HCC Fall 2021 Online Project

The project for this semester will include a Paper AND PowerPoint presentation. Yay! I know

you are super excited about doing a project. Please take this project seriously because it will

make up 15% of your overall grade for this course. The project will be due before 11:30 pm on

December 5th so please do not procrastinate and get started right away. Over 40 million

Americans are dealing with a mental health concern and over 50% do not receive treatment.

For your project, you will conduct research on a psychological disorder. Below are the steps you

need to follow. Happy researching!

Step 1: Select a Topic

Pick ONE psychological disorder (YOU MUST MAKE SURE IT IS CLASSIFIED IN THE DSM V) to

research (which you will write a research paper AND PowerPoint over). You can do this by

reading through your textbook and/or doing research online. The topic you choose needs to be

specific. For example: schizophrenia is specific enough, BUT anxiety disorders are NOT specific

enough. You could pick a specific anxiety disorder like PTSD or panic disorder because both of

those topics are specific. If you are unsure on whether the disorder is specific enough, just ask

me through email. Once you have decided on a topic, you will need to post your name and the

disorder on the discussion board. Please make sure you read the discussion board BEFORE

choosing a topic because once a student has picked a topic, that topic is off the table for any

other student. For example, if a student decides to do PTSD, then no one else in the class can

choose that same topic.

Step 2: Research Topic

Once you get the OK from me about your topic choice, you can begin researching the disorder.

A minimum of three sources will be needed, but you can use as many as you would like. The

sources need to be CREDIABLE, for example, peer reviewed journal articles and/or the

textbook. Please do not use websites like Wikipedia or WebMD.

Step 3: Write your Paper

Write an APA style research paper over the psychological disorder you have chosen. Most

students tend to follow the outline of the PowerPoints below (not required though).

Guidelines for the paper:

-Paper needs to be a minimum of 4 FULL pages of content (once you add the title page,

abstract page and reference page….the paper will be a minimum of 7 pages)

-You need to have a title page (APA format)

-Second page will be your abstract (APA)

-The last page will be the reference page (APA)

-Type your paper using 12-point, Times New Roman font only

-Use one-inch margins all around (top, bottom, right and left)

-Double space the entire document

-Include page numbers (top right, topic in front of page number)

-Paragraph headers

-Run spell check and grammar check

-Do NOT put list(s) in your paper

-Cite in appropriate places

-No more than a 25% quote ratio

-Purdue Owl is an excellent resource to use for APA formatting

Step 4: Create your PowerPoint presentation

A minimum of 15 ORINGINAL slides over your chosen disorder is required for the project (you

can create more). Do NOT overload the slides with too much information. Just like the paper,

cite your information appropriately. You are allowed to use pictures within your slides, but

please cite where the picture(s) originated. You do NOT have to add a voice feature to the

slides. Since I am not requiring the voice feature, please put what you would say during a

presentation in the “notes section” under the slide. I would suggest doing this part of the

project last since it is a visual accompanying the paper.

Slides you could include in the PowerPoint:

Title (1 slide), Background on disorder (1 slide), Disorder classification according to the DSM V

(1 slide), Causes (2 slides), Symptoms (3 slides), who is at risk (children, adults, men, women, a

certain age, a particular race, etc; 2 slides), treatments (3 slides), and a reference slide to cite

your sources (1). You have one (1) extra slide to be added where need be, but don’t leave it

blank.

Step 5: Turn in your Assignment

1. The paper needs to be turned in before 11:30pm on December 5th. The link for it will be

under “Modules 5 and 6” titled “Paper Turn In.” Please remember the paper has to be a

Microsoft Office Word document (doc. or docx.), NOT a Google document.

*Please be aware of the consequences for plagiarism, which are stated in the syllabus.

2. The PowerPoint presentation also needs to be turned in before 11:30pm on December 5th.

The PowerPoint part of the project will have a clearly labeled separate link under “Modules 5

and 6” titled “PowerPoint Turn In.”

*If for some reason Canvas is down or the PowerPoints will not upload please email me your

project at [email protected] before the due date. I will NOT accept any late projects!