Author: Trial User
Company: IUPUI

Written Project
The purpose of this project is two-fold.  First, it is intended to provide those students who do not typically test well on multiple-choice exams with an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and abilities elsewhere.  Second, it will give students the opportunity to make up for any missed examination.  This project will provide students with the opportunity to apply knowledge of personality theory to a case study.  

The project involves describing and conceptualizing the personality of either (a) an historical figure or (b) a fictional (e.g., literary) character.  The task will be to describe and then attempt to make sense of the individual’s personality from the vantage point of one or more of the theoretical perspectives discussed in class.  For example, suppose you chose to describe Helen Keller from the behavioral perspective.  When writing your paper, you would want to note the environmental contingencies, which appear to have influenced her behavior (e.g. what were the reinforcers, discriminant stimuli, etc.)?  Remember, each theoretical perspective is selectively attentive to different sources and strata of personality data.  

The paper should be 10-12 pages in length, double-spaced, 12-point font, and 1” margins all around (no more than 15 pages). Your paper should be written in APA style. In addition, you must have ample biographical information to conduct an appropriate analysis. Hence, you should have at least two separate published (not internet) sources of biographical information on the person you are conceptualizing. Please contact me regarding the potential subject of you paper, so that I can ensure that there is enough information to do a thorough job. Please note the corresponding due dates for each paper. Papers handed in after the due date will be reduced by one letter grade for each weekday overdue.

Warning: I am a stickler for grammar, punctuation, and spelling. There is little excuse for incorrect spelling or obvious grammatical errors in a formal college paper. I will deduct points for each misspelling in a paper (this includes misuse errors such as using “to” or “too” instead of “two,” “then” instead of “than,” etc.). This means that you cannot simply rely on your computer’s spell check function. Let me know if you have any questions. 

APA Style:
General Format

General format for manuscripts written in APA style is covered in the first chapter of the Publication Manual, starting on page ten. What follows are some general guidelines for formatting. 

Your essay should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5 X 11 inches) with margins of 1 inch on all sides. Your final essay should include, in the order indicated below, as many of the following sections as are applicable, each of which should begin on a separate page:

*	title page, which includes a running head for publication, title, and byline and affiliation
*	abstract
*	text
*	references
*	appendixes
*	author note
*	footnotes/endnotes
*	tables
*	figure captions
*	figures

The pages of your manuscript should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page, as part of the manuscript header in the upper right corner of each page. Your references should begin on a separate page from the text of the essay under the label References (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), centered at the top of the page. Appendices and notes should be formatted similarly.

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

If you are referring to an idea from another work but NOT directly quoting the material, or making reference to an entire book, article or other work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference. 

If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference, but APA guidelines encourage you to also provide the page number (although it is not required.)

If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and the page number for the reference. See our sections on quotations for more information about this. 

Examples for referring to another idea or study: 
Jones (1998) compared student performance ...

In a recent study of student performance (Jones, 1998), ...

In 1998, Jones compared student performance ...

If there is no author to cite, such as when you are citing a web page that lists no author, use an abbreviated version of the title of the page in quotation marks to substitute for the name of the author. 
For example: A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using APA," 2001). 

If you are citing a work that has no author and no date, use the first few words from the title, then the abbreviation n.d. (for "no date"). For more information about referring to electronic sources or sources without authors and/or dates in text, see Citations in Text of Electronic Material or Frequently Asked Questions about APA Style from the APA web site. 
For example: In another study of students and research decisions, it was discovered that students succeeded with tutoring ("Tutoring and APA," n.d.). 

Personal communications, such as e-mail messages to you, or private interviews that you conducted with another person, should be referred to in your in-text citations but NOT in your reference list. (For more information, see page 214 of the Publication Manual.) To cite a personal communication such as an interview or an e-mail, provide initials and last name of the communicator, the words personal communication, plus an exact date in the body of your paper.

For example: A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2002). 

Formatting Citations in Your Text
Here are some basic rules for formatting citations in the body of your paper. For more information about these rules, see pages 94-99 and 207-209 of the Publication Manual. 

*	Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names. 
*	If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source. 
*	When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word. 
*	After a colon or dash in a title, capitalize the first word. 
*	Italicize the titles of longer works such as books, edited collections, movies, documentaries, or albums. 
*	Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles, articles from edited collections, television shows, and song titles. 
*	If a work has two authors, cite both names every time the reference appears in your text. Join the authors' names with the word and. 
*	If a work has three, four, or five authors, cite all of the authors the first time you refer to the work in your text. The next time you refer to the work, shorten the citation to the last name of the first author plus the words et al. Join the authors' names with the word and if you are referring to them in the text; join the authors' names with an ampersand (&) if you are referring to them in a paranthetical citation. 
*	If a work has six authors (or more), cite only the last name of the first author plus the words et al. 

For a general summary of APA style, go to:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html

For some FAQs on APA style, go to:
http://www.apastyle.org/previoustips.html