Psychology Assignment
You will have a choice between either an in-person final exam structured similarly to the quizzes taken during the semester (but longer) or a final paper of 3 to 4 pages.
If you choose the final exam option, the final will take place from 6:50-8:40 PM on December 12.
If you choose the final paper option, the paper will be due at 11:59 PM on December 12. The prompt is as follows: Write a paper of 3 to 4 pages connecting one of the topics from the final unit of the course (Ethical Leadership in a Messy World) with issues, ideas, and/or thinkers from the first three (Virtue Ethics/Leadership as Who You Are, Utilitarianism/Leadership as Doing the Most Good, or Deontology/Leadership as Following Through on Principle). How would Bentham approach the problem of driverless cars? What would Gandhi do in a world of digital communication? How would Aristotle think about meritocracy?
This means you must choose at least two readings to look at, one from Ethical Leadership in a Messy World, and one from any of the other three units. Focus on only one topic/reading from the Ethical Leadership in a Messy World unit (some topics have two readings), but feel free to use more than one reading/approach from the other three units to analyze it. Psychology assignment.
The point of this paper is to show what you’ve learned and demonstrate that you can make connections between leadership in theory and some real-world problems. A good paper will not only demonstrate that you know the basics of the material (for instance, how Bentham defines utility or what Markovits thinks is wrong with meritocracy), but also that you can take a theoretical position on a current problem. Be sure to come up with a clear thesis, follow it through with well-articulated arguments, and come to a conclusion that sums it all up.
If you’d like, you can certainly use ideas and thinkers from more than one of the first three units. When doing this, be sure that you’re clear about why you’re doing this. For instance, you might want to show how a leadership approach of doing the most good contrasts with following through on principle when it comes to climate change. Be sure to make this clear in your thesis so that the reader isn’t left wondering why you mostly talked about Bentham but suddenly seem to drop Kant in for no reason.
Requirements
- The paper must be in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format. This makes it easy for me to check to see if you’ve followed the style guide and to make comments you can read.
- Style Guide:
- The body of the text should double spaced. Do not add extra space after each paragraph.
- Margins should be 1″ on the left and 1″ on the top, bottom, and right.
- Use a plain font (preferably Times New Roman) and set font size at 12. Do not add a title. Never use graphics or photos and use bold and italics sparingly.
- Put “Your Name: Ethical Leadership Final Paper” in a header.
- Be sure to have page numbers, I prefer them centered at the bottom.
- Citations should be parenthetical. Here are some examples of how they should be used:
- During the turbulent 1960s, science fiction programs on television reflected the public’s attitudes toward the older generation (Hodges 2003, 176).
- Hodges (2003, 176) discussed how, during the turbulent 1960s, science fiction programs on television reflected the public’s attitudes toward the older generation.
- In a 2003 article, Hodges (176) discussed how, during the turbulent 1960s, science fiction programs on television reflected the public’s attitudes toward the older generation.
- Block quotations (to be used infrequently) should also be indented and should be single-spaced. Use them if a quote is more than 3 lines long.
- I do not accept rewrites. I will read over any draft of the paper you send me and give style, grammatical, and content suggestions in person during office hours.
Instructions for Writing Academic Essays
- Begin your essay with a concise thesis statement. Essays must present a case and must make an argument in response to the proposed topic. To do this well requires weaving together elements of experience, facts, citations from texts, logic, and appeals to the reader’s sensibilities. The result must be rhetorically cohesive and convincing. Best essays are usually those by students who have outlined their essays before writing.
- Essays must be perfect with grammar, punctuation, spelling, typing, and conformity with the style specifications. Everything counts.
- Essays must be your own. The gravest academic sin is plagiarism; it can and has led to expulsion from the university and revocation of academic degrees. Plagiarism takes many forms. The most common is the paraphrasing of some other scholar’s work. For example, you are writing an essay on Marx’s concept of justice. Suppose you go to the library and take out six books on Marx, find the relevant sections, and piece together an essay that paraphrases paragraphs of one or several authors. This is plagiarism if the works are later cited in some form. More nefarious would be copying work from a scholar. Use of another student’s work or copying anything from the internet is also plagiarism. Moreover, it is unethical to resubmit work done for other classes as original.
- Do not use personal pronouns: I, you, we, etc. Do not use contractions: don’t, aren’t, etc. These are not appropriate for scholarly writing. Do not split complex verbs, especially infinitives. Do not end sentences with prepositions.
- Do not use non-germane materials for “color” in a scholarly essay. Poetry, dictionary definitions, quotations from famous figures in history—these all have their place, but not to fill space in students’ essays. Also, don’t cite the dictionary to define concepts you plan to write about.
- Write in lean, sparse prose. Effective prose is minimalist for the academic writer. Avoid unnecessary adjectives and adverbs. Vary the size and structure of sentences. Paragraphs ought to be several sentences in length and ought to develop a single point.
- Do not pad. Write what you need to write for the argument and the style you are pursuing, then conclude. Contrary to popular belief, professors do not award grades according to the number of pages or who uses the longest, most obscure words. APA FORMAT.