The topic is addiction and the story is about addiction opiates. Make sure to cover all the

How to write your story

Think of this as a mini English paper with a topic sentence, body, and summary. I’ve written a sample to get you started. Your stories should look like mine. Below the story, I’ll break it down into it’s component parts.

I found the topic of brain plasticity very interesting. A few years ago, a friend of mine was involved in a terrible auto accident. She suffered a serious brain injury and was in a coma for several weeks. When she woke up, she was unable to speak clearly. She also didn’t have full control over her arms. Her doctor told her she had damage to Broca’s area and the part of motor centers in her brain that control her arms. She was assigned a speech therapist to help with her speech and a physical therapist to help with using her arms. Her therapists provided her with exercises and helped her practice speech and arm movement. After several months of doing speech and arm exercises, she is now able to speak normally and has full control over both her arms. Her doctor explained that the practice rewired her brain around the damage. Her brain built new neural pathways allowing her to recover fully. He called this brain plasticity. This is a story about brain plasticity because it describes how my friend’s brain was rewired after a serious injury allowing her to regain lost function.

You can reuse brain plasticity but it’s not in your best interests to do so because I’ve done all the work for you. You will get maximum benefit from doing the exercise yourself.

My topic sentence: “I found the topic of brain plasticity very interesting.”

The body follows until the last sentence. I’ll break this down further below.

My summary: “This is a story about brain plasticity because it describes how my friend’s brain was rewired after a serious injury allowing her to regain lost function.”

Here is a template for your summary. “This is a story about ….. because…. Following “because” is how your story relates to the definition.”
How to write the body
Read the section in the book, watch the video lecture, read the slides, and any thing else in the class that describes your topic.
It’s important to cover all these materials to make sure you fully understand your topic and that your story/example isn’t already in the class.
Write down the definition from the book. Break it down into it’s component parts.
Each part of the definition should have at least one sentence in your body describing it.
Here’s how I wrote the story above

I wrote down the definition of brain plasticity; separated it into parts; and then wrote text that describes each part. Finally, I composed the components into a paragraph. Pay attention to the detail I used.

Damage to the brain: “A few years ago, a friend of mine was involved in a terrible auto accident. She suffered a serious brain injury and was in a coma for several weeks. When she woke up, she was unable to speak clearly. She also didn’t have full control over her arms. Her doctor told her she had damage to Broca’s area and the part of motor centers in her brain that control her arms.”
Need experience to reorganize the brain: “She was assigned a speech therapist to help with her speech and a physical therapist to help with using her arms. Her therapists provided her with exercises and helped her practice speech and arm movement.”
The brain reorganizes after experience: “Her doctor explained that the practice rewired her brain around the damage.”
New pathways were built: “Her brain built new neural pathways allowing her to recover fully.”
Brain’s ability to change: “After several months of doing speech and arm exercises, she is now able to speak normally and has full control over both her arms.”
Rules for writing stories
If I use a topic as an example in the directions for the assignment, you can’t use it again.
Topics have to come from the current module’s chapters.
For example, you can’t tell a story about a psychological disorder in any module except the last one since that’s where disorders are covered.
Once you choose a topic, make sure your story/example hasn’t been used in the text, my lectures or any of the class materials. It’s the main focus of the story that counts even if you change the details.
For example, I used a story about money as a positive reinforcer in my Chapter 7 lecture. Money is the main focus of my story so you can’t tell a story about money as an example of reinforcement.
Since the story about positive reinforcement isn’t in the directions, you can use reinforcement as your topic.
Myers used a story about gamblers rolling dice to illustrate illusory correlation. A gambler is the main focus so you can’t use another story about gamblers to illustrate illusory correlation even if it’s a different kind of gambling.
You have to use topics in the same way as they are used in the text. That’s why, in the directions for writing stories, I ask you to read Myer’s definition and the explanation of it.
For example, Myers uses twins to illustrate the genetics of behavior by comparing identical and fraternal twins. So you can’t tell a story about twins you know and how alike/dissimilar they are.
All stories have to be about people. You can’t write about plants, animals, or inanimate objects.
You can’t use any of the key points for your topic.
If you use another source for your idea or story, you must include a reference.