PSY 315 – Article Summary Instructions
This assignment serves as an opportunity for you to get familiar with the process of reading a research article, identifying the most important elements, and summarizing. You should complete one summary for every required research credit that you did not earn toward this course. To find articles, I recommend searching through the PsycInfo database. (See the document titled Instructions for How to Access the PsycInfo Database if you are unfamiliar with this resource.) Alternatively, you may use Google Scholar. All summarized articles should be in some way related to physiological psychology. You can simply scan the chapters of the textbook to find topics that interest you and use those as search terms. If you are unfamiliar with scholarly journal articles, I suggest that you first complete the Analyzing a Journal Article worksheet. You will not be required to turn this worksheet in, but if you complete it first then you will have extracted the information necessary to write the summary. In other words, this worksheet will help you identify the important elements of your article. Please adhere to the following criteria when writing your summary:
– Times New Roman 12-point font – 1-2 pages double-spaced – Word Document or PDF (no Google Docs or Apple Pages, please) – Include all the relevant information that you used to complete the Analyzing a Journal
Article worksheet. The worksheet is doubles as a paraphrasing exercise, so if you completed it then you should be able to directly transfer the “in your own words” portions to the written summary.
– Cite your primary article in-text at least once (see APA manual for instructions). – Include the APA style reference for your primary article at the end of the paper
o This should appear on a separate page and is not included in the 1-2 page limit. At the top of this page, centered, type “References” (without the quotation marks).
– Be careful not to plagiarize! Your APA manual has information on how to avoid plagiarism. If you do not own an APA manual, Google “Owl Purdue APA format”. This website is an excellent resource.
– Use quotes sparingly. Quotes should be used only when it is impossible to rephrase a statement. This is almost never the case.
– Synthesize information. Your summary should flow naturally. It should not read as a list or as a series of disjointed statements.
– Title the document “PSY 315 – Article Summary – Your Name” (without the quotation marks, and obviously replace Your Name with your actual name).
– Each article summary is worth 1 research participation credit – Upload your summary/summaries to the Article Summaries dropbox in D2L by 11:59
PM on Friday, April 30th. (In D2L, first select Activities, the Assignments.) No late summaries will be accepted.
