Info Report (First draft)

Psychology Writing

No matter what career path you choose, writing will always be important. Now, there are some that writing will not be the main thing you have to do all the time but having down the basics is pretty crucial. Writing does not come with only one form but with a variety of forms. Depending on the field you choose in the future determines not only the amount of writing you will do but also the type of writing required.

 In psychology writing, research papers are not the only type of writing you are required to do. In order to better understand the writing that is required in psychology I decided to interview my cousin Natalie who is a psychology grad student. She explained to me that in psychology there are many different types of writing, for example: reports, lab reports, reviews, and literature reviews. The purpose of each is to help enhance your ability to accurately summarize important information, be able to look at different sources and determine between each the validity of them, and also to be able to present your own findings in a research essay. Now, the importance of these various types of writing are crucial to the psychology field because they consist the building blocks to being successful in this field.  

Revision is crucial in every essay you ever write. When it comes to psychology writing there is much revision that is done according to my one my aunts that is a former grad student in psychology. In the field of psychology, experimenting is quite important because without it we would not know all that we know today about humans. Do you think you do one experiment and you’re done? No. In many cases you have to do continuous studies on that one subject in order to be accurate. This is not only with labs but also with reports and reviews. In each you must make sure that what you are writing about is accurate and that you all your statements are valid and can be backed up with your research. Collaboration is something that is also important in this subject field. When trying to do different studies it can be easy to believe that your hypothesis alone is right but it can easily cloud the actual facts. It is important to discuss with others in order to be able to get the most accurate information.

According to an article in Purdue Owl: Writing in Psychology, we are explained the principles that are key to writing in this field. The following of them are: using plain language, conciseness and clarity of language, evidence-based reasoning, and APA format. Each of these are the keys to successful writing. From this article we are also told the purpose of writing in this field, which are “describing, explaining, and understanding concepts of from a standpoint of empirical investigation.” These keys are special to writing in psychology because they are what makes up each lab, review, report, etc., written.  Also, we learn that the audience is not always a straightforward thing. Many times when you are doing a writing assignment in psychology the audience will be your instructor and at times it could also be your peers. The audience is semi based on the type of writing you are doing and what specifically you are writing/talking about.

So the basic building blocks of psychology are to describe, explain, and understand. Without these key words you could struggle writing in this field. As discussed in this report I feel like it is safe to say that when you are writing in psychology you must make sure that you are factual and accurate. There is no entertainment writing involved, just factual informational reports and essays. It is your choice alone if you can see yourself writing like this in the future. Writing is pretty important in this field and knowing that is key to deciding on it as a future career.