be packed with good, readable information AND references to papers that are empirical original sources. Your paper must include at least 4 Peer Reviewed Journal Articles. These are papers that present original research findings. They typically have the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. They will cover theory and background, present a detailed methodology, present data and statistics, and then make some conclusions about the findings. THESE are the papers that will count toward the 4-paper minimum for Peer Reviewed Journal Articles. You can find an example of a peerreviewed research article here: http://www.pnas.org/content/97/11/6150.full.pdf html. Please note the sections mentioned above. These are the markings of a good empirical paper. All sources should be investigations of brain/biological phenomena. All cited work should be referenced on the References page, and each reference should be cited in the body of the paper. Please view the “Acquiring Sources with NU’s Library” video for guidance on finding articles. What to Include in Your Essay: (1) title page, (2) abstract, (3) an introductory paragraph that includes your thesis statement, (4) body of the essay that includes a review of literature that explains, supports, interprets, and analyses your thesis, (5) concluding paragraph that summarizes your thesis, interpretations, and original conclusion, and (6) reference page. All references must be cited in the body of the paper. All cited works must be referenced. Advice on the Body of the Essay: Each paragraph of the body should be about a BRAIN (or expressly BIOLOGICAL: genes, hormones, etc.) mechanism and how it relates to the topic. Each paragraph should start with a topic statement about the involvement of this mechanism in the phenomenon. The paragraph should describe the methods and findings of the source(s), and explain how the findings provide support for the thesis statement and the topic sentence of the paragraph. An adequate analysis of each source will include a discussion of the methods (procedures and measures), the significant findings, the relationship of the findings to the thesis, and potential limits of the findings. Writing: Your paper should be written in your own words. Do NOT copy and paste from other documents or web sites. Quotations should be used very sparingly and only when absolutely necessary. Format: The paper must be submitted as a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or Text (.rtf or .txt) document using a 12 point font and double-spaced. Do not submit other file types! Use 1 inch margins. Follow general APA guidelines as presented in the Little Brown Essential Handbook for Writers or the APA Publication Manual. Number pages in the upper right hand corner. Submission: Submit papers through the menu item labeled “Expository Essay.” Submit initially by 02/28. Submit the final paper by 03/02. You may resubmit as often as you would like, up until the final deadline; Only your final submission is graded.

"If this is not the paper you were searching for, you can order your 100% plagiarism free, professional written paper now!"