Fall 2026 · Independent study · Week 1 meets as a group, then individual weekly meetings

The Weekly Guide

Prof. Michael W. Magee, Ph.D.

Thirteen weeks, thirteen skills, one finished proposal.

Dates follow the Fall 2026 calendar and may shift slightly with the official SJNY academic calendar. Individual meeting times (at least 30 minutes each week) are arranged after our Week 1 group meeting (the registrar slot is “Tuesday 3:10–4:35”). Everything happens in my office — Lorenzo Hall, top floor — not Room 402, whatever your registration says. No meetings Thanksgiving week.
Week 1Tue · Sep 15Group meeting How the capstone works — and how to read a scientific article
We meet as a group at 3:10 PM in my office (Lorenzo Hall, top floor): how the semester runs, what the proposal is, how weekly meetings work — and before you leave, each of you and I settle on a standing 30-minute time to meet every week from here on. Then the first skill: reading an empirical article strategically instead of front-to-back. Read the guide: How to Read a Scientific Article.
Assignment: bring three candidate topics with a short rationale for each — what the question is, and why it matters to you.
Week 2Week of Sep 21Topic locked Database searching: PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and the search-term matrix
Topic pitch meeting. Skill: turning a topic into search strategy — building a matrix of constructs × synonyms, using database operators, and following citation trails forward and backward. This is also the week you set up your capstone notebook in NotebookLM — the required home for every full-text PDF you collect from here to finals week.
Assignment: search log (terms tried, databases, hit counts) plus ten candidate articles with full APA citations and abstracts, uploaded to your capstone notebook, and every full-text PDF saved to the references subfolder of your seminar folder and named first author (year) most of the title — e.g. Neff (2023) Self-compassion, self-esteem, and well-being.pdf. Your topic is locked by the end of this week.
Week 3Week of Sep 28 Dissecting an empirical article
Skill: pulling an article apart into its working pieces — aims, sample, IVs and DVs, operational definitions, key findings, limitations. This is the skill you'll repeat on every source in your literature review. Worksheets first, then notebook: after each dissection, ask your capstone notebook the same questions and see what you missed — then go back to the PDF and find it.
Assignment: two completed article-dissection worksheets on your strongest sources — empirical articles, in a new Dissections tab of your journal.
Week 4Week of Oct 5Reading week Synthesis: from a pile of articles to a map of the literature
Read the Baumeister & Leary (1997) summary. Skill: the synthesis matrix — organizing sources by theme rather than summarizing them one at a time, and spotting where the literature runs out. A literature review that merely lists studies is the mistake B&L warn about most. Your capstone notebook earns its keep this week: cross-cutting questions (“where do these studies disagree?”) surface leads for your matrix — verify each one in the PDFs, and build the matrix in your own words.
Assignment: synthesis matrix covering 8–10 sources, ending with a one-paragraph statement of the gap.
Week 5Week of Oct 12Reading week From gap to research question to hypothesis
Read the Bem summary — especially the hourglass shape and the opening statements. Skill: writing a research question that is answerable, and a hypothesis that is directional, falsifiable, and grounded in the literature you just mapped.
Assignment: one-page problem statement: the gap, your research question, your hypothesis, and the two or three findings that make it plausible.
Week 6Week of Oct 19Reading week Outlining the funnel-shaped literature review
Read the Landrum Chapter 5 summary. Skill: the funnel — introduce the topic broadly, review and synthesize the literature, narrow the focus, state your purpose. Build the outline directly from your Week 4 synthesis matrix: themes become sections, the gap becomes the turn, your hypothesis becomes the destination. Then see how a professional does it: Anatomy of a Master's Opening dissects Neff (2023) move by move.
Assignment: full literature review outline with every citation mapped to its section.
Week 7Week of Oct 26Draft 1 due Writing with style
Read the Landrum Chapter 4 summary. Writing week: turn the outline into prose. Accuracy first, clarity second, style third. Omit needless words. Companions: The Absolute Dos and The Absolute Nos.
Due: Literature Review, Draft 1 — minimum 1,500 words, at least 15 peer-reviewed references from the last 20 years, APA 7 throughout. Your AI LOG tab must be current.
Week 8Week of Nov 2 Measurement: finding validated scales
While your draft is being graded, the next skill: finding the instruments your study needs (PsycTESTS, published appendices, scale-development articles), and reading reliability and validity evidence — what Cronbach's alpha actually tells you.
Assignment: scales table — each construct in your study, the instrument you'd use to measure it, sample items, reliability coefficients, and the source citation.
Week 9Week of Nov 9 Design, operationalization, and ethics
Skill: choosing a design that can actually test your hypothesis — experimental vs. correlational, between vs. within subjects — and operationalizing every variable. Plus the IRB fundamentals: consent, confidentiality, debriefing, minimizing harm.
Assignment: method blueprint — design, sample and recruitment, procedure walk-through as the participant would experience it, and ethical safeguards.
Week 10Week of Nov 16Revision due The analysis plan: statistics and power
Skill: matching the statistical test to the design, estimating the sample you'd need (G*Power), and sketching the graph of your predicted results — if your hypothesis is right, what does the figure look like?
Due: Literature Review revision — what matters is how thoughtfully you assimilated the comments and kept developing the introduction. Assignment: analysis plan plus a mock graph of expected results.
Week 11Week of Nov 23Methods draft due Telling the whole story
Read the Landrum Chapter 6 summary. Skill: assembling Method, Expected Results, and Discussion into one continuous scientific story — describe the method as if the reader were a participant; results in words first, numbers second.
Due: first draft of Method, Expected Results (with graph), and Discussion. Your AI LOG tab must be current.
—Wed · Nov 25Hard deadline Complete first draft of the full manuscript due — no exceptions
Every section assembled into one document: title page, abstract, literature review, method, expected results with graph, discussion, references, appendices. Rough edges are expected; missing sections are not. Then go enjoy Thanksgiving — no meetings that week.
Week 12Week of Nov 30Full revision due The APA formatting pass
Skill: auditing your own manuscript against the APA Manuscript Rubric — title page, abstract, headings, citations, references, tables, figures. Assemble the complete manuscript and revise every section in light of all comments to date.
Due: full revision of the complete proposal, front to back.
Week 13Week of Dec 7Final week Final check-in
Last meeting: final polish list, remaining questions, and the submission checklist. Then you finish.
Due finals week: the Final Thesis — complete APA-style research proposal with title page, abstract, literature review, method, expected results with graph, discussion, references, and appendices. Your AI LOG tab must be complete.

Every single week, regardless

Your research journal entry is due in your seminar folder before your meeting, every week: a comprehensive record of what you did — searches run, articles read, paragraphs drafted, dead ends hit — ending with at least two concrete goals for the following week. It can't be written after the fact; it is your meeting prep, and it's how I watch your project grow. Spacing your work across the week beats one heroic blast the night before — and yes, the difference shows.

Check yourself