Home > Program Areas > Life-Span Developmental Psychology > Writing

Life-Span Developmental Psychology

General
Information

Alumni Reflections

Prospective Students

Current
Students

Writing Skills

1. Note to Incoming Students

Effective writing is an important tool in academic and professional psychology. All graduate students in the Developmental program are expected to have or to acquire the skills required for effective communication of ideas and findings. We recommend that students buy and become familiar with the American Psychological Association Publication Manual, which contains detailed information on how to write journal articles. We also recommend that students acquire a good resource book on proper English usage, such as The Chicago Manual of Style, and that they learn to use the material contained in it. During graduate training, students’ writing will be evaluated often, and if appropriate, experiences will be recommended for improving their writing skills.

2. First-Year Students

The writing skills of all first-year students will be evaluated by the Developmental faculty members who teach Fall semester Developmental courses. Second opinions will be obtained from other Developmental faculty members as appropriate. Students who are judged to lack basic composition skills (proper grammar, appropriate usage, good sentence construction, basic organization, etc.) will be referred to the Center for Writing Excellence and/or advised to take a course in scientific writing (e.g., English 305, Scientific and Technical Writing) during the Spring semester of their first year. This course will not count as an elective in their graduate curriculum.

3. Other Students

After their first year, students who still lack basic composition skills should be identified by Developmental faculty members on the basis of course work and research activities. These students will be urged to take a course in scientific writing or they will be expected to obtain private tutoring either through University resources or at their own expense.

4. Improving Writing Skills Beyond the Basic Composition Level

Developmental faculty members are expected to help students in the program improve their writing skills, including organization, flow, clarity, style, and selection of appropriate and relevant information (as in writing literature reviews and presenting data). The following procedures might be useful.

a. Provide ample and specific feedback to students on written products both in classes and in research activities. Giving separate grades for writing and content may be helpful; liberal use of written comments on specific problems within papers may be even more helpful

b. Provide students opportunities to revise papers. Whenever appropriate, students might be required to revise poorly written papers. If this procedure is used, the revisions should be read and commented on even if they are not graded. Faculty members working with graduate students on research projects should encourage frequent revisions of written material.

c. Emphasize the importance of good writing to graduate students. Many students do not understand the need for multiple revisions and for obsessiveness (if nonpathological) about the details of writing. Sir Isaac Newton knew the importance of revising: His “manuscripts inform us equally of the extreme care which he took in the redaction [editing] of his works: he writes, crosses out, corrects, copies it all again, crosses out, recorrects . . . and recopies. Having finished, he starts out all over again: thus he made at least eight drafts of the Scholium generale for the second edition [of Principia Mathematica]” (Koyré, 1965, p. 262; suspension points in original).

Students are responsible for knowing how to use sources appropriately, including correct referencing of primary and secondary sources, proper use and presentation of direct quotes, and suitable summarization techniques. Students’ responsibilities include knowing the statement about plagiarism in the West Virginia University Student Handbook.

Reference

Koyré, A. (1965). Newtonian studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.