Psychology

Writing-in-the-major

speakerwriting computerCommunication expectations for psychology students : Writing-in-the-major & presentations

Psychology is a “writing-in-the-major” undergraduate program (WIMP). Every psychology course requires that students write. However, the type of writing varies by instructor and course content. By completing the psychology major, students fulfill the “writing emphasis” component of the UWL general education requirements. Strong communication skills including writing and oral presentation represent key hallmarks of a liberally educated person and comprise one of the American Psychological Associations' goals for the undergraduate major.

APA Style - What is required in psychology courses?

UWL psychology instructors will indicate the extent to which your papers must conform to APA style (7th Ed.). Some courses, such as PSY 331, require a research paper submitted following specific APA research paper elements (as if you were going to submit the paper for publication). Many courses will have papers that will require APA references and citations. Some instructors may require APA citations and a few selected other stylistic elements. Some papers will not require any APA style elements. Please always refer to the specific instructions for your paper assignments. If you have any questions about style elements, it is safest to assume APA 7th edition style and consult with your instructor.

UWL Psychology APA Style Guide (the most common APA style elements required by UWL psychology instructors)
Annotated sample papers from the APA website
Quick Guide - Reporting numbers and statistics in APA style
Your 331 and 451 instructors will provide guidance on how to report specific statistical tests (t-test, ANOVA, correlation) in proper APA format.
MATERIAL on reference searching: EBSCOhost - PsycINFO quick use guide & Murphy Library Guide for Psychology Resources

Writing and oral expression rubrics

UWL's Psychology Department provides feedback to students regarding communication on several key elements:

I. Ideas	II. Organization	III. Conventions (mechanics) - WRITTEN	IV. Conventions (mechanics) - ORAL
Content accurate and relevant Use of sources/evidence Clarity	Transitions Flow Format (audience appropriate)	APA (if required) Spelling Syntax	Eye contact Verbal skills Visual Aids

When group projects are required, faculty may also provide feedback on the extent to which the project reflected equity and cohesion among group members.

Additional guidance on each of these elements is provided in the two primary documents below:

Types of writing - formal and informal

Formal

From the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning (CATL)

Writing to communicate, which we call "formal writing," is an essential academic and professional skill. But how do students' undergraduate experiences advance them towards writing competence at the professional level? Since scholarly and professional writing are so thoroughly grounded in the discourse conventions of the disciplines, we should look to the academic disciplines to play a key role in developing writing competence, making learning to write well an integral part of the student's education. We believe that students learn to write well when they:

understand the kinds of writing expected of them,
internalize the criteria that define good writing,
experience guided practice in which their writing is shaped through a process of revision and editing, thus internalizing an efficient and effective composing process,
learn to compose with a strong awareness of disciplinary conventions and the needs, knowledge, and attitudes of their audiences, and
become progressively better at self assessment.

Purposes of Formal Writing Assignments

to give students opportunities to give form to and demonstrate the knowledge and the intellectual skills they have acquired
to acquaint students with the discourse conventions of a particular discipline or intellectual community
to allow students guided opportunities to practice those conventions

Types of Formal Writing Assignments

scholarly papers: research reports, review articles, critical essays
professional writing: reports; proposals; memos; essays, articles, and instructions for a lay audience; letters to the editor; editorials; brochures; critiques & reviews
academic papers: term papers, seminar papers, essay exams

We do not have a preconceived, one-size-fits-all definition of "writing competence." Rather, individual faculty define competence as it applies to their disciplines and to their undergraduate students. To facilitate this analysis, we distinguish among three broad categories of formal writing:

Academic writing. Perhaps the most common type of formal writing in school is purely academic. Its major purpose is for students to demonstrate their knowledge about a specific subject. It is prompted by instructor questions to describe, explain, discuss, analyze, evaluate (and so forth) and is written for the teacher as the sole audience for the work. Many types of reports and papers fall into this category: essay exams, short answers on exams, research projects, book reports, papers that analyze or critique a specific topic, issue, or problem, etc.

Scholarly writing. This includes all the types of writing a working scholar might do. The purpose of such writing is to communicate the ideas, theories, inquiry methods, and research findings of the discipline. Majoring in a discipline involves entering into and becoming a member of a discourse community-learning to think and communicate like other members of the discipline. Thus, an important aspect of teaching students to write is developing their ability to participate in the discourse community: to use the well-established conventions, rules, and practices that govern scholarly communication. The obvious and most common example of scholarly writing is the article in a scholarly journal. Other types of scholarly writing include grant proposals, laboratory reports, field study reports, critical reviews (of a book, an article, software, a visual object, etc.), review essays, opinion pieces to a professional journal, scholarly response articles, and scholarly essays.

Professional workplace writing. This includes all the writing a working professional must engage in. Some graduates will engage directly in the scholarly discourse of their discipline after graduation; many will become professionals whose primary work is not scholarly. Academic majors, after all, are also pathways to future employment, and a university education can help prepare students for the kinds of writing common in the workplace and professional life. Of course, it is not possible to prepare students for every type of writing they will encounter, but students should have some experience with and expertise in common forms of writing used in the professional workplace. Perhaps most importantly, students should develop a facility to analyze a communicative situation and determine what kind of writing is most appropriate for specific audiences and contexts. Some examples of workplace writing include program proposals, business letters, interoffice memos, reports to co-workers, feasibility studies, program assessments and evaluations, and many different types of writing for lay audiences, such as brochures, pamphlets, guides, instruction sheets, etc.

Informal writing-To-learn

From the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning (CATL)

The term "writing-to-learn" refers to writing activities intended primarily to facilitate or develop students' understanding and thinking. Writing-to-learn activities are a necessary complement to formal writing in that a major cause of poor formal writing is poor understanding of the subject matter. In terms of a student's intellectual development, writing-to-learn may be even more important than formal writing since writing-to-learn serves as a vehicle through which students build their understanding of subject matter. During the writing-to-learn process, the main focus is on making sense of the material and not on communicating it in a specific format to an audience.

Purposes of Writing-to-Learn Assignments

to help students understand and learn
to promote
- critical thinking skills (e.g., analysis, synthesis)
- reflection
- integration of new information with students' prior knowledge
- affective/psychic development
- careful reading
- class discussion
to help students discover and formulate problems
to help students develop problem-solving strategies and skills
to allow and encourage students to raise questions and concerns
to sharpen student responses to their academic experiences
to help faculty monitor student progress through the course