Psychology 371G

Thought-Paper Guidelines

What is a thought paper?

Your thought papers need to express your opinions and feelings regarding the weekly readings. A thought paper is NOT simply a summary of a given reading. Part of the paper will need to summarize the material to some extent, but the main focus of each thought paper should be on what you think about that reading. Do the authors present a strong, coherent argument? What are the implications of the reading regarding how we view human behavior? Do you feel the argument put forth by the authors could be strengthened? How? These are only a few of the questions that you can ask yourself while reading the articles each week.

A few simple rules:

1) Each thought paper should be no longer than one full page (single spaced).

2) Each thought paper can focus on one single article, or can focus on the main argument being put forth by two or more articles.

3) You must hand in your thought-paper either the week we discuss the articles, or the week following discussion of the articles. Thus, you cannot submit a thought-paper for a week 5 reading in week 7 or later.