PSYC 415 Paper Guide
Your paper will follow this general format. In fact, if you use this as a guide to write an outline for your paper, you’ll be in good shape:
Title page (1 page)
Introduction (1/2 – 3/4 page) where you do the following:
What is attention? (in general)
What is the topic of your paper?
Overview/introduction to the topic.
Provide a “thesis” for your paper (i.e., “The purpose of this paper is to review the research on …then to propose a future research topic, and detail the participants that would be included in this study…”
Literature Review (6-7 pages) where you do the following for each of your research article (Each summary should be about 2/3 of a page):
Article 1 (least related to your research purpose/question/hypothesis):
What was the research question/hypothesis? (1-2 sentences)
In general, who were the participants? (1-2 sentences)
Do not tell me what language they spoke.
Do not tell me how they were recruited (or where they were recruited from).
Do not tell me how they were compensated.
In general, what did the participants do (i.e. what was the procedure)? (3-4 sentences)
This should be a SUMMARY
In general, what were the results? (1-3 sentences)
No numbers!
Just tell me general findings
In general what did the researchers conclude (relate this back to the research question/hypothesis)? (1-2 sentences)
Article 2:
What was the research question/hypothesis? (1-2 sentences)
In general, who were the participants? (1-2 sentences)
Do not tell me what language they spoke.
Do not tell me how they were recruited (or where they were recruited from).
Do not tell me how they were compensated.
In general, what did the participants do (i.e. what was the procedure)? (3-4 sentences)
This should be a SUMMARY
In general, what were the results? (1-3 sentences)
No numbers!
Just tell me general findings
In general what did the researchers conclude (relate this back to the research question/hypothesis)? (1-2 sentences)
Article 3:
What was the research question/hypothesis? (1-2 sentences)
In general, who were the participants? (1-2 sentences)
Do not tell me what language they spoke.
Do not tell me how they were recruited (or where they were recruited from).
Do not tell me how they were compensated.
In general, what did the participants do (i.e. what was the procedure)? (3-4 sentences)
This should be a SUMMARY
In general, what were the results? (1-3 sentences)
No numbers!
Just tell me general findings
In general what did the researchers conclude (relate this back to the research question/hypothesis)? (1-2 sentences)
Article 4:
What was the research question/hypothesis? (1-2 sentences)
In general, who were the participants? (1-2 sentences)
Do not tell me what language they spoke.
Do not tell me how they were recruited (or where they were recruited from).
Do not tell me how they were compensated.
In general, what did the participants do (i.e. what was the procedure)? (3-4 sentences)
This should be a SUMMARY
In general, what were the results? (1-3 sentences)
No numbers!
Just tell me general findings
In general what did the researchers conclude (relate this back to the research question/hypothesis)? (1-2 sentences)
Article 5:
What was the research question/hypothesis? (1-2 sentences)
In general, who were the participants? (1-2 sentences)
Do not tell me what language they spoke.
Do not tell me how they were recruited (or where they were recruited from).
Do not tell me how they were compensated.
In general, what did the participants do (i.e. what was the procedure)? (3-4 sentences)
This should be a SUMMARY
In general, what were the results? (1-3 sentences)
No numbers!
Just tell me general findings
In general what did the researchers conclude (relate this back to the research question/hypothesis)? (1-2 sentences)
Article 6:
What was the research question/hypothesis? (1-2 sentences)
In general, who were the participants? (1-2 sentences)
Do not tell me what language they spoke.
Do not tell me how they were recruited (or where they were recruited from).
Do not tell me how they were compensated.
In general, what did the participants do (i.e. what was the procedure)? (3-4 sentences)
This should be a SUMMARY
In general, what were the results? (1-3 sentences)
No numbers!
Just tell me general findings
In general what did the researchers conclude (relate this back to the research question/hypothesis)? (1-2 sentences)
Article 7:
What was the research question/hypothesis? (1-2 sentences)
In general, who were the participants? (1-2 sentences)
Do not tell me what language they spoke.
Do not tell me how they were recruited (or where they were recruited from).
Do not tell me how they were compensated.
In general, what did the participants do (i.e. what was the procedure)? (3-4 sentences)
This should be a SUMMARY
In general, what were the results? (1-3 sentences)
No numbers!
Just tell me general findings
In general what did the researchers conclude (relate this back to the research question/hypothesis)? (1-2 sentences)
Article 8 (most related to your proposed research)
What was the research question/hypothesis? (1-2 sentences)
In general, who were the participants? (1-2 sentences)
Do not tell me what language they spoke.
Do not tell me how they were recruited (or where they were recruited from).
Do not tell me how they were compensated.
In general, what did the participants do (i.e. what was the procedure)? (3-4 sentences)
This should be a SUMMARY
In general, what were the results? (1-3 sentences)
No numbers!
Just tell me general findings
In general what did the researchers conclude (relate this back to the research question/hypothesis)? (1-2 sentences)
Do NOT provide a critique of the articles here.
Make sure to include transitions between the paragraphs.
Discuss the article least related to your proposed research first. The last article to be discussed in the Review of the Research is the one that is the most related to your proposed research.
**REMINDER: You’re always integrating the literature with YOUR proposed research**
Introduction to Proposed Research (1/2 – 1 page)
This section should be the intro to your research. It will almost follow the form of: “Past research (cite) has found/examined A. Past research has also found B and C (cite). Further, past research (cite) has indicated that…. However, research has not examined D. Therefore the purpose of the current study is to examine D. More specifically, the current study was designed to examine… It is hypothesized that…” Your idea for research should NATURALLY stem from the previous research.
**Please note that the above is an example, you may not have all of those things to discuss in the first few sentences. That’s okay. I’m just trying to show that (1) things need to be cited; and (2) you should use proper sentence structure and not just have a run on sentence.
IN SUMMARY, what has the previous research shown?
Be sure you cite things appropriately.
IN SUMMARY, what still needs to be done (this is where you first introduce your study)?
What is the general purpose of your proposed research (to further study “A”)?
What is the research question (The research will determine whether “A” is affected by “B”)?
What do you hypothesize for your proposed research (It is hypothesized that “B” will help “A” more than…)?
Conclusion (1/2 -1 page)
Summarize the topic, and the previous research on the topic.
Summarize your research question and your hypothesis.
Include a few sentences regarding who your participants might be in your study as well as what they will do in the study.
“Wrap up” any loose ends.
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