Psychology expert kendra cherry is an author and educator with over a decade experience helping students make sense of psychology. She is the author of the everything psychology book 2nd edition and she has published thousands of articles on diverse topics in psychology including personality, social behavior, child therapy, research methods, and much more. No matter what your major is, you will probably be expected to write a critique paper at some point. For psychology students, critiquing a professional paper is a great way to learn more about psychology articles, writing and the research process itself. Students can analyze how researchers conduct experiments, interpret results and discuss the impact of the results. While these tips are designed to help students writing a psychology critique paper, many of the same principles apply to writing critiques in other subject areas as well. Written for undergraduate students and new graduate students in psychology experimental , this handout provides information on writing in psychology and on experimental report and experimental article writing.

As a social science, experimental psychology uses empirical inquiry to help understand human behavior. According to thrass and sanford 20 , psychology writing has three elements: describing, explaining, and understanding concepts from a standpoint of empirical investigation. Discipline specific writing, such as writing done in psychology, can be similar to other types of writing you have done in the use of the writing process, writing techniques, and in locating and integrating sources. However, the field of psychology also has its own rules and expectations for writing not everything that you have learned in about writing in the past works for the field of psychology.

Writing in psychology includes the following principles: using plain language. Psychology writing is formal scientific writing that is plain and straightforward. Literary devices such as metaphors, alliteration, or anecdotes are not appropriate for writing in psychology. You should be able to make connections between empirical evidence, theories, and conclusions.

evidence based reasoning: psychology bases its arguments on empirical evidence. use of apa format: psychologists use the american psychological association apa format for publications. While most student writing follows this format, some instructors may provide you with specific formatting requirements that differ from apa format.

types of writing

most major writing assignments in psychology courses consists of one of the following two types. experimental reports: experimental reports detail the results of experimental research projects and are most often written in experimental psychology lab courses. Experimental reports are write ups of your results after you have conducted research with participants.

Often called term papers, a critical analysis of research narrowly examines and draws conclusions from existing literature on a topic of interest. Our research paper handouts provide a detailed overview of how to write these types of research papers. Knowing who you are writing for, why you are writing, and in what context is key to writing successfully within your psychology courses. audience: your audience is person or group of people you are writing for. In psychology courses, this is often your professor or teaching assistant, although you might also be asked to write for a general audience of psychologists or to your classmates. Your instructor may or may not indicate who your audience is for your paper, so it is always good to ask.

Essay on Leadership Versus Management

In articles, it is more complex mdash a combination of reviewers, journal editors, and readers in your area of interest. Your audience's expectations about your writing determine: formatting and style tone of the piece the amount of technical language or jargon used the amount of information you assume the audience already knows audience expectations aren't always straightforward. For example, if you are taking a course in psycholinguistics and you are writing a critical review of research on semantic priming, your primary audience for the course is your instructor. While your instructor knows what semantic priming is, you may still be required to define it in your paper so that your instructor knows that you know what it is. Part of the instructor's expectation in this case is that you can clearly define key vocabulary concepts discussed in class in your term paper. purpose: while the overall purpose of your term paper or experimental report may be clear to pass the course, to convey the results of your research more specific purposes for writing your report are not always so. When you are prewriting and drafting, as yourself not only what your larger purpose is, but also what additional purposes you may have and want to achieve.

Fun Essay Topics for 7Th Graders

context: the context is the larger writing situation in which you find yourself. Are you writing for a class? are you writing an internal report to your advisor? are you writing an article in preparation for submission to a journal? the context in which you are writing is another important factor that helps you determine style, format, and content of your piece. For more information on audience, purpose, and context see the rhetorical situation powerpoint resource.

formatting and style in psychology

your choice of format and style are dependent on the audience, purpose, and context of your piece. Most writing in psychology follows a strict format, developed by the american psychological association apa. Some instructors or journals may have their own style guidelines that deviate from apa to varying degrees. You should always ask for clarification on the correct formatting and style from your instructor, advisor, journal editor or other primary audience member.

New York Law Paper

A good rule of thumb when writing in psychology is to be clear with your discussion, be concise in your writing, and minimize your use of first person pronouns i think that hellip , i believe that hellip . See the purdue owl handout on stylistic concerns in apa format for more information. You can benefit from analyzing examples of other pieces of writing from psychology. Look at published articles or ask the instructor for examples of previous papers written for the course.

prewriting and information collection

depending on the type of report you are writing, you will go through various stages of prewriting. The following list provides you with some options finding material to write from and beginning to prewrite.