The Psychology Student Writer's Manual

An essential guide for all writers on the discipline of psychology, this clear-cut, hands-on book shows how to research and write in psychology as well as improve one's overall writing ability.Provides users with a comprehensive reference source on how to research and write papersincluding how to conduct research in psychology, how to find information on topics related to psychology, and how to incorporate citations, and presents a thorough review of writing basics and formatting instructions. Comes in three partsPart I: "A Handbook of Style for Psychology" details writing as communication, writing competently, formats in APA style, and citing sources in APA style; Part II: "Conducting Research in Psychology" explains how to organize the research process, library research, the Internet and distance learning; Part III: "Writing Assignments" offers a critical examination of psychological literature, and explores traditional research papers, experimental research proposals and papers, ethics papers, and genograms. Includes new writing exercises that deal with the special challenges of distance learning, extrasensory perception, and more.For psychologists and those writing about the field.

To the StudentThis second edition ofThe Psychology Student Writer's Manualcontains new information that will help you stay current in the constantly changing worlds of psychology and information technology. Regardless of the continuing stream of new insights that psychological research produces, however, some things remain the same. Successful students, like successful psychologists, for example, will always be competent writers. As students of psychology we observe human behavior. In psychological research we write for three purposes: (1) to record what we observe, (2) to explain what we record, and (3) to defend what we explain. As psychologists we write to contribute to the efforts of other disciplines like sociology, economics, and anthropology, to understand who we are as human beings.Writing is fundamental not only to communicating, but also to learning itself. When you try to communicate your ideas to others by writing them down, you are faced with the task of refining and clarifying your thoughts, and therefore you learn more about the subject you are writing about than you would otherwise.The Psychology Writer's Manual,therefore, is designed to help you improve your writing and learn psychology. These two objectives are addressed in the three major sections of this book.The Introduction tells you what psychology is all about. Intended for both first-time and experienced psychology students, the Introduction offers a basic historical orientation and a brief overview of the scope of issues currently addressed by psychologists.Part One of the book addresses fundamental concerns of all writers, exploring the reasons why we write, describing the writing process itself, and examining those elements of grammar, style, and punctuation that cause the most confusion among writers in general. A vital concern throughout this part, and the rest of the book as well, is the three-way interrelationship among writer, topic, and audience. Our discussion of this relationship aims at building your self-confidence as you clarify your goals. Writing is not a magical process beyond the control of most people. It is instead a series of interconnected skills that any writer can improve with practice, and the end result of this practice is power. Part One of this manual treats the act of writing not as an empty exercise undertaken only to produce a grade but as a powerful learning tool, as well as the primary medium by which psychologists accomplish their goals. Chapter 3 explains the importance of formatting the research paper properly and supplies you with format models for title pages, tables of contents, and so on. Chapter 4 explains how to cite sources and discusses the crucial responsibility of every psychology writer to use source material ethically.Part Two of this manual is new revised in this second edition. Chapter 5 tells you how to organize your writing process and Chapter 6 introduces you to the fundamentals of library research. Chapter 7 is almost entirely new. It provides a list of internet sites that lead to many other sites that tell you many things you need to know about both writing and psychology. For those of you who are taking or considering taking distance learning courses, this chapter introduces you to the special challenges and opportunities of distance learning.Each chapter in Part Three explains how to write a paper commonly assigned in psychology courses everywhere. Some assignments are for introductory students and others are for advanced courses.Your professor may give you a specific paper assignment from one of these chapters. If your professor does not make your assignment specific, you may want to select an assignment and discuss your selection with your instructor before proceeding. We wish you all success as you accept a primary challenge of academic and professional life: to write, and write well. Jill Scott, Russ Ko