Hints for Successful Social Psychology Reports

• The course syllabus contains detailed information about this assignment. Check it carefully!
• Fill in the sign-up sheet precisely. Don't leave any questions blank. Be sure to indicate the concept(s) from the course that your presentation focuses on.
• Turn in your sign-up sheet on time.
• Consider using handouts or visual aids (such as Powerpoint presentations) for your oral report--making sure that the information is clear enough to be understood by your classmates.
• Be sure to turn, in on the last presentation day, your written report. (Written reports must be turned in by everyone, whether you are presenting an oral individual, oral panel, or poster report.)
• Keep in mind that the most important part of the assignment is the quality of your social psychological analysis.

• If your report is about a news event, remember these considerations (presented in lecture), to be sure your topic is really "news":

  What is news?
  

  • An actual event: something that happened at a particular place, at a particular time, by a particular person or people: who?, what?, when?, where?
    
  • Not a report of social trends
    
  • Not commentary; not "op-ed"
    
  • Not summary of research. (Do not include in this category the kind of newspaper reports that occur after a report in a scientific journal or convention.)
    
  • Not magazine-type commentary
    

• If your report is about an empirical report in a journal, or the "other" category, there are also hints presented in lecture. See the notes in the lecture notes for chapter 1.

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