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Psyc 227 Spring 2013

Writing Assignment: The Other Wes Moore
word count guideline: 1500-2000 words

You will be reading The Other Wes Moore, a memoir/biography about two
individuals from similar backgrounds who ended up on very different life paths. The
writing assignment for this book is a paper (approximately 1500-2000 words) in which
you will be analyzing the experiences of the two Weses in the context of course material
and empirical research in developmental psychology.
In this paper, you should:
- Identify factors from each Wess neighborhood, family life, education, cultural
context, and personal characteristics which may have contributed to the decisions and
trajectory each made in his life. Consider contexts of developmental milestones and
important transition periods as well. Consider how much of a role do you think each
contributing factor, including chance, played in the Weses life outcomes. Which do you
think were the most important? Can you identify which ones each Wes thinks were the
most important?
- Be sure to emphasize relations to course material and empirical research in your
discussion of the two Weses lives. You should refer as much as possible to theories and
evidence from research findings discussed in the course materials, textbook, and peer-
reviewed journals. Please find and cite at least two relevant empirical studies via
PsycInfo or another reputable research database. Your discussion of outside peer-
reviewed articles should explain more than just the findings; please provide brief
information about the sample and methods of the study as well (e.g., who did they study?
What did they measure?)
- Include in-text citations and a reference section formatted according to APA
manual 6
th
edition guidelines. Please see document on Moodle with more information
about APA reference formatting. Copies of the APA manual, with a thorough list of
reference examples, are available on reserve in the science library. Please check your
reference list for correct formatting before submitting your paper!

Other notes:
- Pick a way to distinguish between the two Weses throughout the paper (e.g., Wes
1/Wes 2; Wes A/Wes B; author Wes/other Wes) and explain which Wes each designation
refers to in your first paragraph.
- Be careful not to plagiarize the book, course materials, or outside research.
Plagiarism is any instance of using information from a source without citing it properly.
Use in-text citations when discussing previous research findings or theories (examples of
how to format these are below). Quotation marks and page numbers are required any time
you use a direct phrase or sentence from a source. Keep in mind that both word choice and
sentence structure need to be your own. Paraphrasing a sentence or paragraph by
substituting synonyms for a few words, while keeping the overall sentence structure the
same, is still considered plagiarism and should be avoided.
- In general, avoid using direct quotes from your empirical articles or from the
textbook/lecture notes. I would like you to be able to explain the course material and
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outside research in your own words. You are, however, welcome to use quotes from The
Other Wes Moore to illustrate or emphasize discussion points.
- Please use 1.5 line spacing to conserve paper. Dont forget to include page
numbers in your document.





Below are some examples of reference list entries and in-text citations for common types of
sources. Your reference list should be a separate page at the end of your article (do not use
footnotes).

1. How to reference a peer-reviewed journal article:

The following details are needed (if available) in this order:
1. Author/s of article. Last name, followed by first & middle initials with spaces between them and periods
after. If there are multiple authors, separate with commas and use ampersand (&) before last author.
2. (Year of publication). In parentheses, followed by period after parentheses.
3. Title of article. First word, first word after a colon, and any proper nouns should be capitalized; all other words
in lowercase.
4. Journal Title, -- in italics, followed by comma. All words four letters and longer are capitalized.
5. Volume number of journal, -- in italics followed by a comma. Do not give issue number.
6. pages of article. no pp. beforehand in journal references. Followed by period.
7. doi If provided, give doi number, preceded by doi: (no space between colon and number) and do not follow
with period.

Example:
Mayeux, L., Sandstrom, M. J., & Cillessen, A. H. N. (2008). Is being popular a risky proposition? Journal of Research
on Adolescence, 18, 49-74. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2008.00550.x

2. How to reference a textbook. Give author, publication date, name of chapter, name of the textbook, edition of
the textbook, page numbers of the chapter, and city and name of the publisher in the format below.
(Note that for a book, both the chapter title and the book title are uncapitalized after the first word,
except for proper nouns. The book title is italicized, whereas the chapter title is not. The final piece of
information is the first-listed city of the publisher, followed by a colon and the publishers name.)

Example (referencing a chapter called Social influences on behavior, which spans pages 500 to 535, in a
textbook titled Psychology, by Peter Gray):

Gray, P. (2007). Social influences on behavior. In Psychology (5
th
ed., pp. 500-535). New York: Worth.

Note. Each chapter in a textbook requires a separate reference in your reference list. If you are citing more than
one chapter from the same textbook, for each chapter, follow the year of publication with a designated letter in
your reference list and in-text citation (e.g., if you were citing three separate chapters in the above book, you
would designate them as 2007a, 2007b, and 2007b).

3. How to reference the lecture notes. Provide instructors name; the year, month, and day of the lecture; the
title of the lecture; Unpublished lecture notes; and the college and location.

Example (referencing a lecture titled Foundations of Psychology, from an Introductory Psychology class,
presented on September 7):
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Clemans, K. (2012, September 7). Foundations of psychology. Unpublished lecture notes, Amherst College, Amherst,
MA.


4. How to cite a reference in the text

Your paper should include in-text citations which cite the sources in your reference list. In-text citations are
usually given in parentheses at the end of a sentence in which information from that source is discussed. They
take the form of (Authors last names, year of publication).

Example:
Students high in perceived popularity are at greater risk of engaging in substance use (Mayeux, Sandstrom, &
Cillessen, 2008).

Or, you can structure all or part of your in-text citation as part of the sentence:
Mayeux, Sandstrom, & Cillessen (2008) found that students high in perceived popularity are at greater risk of
engaging in substance use.

If using a direct quote, the page number of the quote should follow the year of publication in the parentheses.

When citing lecture notes, give the month and day as well as the year: (Clemans, 2012, September 7).

Note: For this particular paper, you are not required to include in-text citations for the Wes Moore book, unless
you are referring to a specific example or using a direct quote. In these cases, please include just the page number
in parentheses.