Essays and Reports

?Essay Crafting Guide for Psychology Students
Before you be able to write your essay it's important to analyse the task and understand exactly what the essay question is asking. It is plausible your lecturer will give you some advice - shell out attention to this as it will help you plan your answer.
Next conduct preliminary reading according to your lecture notes. At this stage it's not crucial to have a robust understanding of key theories or studies, but you should at least have a general 'gist' on the literature.
After reading, plan a response to the task. This plan could be around the sort of the mind map, a summary table, or by composing a core statement (which encompass the entire argument of your essay in just a number of sentences).
After crafting your plan conduct supplementary reading and refine your plan and help it become a lot more detailed.
It is tempting to skip these preliminary steps and just create the first of all draft as reading for the same time. However, reading and planning will make the essay crafting strategy easier, quicker, and ensure a higher premium essay is produced.
Now let us look and feel at what constitutes a really good essay in psychology. There are a lot of important benefits.
A World Structure - structure the material in a very way that enables for a reasonable sequence of ideas. Each individual paragraph / statement should follow sensibly from its predecessor. The essay should 'flow'. The introduction, main body and summary should all be linked.
Each individual paragraph should comprise a main theme which are illustrated and developed through several points (supported by evidence).
Knowledge and Understanding - recognise, recall and clearly show understanding on the assortment of scientific material that accurately reflects the main theoretical perspectives.
Critical Evaluation - arguments should be supported by ideal evidence and/or theory from the literature. Evidence of independent thinking, insight and evaluation belonging to the evidence.
Level of quality of Written Communication - creating clearly and succinctly with best suited use of paragraphs, spelling and grammar. All resources referenced accurately and in line with APA guidelines.
On the main body in the essay every paragraph should demonstrate equally knowledge and critical evaluation.
There should also be an acceptable balance somewhere between these two essay factors. Try to aim for about a 60/40 split if feasible. Most students make the mistake of composing too considerably knowledge and not enough evaluation (which is the difficult bit).
It is highest quality to structure your essay according to key themes. Themes are illustrated and developed through quite a lot of points (supported by evidence). Choose relevant points only, ones that most reveal the theme or help to make a convincing and interesting argument.
Knowledge and Understanding
Remember that an essay is simply a discussion / argument on paper. Don't make the mistake of composing all the related information you know regarding a particular topic.
You'll need to be concise, and clearly articulate your argument. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences.
Just about every paragraph should have a purpose / theme, and make numerous points - which really want to be assistance by superior high quality evidence. Be clear why every point is is relevant to the argument. It would be useful on the beginning of every paragraph when you explicitly outlined the theme being discussed (.e.g. cognitive improvement, social enhancement etc.).
Try not to overuse quotations with your essays. It is further acceptable to utilise original content to demonstrate your understanding.
Psychology could be a science so you must assist your ideas with evidence (not your personal personal opinion). Any time you are discussing a theory or research study make sure you cite the source with the particulars.
Note this is not really the author of the textbook you have go through - but the original source / author(s) in the theory or research study.
Bowlby (1951) claimed that mothering is almost useless if delayed until after two including a fifty percent to three years and, for most children, if delayed till after 12 months, i.e. there exists a critical period.
Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to obtain certain needs. When one particular will be needing is fulfilled a person seeks to fullfil the next an individual, and so on.
As a general rule make sure you will find at least one particular citation (i.e. name of psychologist and date of publication) in each and every paragraph.
Remember to answer the essay question. Underline the key words while in the essay title. Don't make the mistake of simply composing everything you know of the particular topic, be selective. Each individual paragraph inside your essay should contribute to answering the essay question.
Critical Evaluation
In very easy terms this will mean outlining the strengths and limitations of the theory or research study.
There are a great many ways it is easy to critically evaluate:
Methodological evaluation of research -
Is the study valid / reliable. Is the sample biased or can we generalize the findings to other populations? What are the strengths and limitations of your method employed and information obtained?
Be careful to ensure that any methodological criticisms are justified and not trite. Rather than hunting for weaknesses in every study; only highlight limitations which make you doubt the conclusions that the authors have drawn - e.g. where an alternative explanation could possibly be equally seemingly as a result of something hasnât been adequately controlled.
Compare or contrast different theories -
Outline how the theories are similar and how they differ. This could be two (or considerably more) theories of personality / memory / child advancement etc. Also try to communicate the value on the theory / study.