Allegheny College Joshua Searle-White, Ph.D.

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Overview

As you know, the senior project is in many ways the culminating experience of your academic work here at Allegheny. In the comp you have a chance to complete a project that is interesting, substantive, exciting, and most importantly – that is your own.  Our weekly comp seminar is designed to help you make the most of the comp process.

There are many different kinds of comps.  Some follow a clear experimental design (for example, one student showed film portrayals of unethical therapists to students see whether or not the students’ attitudes changed as a result).  Some involve interviews or testing (for example, a student gave neuropsychological tests to people with Alzheimer’s Disease). And others analyze published literature and answer complex theoretical or research questions (for example, one student examined the research literature to see whether “chemical castration” really does reduce recidivism of pedophiles).  What kind of comp you choose to do depends on you and on the kind of experience you hope to have.  Hopefully, you already have a fairly specific idea of your comp topic, and that will make the early process go more smoothly.

One thing to remember: The senior project is an independent project.  I am here to help you, to consult with you, and to evaluate your work, but not to make sure you do it.  I will ask you to set clear deadlines for the various phases of your work, but I will not run around looking for you to make sure you meet them.  This is a chance to show initiative and to take responsibility for yourself and your work!

The Steps

There are a number of steps in the comp process.  Some of them will not apply to you, but most will.  They include:

· Reading and thinking about your topic area and obtaining necessary articles/books
· Choosing a specific research question
· Creating a time line
· Presenting your proposal to the comp group and defending it
· Presenting your proposal to your readers (sometimes known as the “pre-comp oral”)
· Obtaining funding to carry out the project
· Creating or obtaining interview materials/instruments/tests
· Submitting an Ethics Board or Institutional Review Board proposal;
· Writing the Introduction, Literature Review, and Methods sections of your comp
· Collecting data
· Analyzing the data
· Writing the Results and Discussion sections of your comp
· Turning in drafts of your comp to your first reader for comments
· Turning in your finished comp to your readers
· Presenting your final comp to your readers in oral form and defending it (the “comp oral”)

We will talk about each of these in class.  This is a lot to do in one semester – but you can do it, and you can do it well.

How to Do Well

Here are some suggestions for how to complete the comp successfully:

1. Create a realistic time line that lays out when you intend to complete all of the elements above.
2. Remember the Cardinal Rule of Research – everything always takes longer than it should.  Plan accordingly – leave yourself time and space to fix things that go wrong.
3. Establish a regular set of times to work on the comp each day or week.  The comp takes a lot of thought, and if you are rushed at the end, the quality of your comp (not to mention the quality of your life) will likely diminish.
4. Keep in touch with your first and second readers so that they are not surprised at the end by anything you have done.
5. Give substantive feedback to the others in your comp group – and listen to the feedback that they give you.

Resources

There are a number of resources that you can turn to for help in completing your comp.  First and foremost are your readers.  If you want to talk about substantive issues in your comp, please try to make an appointment with me first. Making an appointment (even if during office hours) will ensure that we have enough time to talk and that you don’t end up waiting in the hall.  I am also happy to (and expecting to) read drafts of your work during the semester.  However, you need to give me one week to read anything that you give me and want me to comment on.  Your second reader will let you know whether or not he or she would like to see drafts of your comp, but if you have specific questions that you think he or she can help you with, you should not hesitate to ask.

There are also a number of electronic resources you can use.  First, the Psychology Department’s web page (“AboutPsych”) includes a detailed description of the comp process called the “Senior Project Manual.”  There is also an excellent collection of materials from Allegheny’s Writing Center, which I recommend that you use.  These should answer most questions you might have about the writing process itself.

Important Deadlines

Because each comp project is different, I will not give you specific deadlines for turning in the various pieces of the comp.  You should create those deadlines for yourself using a time line.  However, there are a few dates that you should know about and, if necessary, tattoo on the forehead of whoever it is you spend the most time with so that you can see them often.  They are:

· October 1 – the last day you can present your plan to the comp group (I anticipate you will do it much earlier than this)
· October 12 – the last day to have your preliminary conference with your readers (I anticipate you will do this earlier too)
· November 22 – the last day you can give me any comp drafts to read
· December 6 – the due date for you to turn in two copies of your complete comp, including the title page, abstract, etc.
· December 19 – the last day you can have your final comp oral

Grading

The most important element of the grading is, of course, the final, finished comp.  However, your attendance and participation in the comp group, the timeliness and degree of preparation you exhibit for your preliminary conference, the degree to which you make steady progress over the course of the semester, and your final orals are also taken into account.

Note: Because of the length and nature of this project, there are very few legitimate reasons for any kind of extension (aside from the obvious ones of illness or accidents). See the Comp Manual for details, but don’t plan on needing an extension!

A Final Note

I have seen many students complete excellent comps that were the crowning achievement of their time at Allegheny.  If you are ready to do it, you can make the comp an excellent experience too.  I look forward to it!