Before you begin writing your paper, you need to first research your topic. The best start to a psychology research paper needs to grab the attention of the reader immediately. This can either be by a short story, an example, a statistic or historical context that introduces the paper.
An overview of any issues involved the subject and explanations of any relevant terminologies that might help in the understanding of the topic. A summary of previously conducted research is required as well as your own hypothesis. These are just a few ideas on how to write a psychology paper.
Brief guide for writing a psychology paper
- Choose a Focused Research Topic and Organize
The major confusion for many students is how to start a psychology paper. The initial step for writing a paper should be research and selection of a topic that warrants further study.
The research process is more relevant if you care about your topic. Narrow your topic to something manageable. A broad topic will only lead to you getting too much information and will leave you unfocused. Your ability to organize all the information collected will determine the reception of your research and your presentation.
- Create an outline and develop a strong hypothesis
While writing a psychology research paper it is good to have an outline for your work. This helps you organize your thoughts while also ensuring the research paper flows logically. Before rushing to write a research paper it’s good to develop a thesis statement or hypothesis.
A strong hypothesis forms the foundation of your research paper. It needs to concisely state what your research is about and needs to be tested, evaluated and explained in the course of your research. The most important element is that it needs to be testable, which means it has the scope to be proven true or false.
- Start drafting, edit and proofread
With a topic and or thesis question you already have a focusing idea. All that you have to do now is write down the points that you might have. As you right down your rough drafts the ideas come in and they have to be assisted by research. This is the heart and soul of any research paper that has been written.
Editing is the next stage of the article as you near completion. This helps improve readability, clarity and tone of the text to be presented. Proofreading is the final stage of the editing process. It focuses on surface errors such as misspellings, mistakes in grammar and missing punctuation. This should only be done after finishing all other editing revisions.
- Unbiased and neutral language
Unbiased language entails being fair in your writing. It also means that in the course of your material, you are not allowed to have any favorites or any opinions that would color your judgment. It would also need to be free from gender and group stereotypes; including race, age, ethnicity, ability level, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation.
Bias in research can cause distorted results and wrong conclusions. Such studies can lead to unnecessary costs, wrong clinical practice and they can eventually cause some form of harm to the patient.
- Refer to credible sources
Credible sources are unbiased and backed up with evidence. They are often written by authors respected in their fields of study. Responsible and credible authors will cite their sources so that you can check the accuracy of and support for what they’ve written.
Final take
If the above points are followed properly, they show the outline for a psychology paper. They are good guidelines on how to write a research paper for psychology. They can also be used to offer Psychology paper writing services for different persons.
