The Psychologist's Companion Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Macro-Challenges in Writing Papers: Planning and Formulating Papers
- Part II Micro-Challenges in Writing Papers: Presenting Your Ideas in Writing
- Part III Writing and Preparing Articles for Journal Submission
- 11 Article Writing 101
- 12 How to Make Your Article even Better: Proofreading, Revising, and Editing
- 13 Critical Checklist before Submitting an Article for Publication
- 14 Deciding on a Journal and Submitting an Article to a Journal
- Part IV Presenting Yourself to Others
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
11 - Article Writing 101
from Part III - Writing and Preparing Articles for Journal Submission
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2016
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Macro-Challenges in Writing Papers: Planning and Formulating Papers
- Part II Micro-Challenges in Writing Papers: Presenting Your Ideas in Writing
- Part III Writing and Preparing Articles for Journal Submission
- 11 Article Writing 101
- 12 How to Make Your Article even Better: Proofreading, Revising, and Editing
- 13 Critical Checklist before Submitting an Article for Publication
- 14 Deciding on a Journal and Submitting an Article to a Journal
- Part IV Presenting Yourself to Others
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter summarizes 50 tips from experts on writing articles. We're first presenting the tips to you in list format so you can gain a quick overview. We then elaborate on each of the tips.
1. Ask yourself whether your ideas are interesting to you, and why they would be interesting to other people.
2. Realize that new ideas are often difficult to get accepted.
3. Write the article that emerges from your research rather than the article you planned to write.
4. Explore the data to find out what they have to say and not just what you expected them to say.
5. A good article tells a story.
6. Write the story the data tell rather than the story of your discovery of the data's story.
7. Write at a level that students will understand.
8. Make clear what is new in your article.
9. Write with your reviewers in mind.
10. Write in the manner of an hourglass: Start broadly, become more specific, and then end broadly.
11. Make clear how your study tests your hypotheses.
12. Polish and proofread.
13. Do not use synonyms, especially for technical terms, just to avoid redundancy.
14. Make length proportional to contribution.
15. Use a title that clearly expresses what the article is about and that also, if possible, captures attention.
16. Write an abstract that contains the information readers would want to know most.
17. Accept feedback non-defensively but critically.
18. A good literature review (whether as a general article or as part of an article) defines and clarifies a problem; summarizes previous research to inform readers of existing research; identifies relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies; and suggests next steps.
19. Good authors write with their readers in mind.
20. A good article has a take-home message.
21. Write for a class of journals.
22. Choose carefully the journal to which you submit your article.
23. Do not take reviews personally.
24. When you resubmit an article, be clear as to how you handled each of the points made in the reviews.
25. Relate what you are writing about to people's everyday experiences.
26. Use interesting rhetorical questions.
27. Say clearly why what you are studying should matter to your readers.
28. Review relevant literature in a way that relates it to the argument you want to make.
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- The Psychologist's CompanionA Guide to Professional Success for Students, Teachers, and Researchers, pp. 253 - 264Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2016