psychology

ALWAYS START WITH WHAT THE AUTHORS SAY, then you can give your views.

Avoid saying “I think…” or “in my opinion.” But also avoid referring to yourself as “the researcher.” Just write sentences that imply that a judgment is coming from you.

· For example, instead of saying, “I agree with Smith,” you can say, “Smith’s argument seems to offer a stronger explanation for ….”

· Or instead of saying “In my opinion, this is important,” just say “This is important.”

ALWAYS MAKE IT EASY FOR YOUR READER TO RETRACE YOUR STEPS. If you get a fact from a source, CITE IT. If you say that the sky is blue, then your reader probably won’t need to go check that so you don’t have to site it. But if the author explains WHY the sky is blue, you’ll have to cite the source.

____4A__Did you remember that the 1st time you do an in-text citation for a source with 3-5 authors, you list all 3 names, and after that you just say say et al.? (Olowoya et al., 2018?).

____4B__Did you remember that the first time and every other time you do an in-text citation for a source with 6 or more authors, you only cite the first author and just go directly to et al.? (Olowoyo et al., 2018)?

____4C__Did you remember that although 6 authors still gets written out in full in the reference list citation?

____4D__Did you remember that with 7 or more authors, there’s a special rule for the reference list citation? It’s “SIX SKIP LAST.” (Appel, Carney, Ben, Edwards, Del, Kennedy,…Xavier, 2018). You can remember this by thinking about how they do it in the movies. The actors typically go in order of importance, and then there a some unknowns, and then the very last person named is likely to be a big star.

1. ________Did you remember that you can’t just put a comma between two potential sentences? (aka independent clauses) When you put together two strings of words that have all it takes to be actual sentences, then you have only three choices? (a) You can split them up and let them be 2 little sentences. (b) Or you can put them together and put a semicolon (;) between them. (c) Or you can put them together and use a comma followed by “and” or “but” to tie them together: I went home. She stayed. OR I went home; she stayed. OR I went home, and she stayed.

2. ____On the FIRST page, did you remember NOT to make “Introduction” the title of the introduction?

3. ____In your INTRODUCTION, please look at the Template WITH EXAMPLES. People tend to lose points for leaving out things that are needed in the Abstract and in the Introduction. You might check this list, too, from Dr. Sibulkin:

· Why the topic is important

· How are people affected?

· What problem do we want solved

· Give some context

· What is already known

· What general approach has been used to address this issue

· What are your articles generally adding?

· Define or give the operational definitions of key terms

· State your research question.

· State your research approach.

· For example, if you were focusing on changes across time, you’d say that you had identified all the articles on a certain topic that were printed in peer reviewed journals between 1980 and the present and then selected five articles that seemed to represent what was being said at that time.

· Or if you were focusing on two treatments, you’d say that you had identified all peer-reviewed articles published in the last ten years on those two treatments and selected five articles that seemed to give the best description of the treatment and results.

4. ____In your LITERATURE REVIEW, did you use subheads and Levels correctly?

5. ____In describing studies, did you stay on point? For each study, give just the purpose, methods, and results.

6. ___ Did you have strong transitions between studies? From Dr. Sibulkin, here are 2 examples of good transitions:   "Similar to Jones and Smith (2013), Collins and Said (2016) also used a sample from the college counseling center...."  OR Michaels and Chu (2012) looked at a database that actually recorded when students were reported for misbehavior, rather than using made up stories and pictures.

7. ____Did you remember to turn on your SPELL/GRAMMAR check on your computer?

8. _____REFERENCES!!! Do you have 5 peer-reviewed references? Book chapters and websites and magazine articles don’t count.

9. ____Did you remember that you can only cite a reference on the reference list if you actually read it? If it’s mentioned in another article then in the text you say, (Olowoyo, cited in Madoc, 2017). Then in the reference list you don’t mention it at all. You just list Madoc.

10. ____Did you remember to remember that you HAVE to use doi numbers?

References

(1) One last thing that might help. With multiple authors, it can be hard to figure out the order. Always go across and then down. The authors below would be listed like this: Patel, A.D., Aiello, E., Aaron, N.I., Ramage, L.D., Ramage, J.D., Duncan, M.A.E., & Davenport, L. (2017)

Avram David Patel, Eliana Aiello, & Noah Isaac Aaron Lily D. Ramage & Joy D. Ramage

Vanderbilt University Canine University

Mary Anne Elizabeth Duncan & Lucile Davenport

University of Texas, San Antonio

(2) ALWAYS give a doi number. You may see a doi embedded in an http address. If you see it, that’s your doi number. Just put the whole thing, starting with http. If you truly don’t see anything with a doi, then you’ll have to use the Retrieved from style. Look that up.

11. ___Given that it can result in a 0 on the paper, did you remember to check the Originality results by clicking on the score and then opening and reviewing the document? Look for shading. Just going by the score is a huge mistake.

12. ____Did you remember to avoid silly errors like scattering extra space in different spots in order to hit your required 10 pages? If you get 9 and a half or even 9 pages plus 2 lines, that’s way better than extra spacing.

13. ____Did you check your paper for APA Style errors?