General Suggestions:

• You will almost always be expected to use APA formatting in research and experimental papers.  Many of your professors will grade your APA formatting. Your use of APA formatting will definitely be graded in Methods in Psychology (Psychology 303) and your Experimental Core course (Psychology 321, 322, 323) and any advanced research papers.
• You need to assure that you avoid grammatical and spelling errors.
• The content of your papers is critical.  Even if you make no mistakes in APA formatting, you might still receive an F on the paper.  A few of the common errors made in student papers are:
• • The paper is filled with erroneous information
  • The paper contains illogical conclusions
  • There is little development of arguments to support hypotheses and/or conclusions.
  • There is insufficient review of primary and current literature.
• The Method section of research papers:
• • The Method section is a recipe for the study. That is, does the cook provide enough information for another cook to produce the same dish with the same taste?
  • A reader should be able to read your Method section and go to the lab and carry out a study that is identical to your study.
  • If you use tests, scales, etc. that have been published in other sources that are available to your reader, then you only have to cite the source.
  • If you develop your own scales and manipulations then you need to go into detail about the content of your scales and layout the specific actions taken to manipulate the independent variables.
  • It is wise to provide more information in the Method section than too little.
  • A wise test is have another psychology major read your method section and answer questions about what the participants actually did in the study.

Sternberg's 21 Writing Tips
The best advice you can be given for writing research articles for submission to journals AND for grades of A in your psychology courses.

Psychology with Style: A Hypertext Writing Guide for the 5th Edition of the APA Manual
One the most helpful sites available on the web for APA formatting.  You will also find a template for a title page on the site as well as a checklist to use in reviewing your paper.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab
An excellent site that will not only provide invaluable instruction in use of the 5th Edition of the APA Publication Manual, but explicit examples of the mulitude required formats for reference.

FMU Writing Center
Seek on-campus support with your research and term papers at our Writing Center.

Google: The Prime Search Engine
Use this search engine when you are seeking information on the Internet when you do not want to limit yourself to Psych Info.

OneLook Dictionaries
An automated search machine of wonderful dictionaries (you'll love if you like word games)

Nature of Plagiarism and How to Avoid It:

Duke University Guidelines--
Nature of Plagiarism
Avoiding Plagiarism

Purdue's Writing Lab--
Avoiding Plagiarism
Writing it in your own words: paraphrase