Helpful Tips on How To Write a Psychology Paper
The focus of all psychological research and knowledge is human behaviour, and whenever human beings are studied through research and experimentation and discussed in scholarly writing, great care must be taken to ensure that the language used expresses sensitivity, communicates with a wide variety of readers and avoids ambiguities and biases of all kinds.

Psychological studies are certainly among the kinds of scientific writing that draw a wide range of readers, from a specialised audience of fellow researchers and practitioners to a general one of patients and their families. It is therefore essential to use a plain, lucid and concise style that is absolutely correct, remembering that errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar not only look sloppy and unprofessional, but also introduce the possibility of confusing and misleading your readers. Specialised terminology should be used sparingly and only when absolutely necessary, and jargon should be avoided if at all possible. When discipline-specific language is needed, it should be carefully defined when first introduced and then used consistently throughout a document, and the same is the case with any nonstandard abbreviations. Ideas, methods, procedures, instruments, theories and results should be explained as clearly and precisely as possible, and it can be helpful to use well-designed tables, charts, graphs and illustrations to communicate complicated data, processes or other information in effective visual forms.

Expressions of bias can be even more detrimental in psychological writing than confusing language is, yet in most cases what sounds like bias is unintentional and simply the result of choosing vocabulary without thoroughly considering its potential implications for readers. The use of gender-specific pronouns such as ‘he’ and ‘she,’ for instance, or the terms ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in ways that do not reflect the actual context and participants of the research under discussion can smack of sexism or gender bias. Using language that is clear, accurate and painstakingly precise when describing your research will almost always resolve the problem, but it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the words you are using achieve the effect you desire, and even the tiniest traces of gender, ethnic or age bias can undermine otherwise excellent research. It is therefore wise to recruit a colleague, mentor or friend to read and comment on your writing before you submit it to a publisher, and the services of a professional academic or scientific proofreader who is familiar with scholarly writing and your subject area can prove invaluable for catching instances of bias and helping you reword your text more appropriately.

Working to avoid phrasing and vocabulary that may convey undesirable biases is not only a matter of achieving precision and accuracy, but also an aspect of being sensitive to the readers you anticipate for a piece of writing. Sensitivity is particularly essential in scholarly or professional writing about human beings, especially when it is possible that patients and clients as well as psychologists and researchers may read the text. Referring to the participants of a study as ‘subjects’ or using terms that define them solely according to their illness or condition may sound objective and scientific to some, but it can come across as insensitive and neglect the human element of a study. For this reason, it is always best to keep that human element central when writing up your research and especially when you are initially describing the participants and conditions of your study.