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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Macro-Challenges in Writing Papers: Planning and Formulating Papers
- 1 Eight Common Misconceptions about Psychology Papers
- 2 How to Generate, Evaluate, and Sell Your Ideas for Research and Papers
- 3 Literature Research
- 4 Writing a Literature Review
- 5 Planning and Writing the Experimental Research Paper
- 6 Ethics in Research and Writing
- Part II Micro-Challenges in Writing Papers: Presenting Your Ideas in Writing
- Part III Writing and Preparing Articles for Journal Submission
- Part IV Presenting Yourself to Others
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
1 - Eight Common Misconceptions about Psychology Papers
from Part I - Macro-Challenges in Writing Papers: Planning and Formulating Papers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2016
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Macro-Challenges in Writing Papers: Planning and Formulating Papers
- 1 Eight Common Misconceptions about Psychology Papers
- 2 How to Generate, Evaluate, and Sell Your Ideas for Research and Papers
- 3 Literature Research
- 4 Writing a Literature Review
- 5 Planning and Writing the Experimental Research Paper
- 6 Ethics in Research and Writing
- Part II Micro-Challenges in Writing Papers: Presenting Your Ideas in Writing
- Part III Writing and Preparing Articles for Journal Submission
- Part IV Presenting Yourself to Others
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
Students and inexperienced writers often have misconceptions about the writing process and characteristics of good papers that effectively prevent them from writing as good a paper as they possibly could. Here are eight common misconceptions you should be aware of before you even begin writing:
1. Writing the psychology paper is the most routine, least creative aspect of the scientific enterprise, requiring much time but little imagination.
2. The important thing is what you say, not how you say it.
3. Longer papers are better papers, and more papers are better yet.
4. The main purpose of a psychology paper is the presentation of facts, whether newly established (as in reports of experiments) or well established (as in literature reviews).
5. The distinction between scientific writing, on the one hand, and advertising or propaganda, on the other hand, is that the purpose of scientific writing is to inform, whereas the purpose of advertising or propaganda is to persuade.
6. A good way to gain acceptance of your theory is by refuting someone else's theory.
7. Negative results that fail to support the researcher's hypothesis are every bit as valuable as positive results that do support the researcher's hypothesis.
8. The logical development of ideas in a psychology paper reflects the historical development of ideas in the psychologist's head.
Misconception 1.Writing the psychology paper is the most routine, least creative aspect of the scientific enterprise, requiring much time but little imagination.
Many students lose interest in their research projects as soon as the time comes to write about them. Their interest is in planning for and making new discoveries, not in communicating their discoveries to others. A widely believed fallacy underlies their attitudes. The fallacy is that the discovery process ends when the communication process begins. Although the major purpose of writing a paper is to communicate your thoughts to others, another important purpose is to help you form and organize your thoughts (Pinker, 2014).
Reporting your findings in writing requires you to commit yourself to those findings and to your interpretation of them, and it opens you to criticism (as well as praise) from others. It is perhaps for this reason as much as any other that many students are reluctant to report their research.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Psychologist's CompanionA Guide to Professional Success for Students, Teachers, and Researchers, pp. 9 - 25Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2016