Writing Resources

Handout: Writing Tips for Psychology Papers

Psychology

Note: Many of these ideas are from an unpublished paper by Daryl Bem on writing psychology articles.

  • Clarity is your first priority in scientific writing.
  • Use examples. The more abstract the subject matter, the more you need examples.
  • Read your own writing from the view point of a potential reader. The most important skill in writing psychology (or teaching for that matter) is the ability to take the role of the "naïve" reader.
  • Be compulsive. Even for the best writers, nearly every sentence gets rewritten. It is difficult to write a sentence perfectly the first time.
  • Your paper, whether a research review, a research proposal or a research report, is not about psychologists or researchers but about people and phenomena. Start with the people and what they do. Don't talk about researchers in the first sentence. Don't put references in the first sentence.
  • Express coordinated ideas in a parallel form. Here is an example from Bem: "The high-dissonance subjects were paid a small sum of money while being given a free choice of whether to participate; on the other hand, participation was required of low-dissonance subjects and they received a large incentive." See how much better this alternative is to comprehend: "High-dissonance subjects were paid a small sum of money and were not required to participate; low-dissonance subjects were paid a large sum of money and were required to participate." Only the crucial terms vary; while all else is held constant, making comparisons easy.
  • Use past tense for literature review (e.g., Bandura reported that… ) and participants' behavior (e.g., participants became suspicious… ). Use present tense for results currently in front of the reader (e.g., auditory stimuli are more effective than… ).
  • Long strings of modifiers, particularly those made up of nouns parading as adjectives are awkward (and personally drive me crazy). For example, "a new motor skills performance college test" could be rewritten as "a new performance test of motor skills used in colleges." Which one do you think is easier to understand?
  • If you are describing the procedure of a study, do it from the perspective of the participant going through it. That way, the reader can picture more easily what is happening.
  • Name all measure, operations and variables with mnemonic labels rather than using abbreviations or empty labels. Use "individual reward condition" rather than "irw cond" or "Cond. 1."
  • From time to time, remind the reader of what question you are asking, especially before you present results and statistics. Give the answer first and then give the support and statistics.
  • Avoid unnecessary qualifications. For example, "Attachment theory is generally considered to be the best explanation of…. " is bad writing. Why not say, "Attachment theory is the best explanation of… "
  • Avoid using the ambiguous "this" or "these." Use “this” as an adjective for an actual noun. For example, don’t say, "This is an important way of… " Instead say, "This approach is an important way of… "
  • In science and in logic, you can "disprove" things, but you can never "prove" things. You can provide support or evidence for, but not prove, something.

Malcolm W. Watson
Developed at Brandeis University through a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation