You are asked to read the assigned article (included herein) and prepare a 120-word abstract (worth 2 marks) that summarizes the article; plus a 250- to 350-word commentary (worth 8 marks; 1-2 pages, with 2 or 3 supporting references) on the article's main points (that is, do you agree or disagree; why or why not?) Be careful of your word count because your graders will deduct marks if you gosizeablyover the limit. As a key to what your graders will be looking for, I have also attached two grading rubrics -- one deals more with grading and the other with presentation and style. These same rubrics will be provided to you when you mark your assigned abstract/commentaries. Hang onto this article; it will be testable.

So what is an abstract? An abstract is a summary of an author's main points or ideas, contained in a single paragraph. Preparation of an abstractdoes notinvite your view or opinion on the topic, but thosesoleyof the author. So too, no quotes are permitted within an abstract -- it is fully paraphrased! Essentially then, your abstract includes an opening sentence, a concluding sentence, and the main ideas in between. Abstracts are found as the lead component in many literary and scientific documents, from the sciences to government to even gaming manuals. You are not to use outside sources of any kind; simply refer to the article itself. To render your abstractanonymous, you are not to include any identifying information (i.e., name, student number) in the abstract itself; those get included in relevant fields when you upload your abstract to the website.

So what is a commentary? A commentary asks you to explain and support your opinion on a given topic of discussion. Unlike an abstract, you are required to consider your own opinion on the topic. You canagreewith the author's opinion, so your commentary will advance those arguments, support existing points, and offer new ideas (with useful references). Alternatively, you candisagreewith the author's opinion; therein you will need to address the author's points and explain (with proper references) why you disagree.Quotesare permitted in the commentary, but they should be short and rare (no more than 2, 15-20 words each). In short, you should try throughout your commentary to use your own words and paraphrase, paraphrase, paraphrase. As a note about formatting, although this is an APA submission, I will be requiring neither a title page nor running head.

Three notes about references: These are to appear both within and at the conclusion of your commentary: (1) you can see how references are written in the back of your text, as well as thePowerPointsprovided by the Academic Writing Centre (foundonlineon our CLEW site), (2) onlycrediblesources may be cited (these may come from journals, newspapers, internet; but there areno marksforWikipediasources), and (3) references do NOT factor into your word count. Here are two examples (journal and website), note the commas and periods, italics, parentheses:

Journal:Graziano, M. S.,Hu, X. T., & Gross, C. G. (1997). Coding the locations of objects in the dark.Science, 277,239-240.

So to break this down...Graziano,Hu, and Gross are the authors of the journal article (published in 1997) in the journalScience, volume277, pages 239 to 240. The journal and volume are generally italicized, though this may not come through on your upload.

Website: Chen, X. M., Ender, P., Mitchell, M., & Wells, C. (2003).Regression with SPSS.Retrieved August 29, 2009 from

So to break this down: Chen, Ender, Mitchell, and Wells are the authors of awebpagefrom 2003; the title is generally italicized, though again this may not come through on your upload; indicate both the date of retrieval and website address.

Here is the reference for the main article: include it in your references, along with 2 or 3 additional ones (outside of the original article):

Loftus, E. F. (2011). Crimes of memory: False memories and societal justice.In M. A.Gernsbacher, R. W. Pew, L. M. Hough, and J. R.Pomerantz(Eds.)Psychology and the real world(pp. 83-88). NY: Worth.

A note about plagiarism: Remember, this is anindependentassignment, so that collaboration of any kind on this assignment isnot permitted(see the plagiarism guidelines in our course outline, and refer to the examples of paraphrasing and plagiarism, outlined in the Academic Writing Centre presentation, foundonlineon CLEW). When you submit your abstract/commentary, there will appear a disclosure statement that you must endorse that says that you have read the plagiarism guidelines and you confirm that this is your independent work. During the marking phase, there will be new fields so you can let me know if you suspect there is any form of plagiarism in the abstract/commentaries you were assigned to mark.