Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction XII
1 Some Preliminaries 1
Essays and Lab Reports 1
The Importance of Preparation 4
How Psychologists Write 6
The Case for Writing Up Using the Computer 9
The Case for Writing Up on Paper 10
Starting to Write: Ten Ways to Get You on Your Way 11
Chapter Summary 13
2 Writing the Essay 15
The Minimalist Approach 15
The Value of Effort and Motivation 16
Tools for Writing 17
Methods of Collecting Information from Published Sources 17
The Planning Stage 21
Paragraphing and Planning the Essay Structure 28
The Topic and the Thesis of the Essay 33
Putting Yourself into Your Writing 35
Developing an Argument in an Essay 37
The Editing Process and its Interaction with Writing 38
Chapter Summary 40
3 Preliminaries to Writing the Lab Report 42
Hypotheses and Variables 42
Hypotheses, Theories, Models and Laws 43
Formulating Hypotheses for Yourself 47
Experimental Controls 49
Effect Size, Sample Size and Statistical Power 51
The Ethos of Psychology 53
Ethical Conduct 58
Chapter Summary 59
4 Writing the Quantitative Lab Report 61
The Title 62
Method 62
Participants 62
Apparatus and Materials 66
Design 70
Procedure 70
Results 73
Introduction 75
Discussion 78
Conclusion 81
Abstract 81
References and Appendices 82
The Relative Length of the Different Sections 83
Exploratory Studies 85
Chapter Summary 85
5 Writing the Qualitative Research Report 88
Grounded Theory 89
Writing the Report Itself 90
Introduction 90
Method 91
Results 93
Discussion 94
Final Remarks 96
Chapter Summary 96
6 Presenting Numbers, Tables and Figures 98
How to Present Numbers 98
Should I Use a Table, a Graph or Just Put the Data in the Text? 103
How to Present a Table 104
How to Construct a Table Using Word 105
How to Present a Figure 108
How to Produce Figures in Excel 111
Chapter Summary 116
7 Writing the Project 118
Planning the Study 118
Writing Up the Project 122
Comparing the Project and Short Report 123
Revising Your Writing 125
Chapter Summary 128
8 Writing for Exams and Answering MCQs 129
Preparation for Essay Exams 129
The Essay Exam – In the Exam Room 132
Ten Points to Consider for a Multiple-choice Exam 137
Contrasts Between the Two Kinds of Exams 140
Chapter Summary 141
9 Writing for Other Purposes 143
Writing to Recruit Participants and Writing Letters to Organisations 143
Giving Instructions About Your Experiment 146
Debriefing After an Experiment 147
The Wording and Other Aspects of Questionnaire Construction 148
Chapter Summary 153
10 Attention to Detail: More on APA Formatting, Especially References 155
Writing the List of References 155
How to Reference Citations in the Body of the Text 164
Punctuation (including Hyphens, Quotes and Quotation Marks) 167
Font Style (Bold, Italics and Capitalisation) 177
Abbreviations 180
11 Some Basics of Grammar and Common Confusions 182
A–Z Guide to Grammar and Common Confusions 183
12 Improve Your Editing Skills 199
Exercises in Proofreading and Making Corrections 199
Abstract 199
Introduction 200
End Part of the Introduction 208
Method 209
Results 210
Discussion 212
The Essay 212
References 214
Concluding Remarks 214
Appendix 1: An Example Student Essay 216
Appendix 2: An Example Student Quantitative Lab Report 223
References 234
Index 237
