Writing Good Psychology Essays

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Writing Good Psychology Essays

• Robert Blake (SLDC) and
• Dina Lew (Psychology)

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Outline

• Queries about writing Psychology essays
• Reading/Group evaluation of past essay
• Feedback on queries
• Discussion of essay evaluation
• Powerpoint slides bringing other psychologists
  work into your writing avoiding plagiarism
  further help

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1. Queries about a good Psychology essay

• Work in groups to discuss
• What queries do you have about how to write a
  good essay?
• What have your feelings been about essays so far?
• Then record your queries anonymously on post its
• yellow post its for queries
• pink post its for feelings.
• Feedback- when Dina returns

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2. Group evaluation of a past essay

• Work in groups to discuss the essay.
• (PS If you havent attended this workshop, please
  find an example of a good essay on which to base
  this analysis).
• Later in the session well ask you to share your
  analysis.
• What grade did this essay get?
• Why did you give it this grade?
• Introduction
• Does the writer unpack i.e. interpret frame
  this question?
• Are key issues/debates signalled/signposted?
• 
  See next slide

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2. Essay evaluation signposting topic sentences

• Signposting
• Introductory paragraphs of essays reports
  usually have a sentence or two mapping out their
  structure, e.g.
• This essay will examine and evaluate the theories
  of key social psychologists regarding crowd
  behaviours. The two dominant themes to be
  considered are the Individualistic and Collective
  approaches. More recent developments in social
  psychology will be outlined to illustrate how
  this area has evolved recently. (Adapted from an
  undergraduate essay)
• They can also include a thesis statement,
  referring to the stance taken in the essay
  indicate the take home message.

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2. Essay evaluation signposting topic sentences

• Signposting also consists of the words phrases
  used throughout the essay to indicate its
  structure to the reader and make to make it
  more cohesive by relating ideas explicitly
• The first of these perspectives
• On the other hand
• Before answering x, we must consider y
• Furthermore
• On the other hand
• Of the many factors that have an effect on
• As a result
• Consequently
• some examples taken from Northedge et al
  (1997246)

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2. Essay evaluation signposting topic sentences

• Topic sentences these introduce the main theme
  of a paragraph or connect the main theme of the
  previous paragraph ( v. briefly summarised) with
  the new theme of the current paragraph. They
  usually start the paragraph e.g.
• A further key feature, initially exclusive to
  adult psychopathological assessment, but now
  also applicable to a developmental context, is
  the practitioners reliance self-report
  measures, whereby the adult or child conforms the
  role of patient and provides key diagnostic
  information about their present commitment
  Achenbach 1995).

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2. Essay evaluation

• Essay body
• Look at the signposting in the introduction, do
  the topic sentences demonstrate how the key
  issues are structured?
• Where is the writers evaluation of theory
  evidence taking place?
• Does the writer draw on sources without direct
  copying?
• Conclusion
• Do you know what the take home message of the
  essay is?

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3 4 Essay queries Essay evaluation

• 3. Queries about essays- feedback
• 4. Evaluation of example essay discussion
  slides on structure.

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4. Essay evaluation

• Introduction
• Providing key contextual information
• Framing the question
• Signposting the structure of the essay
  indicating outcome of evaluation/take home message

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4. Essay evaluation

• Essay body
• Signalling key issues in body of essay. See
  signposting topic sentences
• Well structured argument/analysis
• There are different approaches to structuring
  evaluation e.g. doing evaluation as you go along
  towards end of essay way forward
• Well structured paragraphs with topic sentences

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4. Essay evaluation

• Conclusion
• Weighing up key arguments/evidence clearly
  establishing position in relation to the question
  
• Providing take home message
• Indicating way forward, where appropriate

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5. Bringing other psychologists work into your
writing

• Additional slides
• bringing other psychologists work into your
  writing
• avoiding plagiarism
• further help

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5. Bringing other psychologists work into your
writing

• Why do we bring other psychologists work into
• our writing?

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Bringing other psychologists work into your
writing

• To demonstrate to readers examiners that we are
  familiar with the field that we have been
  selective in reviewing relevant studies
• To provide an overview of current knowledge in a
  particular area of application and or/methodology
• To provide a context for our current study and to
  locate our it within a specific field
• To review other studies critically
• To highlight a gap in knowledge, areas of
  application, etc
• To justify the use of a particular methodology or
  area of application,
• To establish the validity of data cited
• To construct scientific knowledge on the basis of
  other scientists findings.

