The writing assignment begins with a quote from the following source:
Hinshaw, S.P. & Scheffler, R.M. (2014). The ADHD explosion: Myths, medication, money, and today’s push for performance. New York: Oxford University Press.
In sum, The New York Times’ portrayal of ADHD and ADHD medications during 2012 and 2013—especially in high-impact slots such as the Sunday Review–makes us wonder about the underlying agenda at this venerable newspaper. Derogatory and stigmatizing, laden with stereotypes and promoting outdated myths, and often scientifically inaccurate, these pieces reached wide audiences. If history is a guide, such strongly slanted accounts could alter the national dialogue. (Hinshaw & Scheffler, 2014, p. 110)
In Chapter 7, Hinshaw and Scheffler specifically mention a New York Times written by Alan Sroufe (whose name should be familiar to you as one of the early pioneers in mapping the domain of developmental psychopathology), as well as two articles by Alan Schwarz, and an article by Vatsal Thakkar, discussing the phenomenon of sleep disorders being misdiagnosed as ADHD.
Your task is as follows:
1) Find the articles from the New York Times to which Hinshaw and Scheffler are referring. Review them carefully and choose one that is of particular interest to you.
2) Identify three explicit statements or implications the author of your chosen New York Times article makes or suggests about any aspect of the reality of ADHD, its causes, diagnosis, and treatments. Explicitly quote those statements in your paper. Briefly explain what you see as the significance of those quotes (without using the word “I”). Finally, take a position on each of those strong statements. Is the statement clearly accurate or clearly inaccurate? Is it partially accurate? Is it misleading in some way. You must support your position using references to empirical evidence (research articles from peer-reviewed journals). You will be penalized in this paper for expressing opinions that are not supported by empirical evidence.
3) You are to write in a professional manner, one that mirrors the style in which your course text is written. You will also write this paper in APA format, as your course text and the assigned articles are written. All of the expectations that were outlined for the first paper remain in effect [6-8 pages (not including the title page or reference page),double-spaced, using an 11 or 12 font, with one inch margins all around, in black ink, with a header (including the running head and page number) on each page. No abstract is required], with two exceptions.
a. Your paper should have a reference list with at least 10 sources. One source will be your target New York Times article. One source can be your course text and one can be Hinshaw and Scheffler (2014). My comments in class cannot be used as a source. Your additional references must come from “refereed” journals (we will talk about this in class) and absolutely not from non-scholarly web sources. Each reference should be in proper APA format. Every citation in the text must correspond to an entry in the reference list and vice versa.
b. The grading of writing and formatting errors will be more stringent.
i. There is an appropriately titled reference page. Each in-text citation appears in the reference section. Each entry in the reference section is associated with an in-text citation. Each reference listed is in proper APA format. There are no references to non-scholarly sources, e.g., websites, other than the citation for your target New York Times article. Fewer than 5 errors = 3 points; 6-8 errors = 2 points; 9-12 errors = 1 point; 13 or more errors = 0 points.
ii. Your paper conveys the proper professional tone, as described above: 1 point.
iii. Grammar: fewer than three (3) errors = 1 point. (For purposes of this assignment use of the first person pronoun “I” will count as a style error that will be counted among your grammar errors.)
iv. Spelling: fewer than three (3) errors = 1 point.
v. Punctuation: fewer than three (3) errors = 1 point.
