With regard to having students include keywords at the end of the abstract in an APA style paper, Mike Palij wrote:
"I assume that the 'geniuses' who put together the 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual assumed that one would be using the official APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (currently in the 11th edition) which the APA will happily sell to you for $90 if you are not an APA member and $80 if you are; see: http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/3100084.aspx"; RF: If the students have access to PsycINFO online (which they likely will in order to write the Introduction or Literature Review section of their paper) they will have access to the PsycINFO thesaurus of Psychological Terms. I tell my students that the keywords at the end of the abstract are designed to be used to index their research so other researchers will be more likely to find it. In addition to the thesaurus, they will also find keywords and subject terms at the end of the abstracts they discover in their own search of the literature. Mike Palij: "When I cover APA style in a lab course, I point out that there is a keywords section on the Abstract page, I point out why it is there (i.e., to aid in locating related publications in PsycInfo), and how one would find appropriate keywords (i.e., the APA thesaurus). And then I tell them not to bother with keywords because they really won't know enough about the topics they'll be writing about to select the correct keywords. RF: I think there are already plenty of cases of "academic" assignments where students are given the impression that what they are learning is only "academic" (synonymous with "irrelevant"). In the spirit of authentic assessment, I ask my students to write papers more like they would in the real world of publishing. In line with this goal, we have also established a student-published peer-reviewed online journal, published annually by our advanced research students, to which students in Research Methods can submit their research for consideration for publication (http://acadweb.jbu.edu/psychology/ifps/ifps.htm). I want all of my Research Methods students writing their papers with the hope that it might be published in the undergraduate journal. Writing with the actual possibility of publication in mind gets the focus off of pumping out one more paper and actually writing the paper to communicate meaningful results. (For further discussion of the benefits of undergraduate research journals, see: http://teachpsych.org/resources/e-books/ur2008/6-6%20Froman.pdf.) It is also good for them to write their paper for more than just an audience of one. In this sense, I try to stay away from all of the artificial and inauthentic rules like required page limits (what real world editor is ever going to tell you that your research paper must be at least 20 typewritten double-spaced pages?) and try to get students to focus on what really matters: communicating and persuading readers of their thesis by referencing previous research and their own results. "How many pages does my paper have to be?" As many as it takes to make a persuasive evidence-based argument in favor of your thesis. "How many references do I need to use?" You need to use as many references as it will take to make a persuasive evidence-based argument in favor of your thesis. It is tempting to blame students for these inane questions but evidently many other professors believe there is some benefit in making the goal of writing a paper the filling up of a certain number of pages with a certain number of words. Instead, I provide students with a detailed rubric of what such a paper should include to attain the goal of each section and then say that the perfect paper is one that achieves the goal of meeting all of these requirements with the least number of words. Telling students that they don't have to put keywords at the end of their Abstract because they "won't know enough about the topics they'll be writing about to select the correct keywords" would be sending them the exact opposite of the message I intend. I expect them to know enough about their topic to include the appropriate keywords. Mike Palij: "For example, consider the role of the "Running head", quoting from p229 6th ed, 4th printing, APA Publication Manual: Now, why would one want a running head on every page in a student paper? Wouldn't the old convention of typing a few descriptive words or from the title in front of the page number be more appropriate (as was done in the 5th ed)? I put keywords into a similar category: if you're going to publish, use them otherwise don't bother. Similarly, given the power of word processing programs, why should tables and figures be put at the end of the paper instead of at an appropriate location within the text? And so on." RF: The old convention was to type a short title on every page and a running head on the first page. With the advent of the word processor, the header only has to be typed once so there doesn't seem to be much problem with including the full running head at the top of every page instead of just in a special place on the title page. I think that requiring the keywords and other elements of a paper created for publication communicates to students exactly what I want to communicate: you should make every effort to conduct your research and write this paper to inform a wider audience of your results, not just to jump through a hoop for a grade. If you are just teaching research paper writing as an academic thought exercise or a game of pretend-research, then maybe there is no need to write them up in any particular format. I would rather hold my students to the standards of actual research report writing if I want them to learn as much as possible about the process of conducting research and reporting findings. Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences John Brown University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=10594 or send a blank email to leave-10594-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
