Social psychology (psychology)/Assessment/Essay


About edit

As part of the assessment for this social psychology (psychology) unit, each student is to write an APA style essay on a unique, designated topic.

See also edit



The goal is to develop student-written "essay"-type material as: (a) learning exercises and (b) for contribution to the Social psychology wiki-book.

Guidelines edit

Marking criteria edit

Three key criteria will be weighted equally in the essay marking:

  1. Theory
  2. Research
  3. Written expression


Submission edit

  1. Essays are to be submitted electronically by emailing the convener as follows:
    • Subject: Social psychology essay submission
    If you use this subject line, you will get an automatic email as a receipt of confirmation; otherwise, you will get a manual email receipt within 24 hours. Keep a copy of this email and your original email. If you do not get an email receipt within 24 hours, you should contact the convener.
    • Message: Your name and student ID and/or Wikiversity user name.
    • Attachment: Provide a single file (.rtf, .doc, .docx format), or .odt) which consists of:
      1. An electronic cover sheet and
      2. Your essay
      3. File name: Use this structure:
        • Surname Firstname Social Psychology Essay
        • e.g., Smith John Social Psychology Essay.doc
  2. Late submissions will incur a penalty of 5% per day.
  3. Do not submit a hard copy.
  4. Your marks and feedback will be emailed back approximately three weeks later.

Word count edit

  1. There is no minimum length; maximum is 3000 words.
  2. Essays above the word count limit (3000 words) will incur a penalty (5% per 100 words).
  3. There is no 10% over allowance - if you need this, aim for 2,700 words!
  4. Word count = body text (i.e., all essay body text and in-text citations, but not title, abstract, tables, figures, references (i.e., the reference list), or appendices).

Marking disputes edit

For anyone dissatisfied with the marking/grading and/or feedback received, please see these suggested steps: marking dispute process

One way to think about an essay is as a house, built upon a solid (theoretical) foundation, with arguments and evidence (pillars) supporting your answer (the roof) to a question.