This is for the course “Critical Academic Writing” taught, in English, at the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Psychology.
This course is designed to teach first-year MA students in psychology the skills necessary for academic writing in English in order to write a quantitative, high-quality MA thesis.
A high-quality MA thesis presents an argument based on facts and logic and thus has a clear contribution to the discipline and field of study.
The course will highlight important stages of the journey from research idea to MA thesis:
- Structure and critique
- Building productive writing habits
- Hallmarks of good writing
- Specific applications, namely, introduction, theory and hypotheses, and data and methods.
Students will learn how to efficiently and effectively collect, interpret, criticize, and synthesize information from multiple sources.
Class 1. Introduction to Academic Writing
A. Introductions
B. Understanding the audiences and purposes of academic writing; Contributions, i.e. answering, “so what?”
Required: Schimel (2012) Chapter 1
Optional: Schimel (2012) Chapters 2 and 3
C. Structure of empirical research articles in psychology
Required: Schimel (2012) Chapter 4
Optional: Harvard Writing Center “A Brief Guide to Writing the Psychology Paper”
Lecture Notes
Contributions: See “How to write the introduction.”
Philosophy of Writing: See How to think about academic writing in the social sciences
Structures
The American Psychological Association provides specific guidelines as to the structure of empirical research articles in psychology:
- Appelbaum, M., Cooper, H., Kline, R. B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Nezu, A. M., & Rao, S. M. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report. American Psychologist, 73(1), 3.
- Levitt, H. M., Bamberg, M., Creswell, J. W., Frost, D. M., Josselson, R., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for qualitative primary, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report. American Psychologist, 73(1), 26.
UC San Diego Psychology also has a good webpage on the structure of psychology articles.
Class 2. Writing Habits, Productivity, and Using AI Assistants
A. Using AI assistants and digital tools to improve your writing (e.g. ChatGPT and Gammarly)
Required
— Watch: “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman | AI for the Next Era”
B. Writing habits and productivity
Required
• “Leadership Lab: The Craft of Writing Effectively,” by Larry McEnerney, Director of the University of Chicago’s Writing Program
• Smith, Chris. 2018. “Six academic writing habits that will boost productivity.” LSE Impact Blog
• Peterson, Todd C., Sofie R. Kleppner, and Crystal M. Botham. 2018. “Ten simple rules for scientists: Improving your writing productivity” Plos
DUE: Notes on “Leadership Lab: The Craft of Writing Effectively” (ca. 200 words)
Lecture Notes
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Social Scientist
How to use ChatGPT in Social Science Research
- ChatGPT by OpenAI
- Otter.ai for real-time transcriptions
- Notion AI for streamlining notetaking
- Elicit.org and Consensus.app and Connected Papers for finding research articles
Lecture notes for Writing Habits and Writing Strategies
Class 3. Finding, Reading, and Critiquing the Scientific Literature
A. Finding and evaluating sources; Organizing research; Avoiding plagiarism
B. How to choose and read an article efficiently and effectively
Required
- Carson et al (2012) chapters “How to Read Sources Critically”, “Writing a Conceptually Coherent Paper,” and “Academic Honesty in Writing”
- Watch: How to Read a Paper Efficiently (By Prof. Pete Carr)
Lecture Notes
DUE: AI-assisted concept list and thesis statement, and suggested title (ca. 200 words)
Class 4. Phrasing the Research Question and Crafting a Thesis Statement
A. Phrasing the research question
Required:
B. Crafting a thesis statement
Required: Harvard College Writing Center: Developing A Thesis
Lecture Notes
DUE: Literature review, min. 5 academic sources (500 words, plus references)
Class 5. On Writing Well
Writing clear and well-developed paragraphs; Arcs: Connecting point-first paragraphs
Required
- Schimel (2012) Chapters 10 and 11
- Carson et al (2012) Chapter “Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Writing in Psychology”
Lecture notes
DUE: Knowledge gap statement: “whereas we know this, we do not know that…” (100 words)
Class 6. From Introduction to Critical Literature Review
A. How to write the introduction: Research question, contribution, and thesis statement
B. From critical literature review to theory and hypotheses
Required: Schimel (2012) Chapters 5 and 6
DUE: Critical analysis of an article: Students will write a critical analysis of an article published in a psychology journal (300 words)
Class 7. How to Write the Data and Methods Section
Required
DUE: An introduction to your research (300 words)
FINAL RESEARCH REPORT DUE JUNE 15, 2023
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