October 26, 2014 - Posted to Research Paper Writing Guide

The research paper is a common paper written in college, universities and also high schools. It requires preparation and time to complete these treacherous academic papers. They require energy both physical and mental, laborious hours and accurate final papers delivered to your instructors. With a psychology research paper things simply get worse. This is because the paper requires highly accurate information considering that it’s a social science paper.

You cannot be creative with this paper because it relies on scientific information and analysis. On top of the dilemma that you face of choosing a topic for the assignment, imagine your instructors asking you to write it in an MLA format. Wouldn’t this make you go crazy, especially if it is your first time to write it? Do not despair because on thoughts of how to write a psychology research paper. Take a breath, have a seat and read through the tips below so that you can be a step ahead when writing your research paper. They include:

Research Paper Writing. Brainstorming

You should come up with the relevant topic which you can expound on. This is something that is vital as it helps you to narrow down your research time. If your lecturers and professors haven’t already set the topic for you, have an out of the box experience choosing a topic for yourself. Pick on a topic, you are passionate about for your psychology research paper. There are various techniques to brainstorming such as drawing charts, jotting down points that come to mind no matter how shallow or in-depth they seem and free writing.
Research - The research materials relevant to your topic are found on the internet, the library, medical journals, newspapers, books, online databases etc. They will also be a source for your MLA format in-text citations and references. All this information is to help you to support your main thesis. When you are stranded, you can ask for help from your fellow students, or the librarian.

Create a Pre-reference list and organize your research-With the different sources accumulated, you need to narrow down your list. Eliminate the sources that don’t seem viable or shallow for your topic. As you narrow down on your psychology research paper topic, the easier it becomes to organize the paper.
Make an outline and write your first draft - Your research paper must have structure.  There should be introduction, body and conclusion. This makes the writing process of your draft easier as you categorize your paper into sections, and sub-sections supporting your idea.
Proofread, revise and prepare the final draft- Review your final draft by proofreading it to correct any mistakes in the paper. They could be spelling mistakes, grammar, and arrangement of your ideas. Take notes as you proofread so that you mark the areas that require revision.

 

 

MLA Format Writing Tips

Most psychology research papers are written in APA writing style. There are times when your instructors might ask you to change the writing style to MLA format. When this happens, don’t overwhelm yourself with thoughts of how to write a psychology paper using the MLA writing style. Use the tips below to document your sources. They include:-

• When writing the in-text citations use the parenthetical form of documenting your work. For example (Name of Author, page number where you’ve retrieved the citation) (Gross 100)
• On the research paper final page, you must have a “works cited” page. This lists the sources you have used in your paper.  An example includes Gross, R. Psychology: The Science of Mind and behavior (2nd ed). Hodder and Staughton. (1992). Print.
• Double Spacing- Make sure that your whole psychology research paper is double-spaced from the title page to the works cited page
• Online sources- in your citations use the publication dates for the sources used, and when you accessed them.