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Bringing other psychologists work into your
writing

• We can either do this by rephrasing in our own
  words adding an acknowledgement. Rephrasing
  source content is either through
• paraphrase rewriting in our own words
• or
• summary rewriting a condensed version in our
  own words
• This is the norm for writing in psychology. It
  also makes it easier for the writer to comment
  critically on the source text.
• Direct quotation ( acknowledgement) is less
  common.

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Citing other psychologists in the body of your
text

• When youve paraphrased or summarised another
  writer, always acknowledge the source. You can do
  this in 2 ways
• 1) Begin the sentence with the authors surname
  year of publication in brackets e.g.
  
  Berridge (2002) has
  demonstrated that statistical analysis can be
  used
  
  This method
  emphasises the author you are citing.
• 2) Paraphrase the idea, then give the surname of
  the author year of publication in brackets e.g.
• Statistical analysis can be used to demonstrate
  (Berridge 2002)
  
  This emphasises the study rather than author
  can be used when the focus is on studies in your
  field.

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Integrating psychology sources into your text

• When reviewing other studies, they need to be
  integrated into your own text, rather than read
  as a series of disconnected voices of other
  researchers (patchwork writing).
• So when you refer to another writer, you should
  begin end in your own voice, with the middle
  part consisting of paraphrase or summary of the
  source the final part providing a commentary on
  the contribution of this writer.

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Integrating other psychologists work into your
writing

• Harvey (19983-5) outlines 3 basic principles
  for integrating sources in academic writing
• 1. Use sources as concisely as possibly so your
  own thinking isnt crowded out by your
  presentations of other peoples thinking, or your
  own voice by your quoting of other peoples
  voices
• To do this paraphrase is far more effective than
  quotation
• 2. Never leave your reader in doubt as to when
  you are speaking and when you are using materials
  from a source.
• Part of your responsibility as a scientific
  writer is to make the source of any data very
  clear so that it can be verified.

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Integrating other psychologists work into your
writing

• 3. Always make clear how each source you
  introduce into your paper relates to your
  argument or analysis
• It is poor practice to insert quotations or a
  series of paraphrases without indicating how each
  source is used. Quotations can be used to support
  a point, illustrate a point, give an opposing
  view, criticise a flaw in analysis and so on.

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Avoiding Plagiarism

• Plagiarism means using other writers ideas,
  words or frameworks without acknowledgement. It
  means that you are falsely claiming that the work
  is your own. This can range from copying whole
  papers, paragraphs, sentences or phrases without
  acknowledgement to merely changing a word or two
  within a sentence.

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Avoiding Plagiarism
From Purdue University, http//owl.english.purdue.
edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html accessed 14
May 2003
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Avoiding Plagiarism Which Of These Is Plagiarism?

• 1. Copying a paragraph verbatim from a source
  without any acknowledgement.
• 2. Copying a paragraph and making small changes -
  e.g. replacing a few verbs, replacing an
  adjective with a synonym acknowledgement in the
  References.
• 3. Cutting and pasting a paragraph by using
  sentences of the original but omitting one or two
  and putting one or two in a different order, no
  quotation marks with an in-text acknowledgement
  plus References.
• 4. Composing a paragraph by taking short phrases
  from a number of sources and putting them
  together using words of your own to make a
  coherent whole with an in-text acknowledgement
  References.
• 5. Paraphrasing a paragraph by rewriting with
  substantial changes in language and organisation
  the new version will also have changes in the
  amount of detail used and the examples cited
  citing in References.
• 6. Quoting a paragraph by placing it in block
  format with the source cited in text
  References.
• Slightly adapted from Carroll J. 2000 Teaching
  News November, 2000. Based on an exercise in
  Academic Writing for Graduate Students by Swales
  and Feale, University of Michigan, 1993 on
  http//www.ilt.ac.uk/resources/Jcarroll.htm
  Accessed 12/05/2003

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Avoiding Plagiarism further help

• Keep an accurate record of all reading using a
  card index system or Endnote.
• Record each source while you are reading it.
• Ensure that you are using effective paraphrasing
  summary skills
• http//www.uefap.co.uk/writing/writfram
• For help with paraphrase, see
• http//owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_
  paraphr.html

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Further help on Citation referencing

• See Andy Gilletts very helpful UEFAP site?
  writing?citation reporting http//www.uefap.co.u
  k/writing/writfram.htm
• For references see also UEFAP?writing?
  references
• http//www.uefap.co.uk/writing/writfram.htm
• See also APA handbook