Course PSY 4375: Honors Seminar

Time/Place: Mondays 12:30 – 3:15 p.m., Room GR4.204

Session: Spring, 2005
Professor: S. W. Jerger, Ph.D.; GR4.116; email address = sjerger@utdallas.edu
Dr. Jerger’s Office hours: Mondays 3:30-5 p.m.

Description of Course: The Honors Seminar is for students who are completing an Honors Thesis.
The goals of the course are 1) to enhance critical thinking skills, 2) to promote independent scholarship,
3) to promote writing skills and facilitate the creation of an outstanding honors thesis, and 4) to promote
the development of professional skills, particularly the ability to present yourself and your ideas more
effectively. The course’s format strives to enrich the meaningfulness of the educational experience by
providing a means for students to become active, rather than passive, learners. Typically, the class meets
for a shorter time than the designated 3 semester-hour session, with students working independently on
their theses for the remainder of the class time. PLEASE NOTE THAT CLASS WILL MEET FOR
THE ENTIRE 3 HOURS ON APRIL 11, 18, AND 25. Dr. Jerger is available for appointments with
students on an individual or group basis for the remainder of the class time.

Textbook: Pan, M. Ling (2004). Preparing literature reviews. Qualitative and quantitative
approaches, 2nd Edition. Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing.

Other Important Resources:

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition, American
Psychological Association. The Manual is a useful reference, and is considered the definitive book on
organizing and formatting papers.
Strunk, W. & White, E. (2000). The elements of style, 4th Edition.. New York: Longman.
Originally published in 1918, this classic reference book is a must-have for students and conscientious
writers. It details the elementary rules of English usage and principles of composition.
A dictionary. Get one and use it. Few people, for example, know what “ironic” means, but they
still use the word. Don’t be one of them.
A thesaurus. There is often one best word for a given situation. You know it exists, but you can’t
think of it. Don’t compromise.

Format of Course: Class meetings are devoted to presentation and discussion of assigned readings and
lectures on assigned and outside topics.

Requirements: Each student is required 1) to complete writing and reading assignments, 2)

bring questions and points of discussion about assignments to class, 3) present a formal lecture
summarizing one of the assigned readings, 4) present a formal lecture on your thesis topic to the
class, and 5) complete three aspects of your thesis, namely the selection of your a) approach
(library research or empirical research), b) topic, and c) two faculty sponsors.

Structure of Examinations: There will not be any formal examinations or pop-quizzes.

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Attendance: Each student’s active participation, and the sharing of his or her questions/discussion
points with the other students, is critical to the success of our course. Attending classes is thus essential.
More than one unexcused absence will result in a penalty.

Grades: Grades are based on your completion of weekly writing and reading assignments, your formal
lecture summarizing one of the assigned readings, your formal lecture on your thesis topic, and your
completion of the three aspects of your thesis. PLEASE NOTE that no writing assignment may be
turned in for students who miss class on the assignment due date without an excused absence (e.g., you
have a serious illness and have documentation from a physician, you must attend an urgent family event
such as a funeral, or you have a police report documenting that you were detained the day and time of
the class period). In the case of such an emergency, you must notify Dr. Jerger prior to the scheduled
due date of the assignment. Weekly assignments must be turned in directly to Dr. Jerger at the end of
class.

The two formal lectures are worth a possible 20 points each (40 pts); completion of the three aspects of
your thesis is worth a possible 20 points (20 pts), for a total of 60 points. There are another possible 5
points for each of the 10 weekly written assignments, for a total of 50 points. Overall, there are 110
possible points that may be earned. As you can see below, 10 of the points are discretionary. A
student’s grade for the course will be determined by the total number of points earned. The conversion
of numeric total points to alphabetic scores is as follows:
A = 90-100 points
B = 80-89 points
C = 70-79 points
C- = 65-69 points
D = 55-64 points
F = less than or equal to 55 points

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 Course PSY 4375: Honors Seminar (continued)
Course Outline
Week Topic and Reading Assignments

Jan 10 Topics: 1) Overview of course, and 2) How to give a talk

Jan 17 Holiday

Jan 24 Chapter 1: Qualitative versus quantitative reviews

Student Leader (1):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Jan 31 Chapter 2: Selecting a topic for review

Student Leader(2):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Feb 7 Chapter 3: Searching for literature and refining the topic

Student Leader(2):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Feb 14 Chapter 4: Retrieving and evaluating information from the web

Student Leader(2):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Feb 21 Chapter 5: Taking notes and avoiding unintentional plagiarism

Student Leader(2):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Feb 28 Chapter 6: Guidelines for evaluating sources of literature

Chapter 15: Citing references

Student Leader(1):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Mar 7 Spring Break

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 Course PSY 4375: Honors Seminar (continued)
Course Outline
Week Topic and Reading Assignments

Mar 14 Chapter 7: Evaluating and interpreting research literature

Student Leader(2):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Mar 21 Chapter 8: Planning and writing the first draft (Dr. Jerger absent)

Student Leader(2):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Mar 28 Chapter 9: Revising and refining the first draft

Student Leader(2):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Apr 4 Chapter 13: A closer look at creating a synthesis

Chapter 14: Writing titles and abstracts

Student Leader(2):____________________________________________________

Written assignment: To be announced

Apr 11 Student presentations

Apr 18 Student presentations

Apr 25 Student presentations