help with psychology research paper

I am really stressing our about the research paper for psychology. I would love if anyone has any helpful tips and ideas that have really help with them. I was never really good at writing research papers. If someone could help that would be awesome!
Thanks in advance!

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JasonDymm wrote:

I am really stressing our about the research paper for psychology. I would love if anyone has any helpful tips and ideas that have really help with them. I was never really good at writing research papers. If someone could help that would be awesome!
Thanks in advance!

1. Quote and site, give credit...

2. I would pick paragraphs and change them enough as to not plagiarise.

3. My teacher loved when I added quotes in between paragraphs.

4. Check grammar this is were lots of points are taken off, my psychology teacher hated bad grammar

5. Pick something easy and keep it simple. Don't go over board with a tough subject it's not a dissertation.

6. A Psychology teacher prefers a well written paper rather than a half ass written paper on a tough subject.

Biggest thing make sure you stick to the format of the paper or it's a complete fail...

This doesn't really pertain to research, but for anyone who's more comfortable taking about something than writing about it, I advise starting off by talking into a recorder as if explaining things to a friend, then typing up what you said, then cleaning it up. It's a bit of a chore, but after a while you'll feel just as comfortable typing as you do speaking and then you can just skip the recorder part.

I don't quite agree with solwitch on #2 (I consider that heavily concealed plagiarism, and although you'd probably get away with it it's just not the Scrotie way), but the rest of his advice is pretty good. Especially #6. In most subjects your grade on a paper has more to do with how well you write papers, and less to do with the subject itself.

When you write a paper, try to layout the structure of the whole thing before starting to write.

Use LaTeX if you know how, it makes your papers look more professional, and it helps a lot with index and image alignment.

What kind of research are you doing?

Agree with the general top-down approach.

Sketch the paper out and leave yourself lots of scaffolding, then make multiple passes adding in detail and refining as you go. Don't be afraid to stop and re-sketch parts if you discover that you've hit a dead-end and can't write yourself out of it.

If you really want to go hard on this approach, use some kind of content versioning system (svn, git, hg) and make a branch for each major expansion, with the ability to discard the branch and return to master at any time. Similarly, you can branch from branches to test something new while you test something new. (Obviously this is way more useful if it's a multi-person project.)

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Another topic would be procrastination or (lack of) drive.

Lots to talk about there, but the best strategy I've found is to always get something done every day and never allow yourself to completely ignore the project. Even if what you're doing is an experimental change in wording or styling and you'll throw it away afterward, attempt it.

Best of luck!

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JasonDymm wrote:

I am really stressing our about the research paper for psychology. I would love if anyone has any helpful tips and ideas that have really help with them. I was never really good at writing research papers. If someone could help that would be awesome!
Thanks in advance!

A few suggestions:

1) If you have a choice of topics, pick one that is more interesting to you.

2)Know what your teacher expects from the paper. Some might want a lot of structure in which your opening sentences define exactly what will happen in each paragraph, some are more interested in the actual content of the paper. You can write an amazingly good paper, but if you aren't writing for the format that your teacher will be grading on, you could lose points.

Part of knowing the expectations is having a good idea of whether the paper should focus in on a specific concept and give lots of detail, or whether your teacher is look for a broad overview. It will help you avoid a lot of wasted time both in researching material, and in editing down to fit the final page count.(which you probably don't have much extra of anyways, as a student).

3) Find out how much leeway there is on page count - then plan your paper to be on the LOW side, or even slightly under. It is far easier to add material and have a paper with clear concise ideas, than it is to start chopping off ideas and still retain the ideas of the paper.

4)Find out what reference your teacher uses for APA format, because when there's any doubt, you want use the same formatting source that you will be graded on. (My guess is that it will be Purdue Owl, but check first)

5A)Do lots of research (see 5B below) - As you run across redundant support for concepts that you are planning on including, you may find explanations that make more sense, are more authoritative (meta analysis of studies vs case study review, for example or fit what you are trying to do/say better. The 4th source explaining concept X, might have some really good ideas that weren't in the first three. Make sure you CITE where all the ideas came from.

5b) As you research information - SAVE ALL THE LINKS

Save the links, note the dates accessed as you go along, rather than try to find them again later on.

The ideas you may not plan on using initially, may turn out to be the ones you want, and it is far easier to click through some saved hyperlinks in your browser than it is to find that EXACT one later on. This alone can save you several hours.

6)Ask if the teacher has some sample papers that they think are done well. These can be an eye opener, and make things a lot easier for you. Not all teachers will.

7) After you have most of the research done, and have a basic idea how you will put it together, step away from the computer and try to give a simple verbal explanation of your paper. When you can verbalize the basic concepts of the introduction, body and conclusion, than you have a mental map of what is important, and needs to stay, and what is just filler or icing. If your paper ends up being 17 pages, and the teacher only allows 12, you really want to know what can be cut.

8)As Dan mentioned, starting to write is better than avoiding it. Momentum is a big factor.
If you are completely stuck, you can copy and paste chunks from your sources on one document, and then alt tab over to a blank page and just type up a brief line or two explaining what you just copied. Getting the CONCEPT front and center makes it easier to write about the concept.

If someone was writing about path of exile, and didn't understand that it was a game, imagine how off that paper would be. The basic stuff may seem obvious and simple, but getting it down first makes the rest go easier.

9)Before you turn in your paper - make a physical print. Print out your paper - ON PAPER - in the same formatting (double spaced?) that you will be turning it in. Now read it SLOWLY, and OUT LOUD.

Where did all those mistakes come from? Especially after you've proof read it nine times already! The problem with writing and re-writing is that the ideas blur in your mind and you aren't really seeing the words on the page anymore.

Think about: Darth vader

for a second.












Did you see a capital "D" and a small case "v" or did you picture the Star Wars character in your mind. Aside from spelling and capitalization errors, you may find wordings that you want to change around a little bit.



Overall, if you dig in and make a good effort, your paper should turn out well. In many classes a paper is mandatory and the reason for that is for students to have some basic writing skills later on.

Good Luck! The fact that you are asking about the paper is a great sign that you are already on the right track.

.

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DalaiLama wrote:

3) Find out how much leeway there is on page count - then plan your paper to be on the LOW side, or even slightly under. It is far easier to add material and have a paper with clear concise ideas, than it is to start chopping off ideas and still retain the ideas of the paper.

Making filler can be as bad sometimes, at least in my experience. It reduces overall quality. Also, cutting stuff some times can be easier, because one tends to put redundant/skippable parts.

One should be near the target length from the beginning if possible.

I actually think it's far easier to trim than to add filler.

But really (and this kinda relates to my advice earlier) you should have thoughts of your own on the topic. I mean, if you're here on the PoE forums I assume you are opinionated about PoE, if nothing else. Get a perspective, then once you have that down work on regarding that perspective within the format of a paper. If you can't make the subject matter to you, there whole thing becomes a lot more difficult (and it also raises the question of why take the class at all).