Assignment
Goals:
• To practice academic writing
• To understand the format (pitch, path, plan, and prediction) of a typical research article
• To become more comfortable finding, reading, and summarizing research articles
• To gain experience with citations and other aspects of APA-style formatting
Instructions:
Re-Read the Ehlers et. al. paper on using CBT for PTSD that you analyzed for last week's homework.This article was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, describing a pretty impressive clinical trial that measured the effects of intensive cognitive therapy following a traumatic experience.
Unfortunately, the American Journal of Psychiatry doesn't include "Introduction" sections in their articles. They have reasons for this approach, but there's also some interesting background and context to the experiment that is missing: more background about PTSD, discussing effective vs ineffective treatments, and contrasting something like CISD with their new approach... but that's where you come in:
Your assignment is to write an Introduction to this paper that accomplishes the following goals:
• Describes post-traumatic stress in an interesting, accessible, and accurate way. You should talk about what PTSD is, what are some of its symptoms (and why it's a problem), and justify why finding good treatments and therapies is important (1 - 2 paragraphs) (This is "The Pitch")
• Then set up "The Path" to lead the reader from an overview of PTSD to the specifics of this paper's experiment:
o Describes CISD and the evidence supporting and refuting this treatment for PTSD (citing Lilienfeld and at least one other article that you've found)
o Describes alternative therapies that have been shown to be effective as treatments for PTSD (citing Marks et al. and at least one other article that you've found)
o Setup the motivation for the clinical trial in the attached paper: Your path should lead the reader towards the idea that exploring intensive treatment options for PTSD is worthwhile science. (3 - 5 paragraphs)
• Briefly outline the general approach that the researchers took with the clinical trial ("The Plan") (1 - 2 paragraphs)
• And make your prediction about what the new study will show based on the previous work ("The Prediction") (1 paragraph)
Remember that you are writing this as the introduction to the Ehlers' paper, so you are writing as if you are Ehlers. You should not cite the Ehlers' paper in this introduction.
This will be a relatively short paper. Most students will be able to do a thorough job in 2-3 pages (not counting the references page).
Further tips on writing style:
• You may not use direct quotations from any source on this paper - everything must be paraphrased. Let me know if you have questions about this!
• Avoid using informal phrases, adjectives, and opinions in this paper - present the evidence instead
• Use the third person (e.g., they, the researchers, etc.) when talking about what other researchers have done. Use the first person when talking about what you (remember, you're Ehlers for this assignment) are doing in this current study. Since the Ehler's paper has multiple authors, first person plural ("we") is correct
• Avoid talking about research findings as fact. Instead, say in the Path that the previous research you discuss suggests, implies, or supports the conclusion you make. You can also say that the researchers found something or that the authors argue for something.
Article: A Randomized Controlled Trial of 7-Day Intensive and Standard Weekly Cognitive Therapy for PTSD and Emotion-Focused Supportive Therapy by Anke Ehlers, Ann Hackmann, Nick Grey, Jennifer Wild, Sheena Liness, Idit Albert, Alicia Deale, Richard Stott and David M. Clark.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.