Allegheny College Joshua Searle-White, Ph.D.

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This sheet lists a few of the features I look for in psychology papers. I hope it will take some of the
guesswork out of your paper writing.

Content

Obviously, the content is the most important part of the paper. Here is the way to impress me:

• Organize your paper.  That means give it a beginning, which has some kind of indication of what you are going to discuss and why it is important, and middle, where you go through the evidence or ideas you are presenting to make your argument, and an end, where you  integrate your ideas and come up with a conclusion. Note that the ending does not simply re-state what you have said before; it draws together and synthesizes the information you have  presented and tells the reader what all of this actually means.
• Anticipate the reader's questions. As the reader goes from one section of your paper to the next, she or he needs to be able to understand why you are saying what you are saying. Suppose I am reading a paper on anorexia nervosa, and the author of the paper makes a statement like "Anorexia has become increasingly important in recent years," the first questions that will pop into my mind are "how do you know?" and "if that is true, what might be the cause?" If the writer then goes on to discuss those questions, I am very impressed. In other words, the more you think about what the reader's questions are going to be, and then answer them, the better it will be.
• Justify your assertions. Make sure that when you make a statement, you have some way of backing up what you are saying, either by citing research, referring to some kind of data, or by making an argument. If you say something like "Most people do not want to face their fears," why should the reader believe you? Even if you are writing a paper which is not based on empirical research, you still need to convince the reader of why to pay attention to what you write, to justify your assertions. Just because you believe something (or even truly believe it) is not enough. This is probably the single most important thing to remember when writing papers for me.
• Include clear references. This isn't just impressive; it is essential. If you make reference to any kind of book, article, newspaper, film, etc. in your paper, you need to indicate that clearly in the text and put the full reference(s) on a separate page at the end. The reason this is so important is that 1) it is, of course, crucial that you give full and complete credit to any source which you use, so you are not guilty of plagiarism, and 2) it allows me to evaluate what you are saying by either looking up the reference or at least seeing where you got your information. Please use APA style when you do this.

Here are some smaller issues. I am not particularly impressed by sheer length. But I am really into
legibility (though those of you who have seen my handwriting may think otherwise). I do admit that I
have a weakness for cool fonts. And, of course, some very minor things: Use "it's" only when you are
making a contraction of "it is" -- never to indicate possession. The word "separate" is spelled like
that, not as "seperate." Effect is almost always a noun, and affect is almost always a verb. If you use
them that way, you will almost never be wrong. Use quotations only when you simply cannot find a
better way to paraphrase what someone has said, and then make sure you comment on or explain the
quotation in the text. And remember to eat plenty of vegetables and wear your seat belts.

Grading

I will evaluate your paper based on the criteria given above, in addition to whatever specific issues
are raised by the particular assignment. In general:

• An "A" paper is one that is outstanding in every way -- it is extremely well organized, from how the sentences flow from one another to the overall shape of the argument, the assertions are well grounded and thoroughly examined, the arguments are very convincing, and the presentation is excellent, with few or no typos or mechanical errors of any kind.
• A "B" paper is a good paper -- one which demonstrates substantial achievement in all of the above areas, with reasonable organization, well-grounded arguments, and perhaps a few mechanical errors.
• A "C" paper is one which meets all the requirements of the assignment adequately but does not show the thoroughness of arguments or the originality and clarity of presentation as the "A" or "B" papers.
• A "D" paper is one that is not of acceptable quality in at least two of the above areas.