Learning Goals for Psych 483: Writing in Psychology

Ellen Covey and Susan Joslyn

Learning Goals:
  1. Use writing as a tool
    Students will review general principles of good writing and further refine their basic writing skills in the context of scientific communication.
  2. Express thoughts in writing
    Students will learn how to formulate and express a logically coherent scientific argument based on empirical evidence. They will gain experience in applying these skills to write an organized and coherent scientific paper
  3. Summarize data and present findings.
    Students will learn how to present data in different forms, learn how to make effective figures, and learn how to incorporate figures as illustrations in a text.
  4. Apply terminology, language, and style appropriately
    Students will learn about different genres of writing within the broad field of psychology and will learn how to tailor their writing for each genre and readership. Students will learn how to modify their composition and formatting to conform to specific style guidelines.
  5. Understand the writing process.
    6. Students will learn about the process of writing and critiquing drafts, writing revisions, and performing peer reviews.

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