General Information on Writing a Paper in Psychology

Getting Started

 

1.  Try to write a little every day, rather than the entire paper in a single sitting.  You will write a better paper, learn more about improving your writing, and experience better mental health if you start EARLY.  Set mini-deadlines for yourself for an outline, a rough-rough draft, a less-rough draft, and your final product.

2.  If you experience writer’s block, try making a list of what information you could include in the paper (worry about ordering and prioritizing the list later).  Or try FREE-WRITING. Spend 10 minutes writing everything you can think of about your topic and assignment. Don’t worry about style, form, importance, etc. Free-writing can help you loosen up as you sit down at the computer for a few minutes of low-stakes writing. 

3.  Write the method section first.  It is much easier than the introduction.  Also, I’d suggest leaving the opening paragraph of the introduction for last.

4.  ASK YOUR INSTRUCTOR FOR HELP.  Writing for psychology can be difficult.  Your instructor will no doubt be happy to help with specific questions and/or just be a sounding board as you try to articulate your reasoning. He or she can also point you toward other sources for writing help.

5.  No one writes glowing first drafts (or second drafts....). Good writers are relentless revisers.

 

What is considered good writing in psychology?

 

Top Priority: Write Clearly and Fully Express your Reasoning

     Your overall point in any given sentence, paragraph or section of the paper must be communicated clearly. Getting out of your own head to discern if it would be clear to someone else can be very difficult. Reading your work aloud may help you “hear” what the paper “sounds like” and find unclear passages.

     Another important aspect to clarity involves FULLY expressing your logic and stating your conclusions. It is acceptable to assume your reader understands the basics of statistics and methods (e.g., you do not have to explain p-values or what an independent variable is). However, you cannot assume your reader is familiar with the particular topic you are writing about. So, take the reader in small steps from A to B to C to D...etc. Don’t leave any gaps in your reasoning, even if the logic seems obvious.

 

Another Top Priority:  Follow APA Standards for Organization and Expression

     Much of what makes a paper a good one in psychology is following the APA style guidelines for organization and expression. These conventions are laid out in the APA Publication Manual. Your psychology paper will be a good one if you can smoothly articulate your ideas within the structure. The structure allows any psychologist to easily read any psychological article. Also, a standard format helps hold all of psychological literature to a high standard of scientific objectivity. 

 

The Ultimate Challenge:  Balancing Structure with Interesting Writing

 

     Following APA style and organization sometimes leads to dry, plodding writing.  The best writers balance all that restrictive structure with an engaging writing style.  Especially in the introduction and discussion sections, it is possible to follow the formula and still articulate your ideas in an interesting way.  The best psychology papers tell a story to an audience of educated adults who are seriously interested in the research. Your story should be based on your research, however, and should avoid emotional or flowery language, metaphors that stray too far from the central topic, or personal accounts about your own life or some other individual’s life.

 

 

·Provide the conceptual definition of your terms when you use them the first time. For example, you shouldn’t be talking about the relationship of the Protestant ethic to another variable if you haven’t discussed the conceptual definition of Protestant ethic yet. 

·Explain your ideas fully.  Be meticulous, even nit-picking, in saying exactly what you mean.

·To help maintain a consistent tone throughout the paper, avoid direct quotes.  Only use quotes if there is something unique and special conveyed by not just the author’s ideas, but the particular words used to express those ideas.

·Any idea that is not yours needs a citation whether it is a direct quote or not. You don’t have to include a citation in every sentence, but the reader needs to be clear where your information came from. Note: each new paragraph, even if you are continuing to cite from the same source, needs a citation.

·Avoid using a psychological term or expression when you don’t mean it.  Example to avoid:  “The notion that people dislike inconsistent thoughts correlates with the need to behave consistently with our attitudes.”  Other terms to be careful with: significant, hypothesized.

·Avoid absolutes and immodest expressions. The word ‘PROVE’ and all variations of it are off limits (try using any of the following words instead: suggest, support, show, indicate). Also avoid words like ‘completely’, ‘absolutely’, ‘always’, etc. Avoid expressions like “These results conclusively demonstrate that researchers have been all wrong in the past.” Try to be more moderate: “The findings of the present research did not replicate past findings....”

·Work on stating your ideas clearly the first time. If you find yourself starting a sentence with the expression: “In other words,...” you probably need to rework the previous sentence.

·Vary your sentence structures.  Don’t start every sentence with “the” for example.  Also vary length - some sentences will be long (but see the next tip), some short.

·Avoid overly complex sentence structures. If you’ve started accumulating many punctuation marks or clauses in a single sentence, your sentence is probably too complex for the reader to understand easily.

·Work on transitions between ideas. A good transition will lead the reader from one idea to the next smoothly – the reader won’t have to wonder why you’ve switched topics.

·Avoid using an overly colloquial or chatty writing style. Absolutely avoid slang and do not use contractions. Your overall tone needs to be formal (but your paper shouldn’t sound like a computer program wrote it.)

·Passive voice is accepted in psychological writing, but active voice is better where possible.  E.g. passive:  ‘The experiment was conducted by Smith;  active:  ‘Smith conducted the experiment.’

·Avoid giving an object human qualities. Studies don’t want, people do.  Cultures don’t seek…. etc.

·You can use the 1^st person from time to time (e.g. “I hypothesized that....”), but try to avoid its overuse.

 

Before turning your paper in...

It helps to set the draft aside for a day or so and re-examine it with a fresh eye. Be sure to:

 

1. Check for spelling, grammar, APA style, and typos.  Spell-check AND proof-read.

2.  Re-read the assignment and tip sheets to make sure you didn’t forget anything.

3.  Edit your paper one last time for clarity and fully articulated reasoning.

 

Save your paper and a back-up copy as you work.  Also save a final copy for your files.

 

*This page created by Connie Wolfe, modified from a handout distributed by the Writing Center at the University of Michigan.