Academic writing in Psychology - Advanced

psychology

intermediate

P8S_UK

None

This course is designed as a way to improve your English writing skills in psychology research.

If you want to be a good researcher, there are two main tasks you need to master. The first, the easier one (although it looks harder) is statistical/research methods. Learning how to design studies and analyze the data are necessary but it insufficient skills to be a good researcher. Once you have conducted your study and provided an impressive data analysis approach, you must be able to convey this to others. This is the second skill you need to master, and it is the harder of the two (although it does not seem so). Writing well involves the efficient and complete description of your Method, Results, Theory, Predictions, and Tables/Figures. However, most have confused "good writing" with "writing like a scientist" leading to rather obtuse writing styles that obscure instead of inform audiences. In this course, you will begin to learn how to write better--in English--to enable you to publish more articles more quickly, to present more straightforward results at conferences, to write for the popular press, and to enable you to engage in more cross-cultural collaborations.

Bem, D.J. (2000). Writing the empirical journal article. In J.M. Darley, M.P. Zanna, & H.L. Roediger III (eds). The compleat academic (pp. 185-219) American Psychological Association.

Pinker, S. (2015). The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. Penguin

Schmimel, J. (2012). Writing science. Oxford

There are several skills you will learn.

1. How to shift from indirect speech to direct speech

2. How to describe study Methods

3. How to present Results

4. How to structure and APA paper/Tables/Figures

5. How to weave a narrative

6. How to reduce superfluous content in papers

7. An understanding of some of the psychological roadblocks for good writing

Classes – 15 h

Homework – 15 h

1 ECTS

There two assignment in this class. You will be asked to either choose a reseach study that you like or I can assign one for you. This paper should be about 5000 words long (a single study). Your first task, due on after (5pm) the 3rd day of class is to write a blog post on that article (40%). Your second task, due Monday at 8am after the class has finished, is to rewrite the 5000 word paper into a brief report of 2500 words (60%).

Actual grades will be reflect the weighted total of the two asssigments marked as

2 = insufficient – no pass

3 = satisfactory

4 = good

5 = very good / excellent