Tips on Writing a Psychology Research/Review Paper
by Dr. Robert St. John, Department of Psychology

Planning Your Paper

Your paper should be between 20 and 25 typed pages, and be based on at least 15 original journal articles in a particular field of interest (i.e., gas-mask design, Freud’s theories on dreams, etc.). Your paper should not simply be an annotated bibliography of the papers you have read. Don't just tell what Jones et al. (1985) did, followed by what Smith et al. (1978) did, followed by what Greg et al. (1877) did, etc. Rather, your paper should be organized to present what is currently known about your topic, and at the same time provide a good story line. Papers should not be textbook-like summaries, nor look like pamphlets from a medical or industrial company. They should also not be a series of personal anecdotes.
Your paper will probably be based on original papers and sometimes books. Head to a library and find the relevant references in your chosen field. First, give your collected materials an overview and try to focus on a specific topic in your chosen field. At this point you will know if perhaps more research or material are required. Read the material that you have collected to acquire an understanding of your specific topic. Use the references that others have used. That is, if you find a recent paper with lots of relevant articles included in the reference section, go and look them up!

Try to create a general outline before you begin to write. This outline should be based on the materials you have collected. It may indicate that you have some additional information collecting to do! Be prepared to modify this general outline as you progress. It need not be set in stone.

Making Your Point

Analyse your topic. Try and find a distinct sub-area that will make best use of your collected materials. Depth of analysis is preferable to breadth. Tell the reader lots about something, not a little about a lot of things. Try and develop some form of a theme. It may be helpful to think of your paper as an attempt to establish an argument or to make a point. You don't need to formulate a hypothesis about your topic, but your paper should have some direction.

Begin your paper by introducing the topic and stating your approach to the topic. Start with broad concepts and work towards the specifics. Don't begin or conclude your paper with "profound statements." Read your first and last paragraphs and see if your paper could do without them; avoid formulaic introductions and conclusions. Begin your arguments, and when you have finished what you have to say, stop. At the end of your paper, provide whatever conclusions you have arrived at and then stop. Try to write clearly and precisely, even at the risk of being a bit dull at times in your paper.

Avoid using vague descriptive terms. For example, do not write, "The performance of the rats in Lashley's early experiments provided significant steps in understanding behaviouristic learning principles." What does this sentence mean? Why were the experiments significant? Did they provide incentive to work harder? Who knows? Who cares? (By the way, avoid overusing rhetorical questions.)

Writing With Style

You should generally write in the passive rather than the active voice, and usually in third person. For example, a sentence written in the passive voice would read like this: “The rats were housed in a controlled laboratory environment and were fed twice daily.” This is preferable to an active sentence written in the first person: “We housed our rats in a laboratory with a controlled environment and I fed them twice each day.”

Finally, look at style guides for guidance in matters of format and documentation. A good resource is Making sense in psychology and the life sciences: a student's guide to writing style, by M. Northey & B. Timney, 1986, Oxford University Press, Toronto. The APA publication guide is also a good source for stylistic pointers. Psychology essays must use the APA style method of documentation.