Essentials in Psychological Research Writing PDF

Essentials in Psychological research writing By Dr. Bada  Psychology writing Like writing in the other sciences, is meant to inform the reader about a new idea, theory or experiment Toward this end, academic psychologists emphasize the importan...

Essentials in Psychological research writing By Dr. Bada  Psychology writing Like writing in the other sciences, is meant to inform the reader about a new idea, theory or experiment Toward this end, academic psychologists emphasize the importance of clarity and brevity in The Challenges of writing while minimizing descriptive Writing in Psychology language and complex sentence structure When you write a psychology paper, you are, above all, writing to convey factual knowledge that is supported by research  Research psychologists engage in a variety of kinds of writing, including grant proposals, research applications and renewals, review articles, research articles, and textbooks As a student, you are most likely to be asked to write one of two types of papers, either a report of your own actual or predicted data, which we call an empirical paper, or a summary of other people’s research, which we call a literature review. These two types of papers follow the same writing conventions, though their format is slightly different. Types of Psychology Papers The primary goal of a research summary or literature review paper is to synthesize research on a topic in psychology while also shedding a new light on that topic Writing a literature review paper involves fi rst doing substantial research both online and in the library. The goal of your research should be not just to fi nd all of the relevant articles on the topic, but also to evaluate those sources. Reliable sources in psychology are generally those that have been peer- reviewed by other experts in the fi eld prior to publication Research Summary/Literature Review When you are writing a literature review, you should not rely on other research summaries; rather you should go to original sources. Original sources are empirical sources--those that report research fi ndings for the fi rst time Literature reviews are not divided into a fi xed set of specifi c sections, but you should use sub-headings when introducing new topic areas within a paper. At the very least a good research summary should include a clear introduction, a body in which the evidence is presented, and a discussion Elements of Literature review/Summary paper Introduction Why is this topic important? What is the history of this topic? What are the related theories or fi ndings? What is your claim or thesis statement? Can you provide examples? Body What is the evidence that supports your claim? What evidence runs contrary to your claim and how do you reconcile that with your claim? The body of your paper should describe the research that has previously been done on this topic, as well as any controversies or alternate opinions. At each stage of your discussion, you should relate the evidence you present to the major conclusions you are trying to make. Parts of a Summary Paper/Literature review Discussion/Conclusion/Implications – What is your fi nal conclusion? What questions remain? What does your conclusion mean for other people’s theories or explanations? In this fi nal section you will want to synthesize the fi ndings you described in the body into a succinct summary. You should return to the issues that you raised in the introduction, and close the loop. You should also discuss the possible implications of your argument for existing theories and for everyday life. Elements of Literature review/Summary paper Avoid surprises. Psychologists like to be led through a paper without major surprises along the way. This means being very clear about what points you’re trying to make and always showing how new evidence or theories relate to the bigger point of a paper. One easy way to remember this is to think that your reader wants to know where you’re going in the intro, where you are during your Conventions in writing presentation of evidence and where you’ve been in your discussion. Psychology Papers Avoid direct quotations. Psychologists seldom use direct quotes. Rather, they distill the essence (not paraphrase, in the sense of just re- arranging the words) the statements of other researchers and cite those researchers’ work. For example, see this: Frank (1982) demonstrates that peer evaluations and performance in school are the main contributors to adolescent self-esteem is preferable to Frank wrote, “Our results indicate that adolescent self-esteem is directly attributable to peer evaluations and scholastic Convention in writing achievement.” Psychology Papers Use bias-free language. Psychologists use bias-free language, which typically means that they refer to people as those people refer to themselves (for more information see the APA Publication Guide). For example, ° Do not use the male pronoun as a generic. Use he or she, his or hers, etc. ° Use phrases such as “people with autism” rather than “autistics” ° Use the phrases “gay men and lesbians” rather than “homosexuals” ° Don’t define people by what they aren’t. For example, don’t say non- White. Instead, say what people are--, Conventions of writing e.g., “Asian” or “African American.” psychology papers Avoid jargon or overly unusual words except when it is absolutely necessary. Be succinct and avoid wordiness. Use headings and subheadings. Always include a title for your paper. Conventions Cont'd The words “I” and “We” should always refer to the authors of a paper and not to people in general. You should check with your instructor if you have questions about using the fi rst person as use of the fi rst person is not encouraged in APA style. Use active rather than passive voice. Use the word “participants” rather than ”subjects” The word data is a plural word (e.g., The data were…). Datum is the singular form of data. Convention Cont'd Any Questions or feedback? Questions??