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Of course this is a recipe for curing genuine writer’s block and assumes that you have actually done some relevant work! 4.3 Writing practical reports These should be concise and formal in style, using plain language and short, clear sentences. Stephen Lea, at Exeter University, comments that: Students go through a phase of believing that this conventional structure of experimental papers is a wicked imposition by a crypto-fascist academic establishment irrationally wedded to a nineteenth-century scientistic concept of psychology, but in fact writers should be grateful for being given a clear and concrete task. (Lea, 1999, web page) The traditional format for practical reports is as follows. ACHIEVING GOOD OUTPUTS 113 • Title: brief, elegant and informative. • Abstract: always write this last so that it fits the report! • Introduction: set out the general area, give a brief mention of previous research, explain what question you are trying to examine and how you propose to do it, outline the hypothesis to be tested, and end with your predictions. • Method: this might include participants (it is no longer good form to use ‘subjects’), apparatus, stimulus material, procedure, sampling and statistics, depending on the nature of the practical. Each of these sections should have a subheading. • Results: you should report what you observed, depending on the nature of the practical – questionnaire, observation or quantitative measurement, for example – and present data diagrammatically whenever possible (see Chapter 5, pages 146–154). One important question is whether to report the descriptive statistics first and then, separately, report the statistical analysis (see Chapter 5, page 154). • Discussion: this refers back to the introduction and considers how the results impinge on the questions raised. It should start with a brief summary of your results and end with your main conclusion(s). It may refer to new literature that helps to explain your results and offer some suggestions for future research. • References: these should be in APA format (see Appendix 1) unless your department has a different requirement.
114 STUDY SKILLS FOR PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS • Appendices: this is where you put material that is not essential for the main message, but may be useful for reference, like raw data or an SPSS printout. (If there is more than one appendix, then these should be numbered and listed on the first page of the appendices.) Check whether all these sections are required. For early practicals you may be asked to include only some of them. We have left the detailed discussion of reporting results to Chapter 5, on finalyear projects, and you may want to refer to the section on ‘Reporting and analysing your results’ (pages 146–161) now, for examples of how to display your data effectively and some common errors in interpretation, particularly if you have been given an open-ended brief about what to do. Tips: Practical reports ➢ Tackle practical reports as soon as possible, while the details are fresh in your mind. ➢ Make sure any tables or graphs have explanatory legends and axes are clearly labelled. 4.4 Giving presentations (or how to avoid death by PowerPoint) Most courses now include presentations among the assessment methods. Everybody finds these a bit daunting, but thoughtful preparation and rehearsal in as realistic a situation as possible will stand you in good stead, and give you a very important skill that you will soon find yourself using when you graduate. Planning Think about the presentations you have been to and what made them easy to follow and enjoyable (or the reverse!). The two major factors in success are quantity of material and time. Most people come unstuck because there is too much of the former and too little of the latter. A distinguished academic we know, renowned for the perfection of his lectures, had a 50-minute ‘hourglass’ made in order to practise them – but this is perhaps taking it a bit far!
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Successful Studying Study Skills fo
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Study Skills for Psychology Student
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For Georgina Brennan, Julia Henders
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viii CONTENTS 4.5 Preparing and pre
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Skills for Successful Study series
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xiv SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE This
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2 STUDY SKILLS FOR PSYCHOLOGY STUDE
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164 SUCCESSFUL STUDYING Assessing t
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166 SUCCESSFUL STUDYING Networking
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168 SUCCESSFUL STUDYING Using the u
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170 SUCCESSFUL STUDYING ‘Chartere
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172 SUCCESSFUL STUDYING members, Th
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174 SUCCESSFUL STUDYING 6.6 Working
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176 SUCCESSFUL STUDYING 6.8 Longer
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Appendix 2 Answers to exercises Exe
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Appendix 3 Acronyms and abbreviatio
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Appendix 4 Glossary (See also Appen
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References Aserinsky, E., & Kleitma
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218 INDEX Blindsight, 189 Body mass
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220 INDEX GBR see Graduate basis fo
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222 INDEX Phenomenology, 196 Piaget
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224 INDEX t-test, 209 Turnitin, 84-
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