Communication skills (with student comments in quotes)

Writing and communication are central to research skills

“I wasn’t expecting to learn how to substantially improve my scientific writing,” “how to write "scientifically" and produce proposals for our own research”

"Writing for psychology is essentially different than it is for other disciplines, not only in terms of content but also the very meaning of writing (writing to communicate information as efficiently as possible rather than something important for its own sake)."

Some people startled themselves with how much they improved their skills.

"I learned how to explain a complicated research in a easy way, and I feel like that might be my strength?"

"My best piece of writing is always going to be in a repeated draft. When I take the time to write everything down by hand, all the gory details, I've got more room to piece it all together. And I realize that sometimes the format you use for Submission 1 really isn't the format you should use for Submission 2. I'm better at revision than I'd like to admit. I think this will help me prepare better to turn in a more rounded paper the first time around next time."

Yes, I did ask students to generate research proposals as part of the final exam.

“I think writing a research proposal would definitely be something I didn’t expect. Another interesting aspect was learning about all these different areas of research within psychology - gene expression, aggression and guns, and even moral psychology. Lastly, I was not expecting to leave as a better writer. I may have not improved as much as I wanted to but this class definitely encouraged me to visit the Writing Lab and really crunch down on my long, unnecessarily detailed sentences (like I am doing right now).”

“I thought the class would be lectured-based and not so much fun. I couldn't imagine that there would be debates and we were picking up the papers to defend and attack, which was hard to do but it's worthwhile.”

“I was close to being shocked when I first knew that the class was doing a debate, which was something that I personally hated. Yet in the end, I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would. It also gave me a new perspective on what kind of learner I was.” “I think I didn't expect to learn how to defend and attack articles so 'professionally!'”

In general, students learned to take a deeper investment into the challenge of writing to support readers who are not as conscientious or knowledgeable as they (the students) are. It's a challenge that doesn't always have an easy resolution.

"I feel like I didn't entirely understand how to make a part of my paper less complex but also not condescendingly easy, because I was not sure which aspects were self-explanatory and which were more difficult to understand. I did learn however that it is important to provide readers with accessible information, so it is more just the how that I am still working on.

But students came away with a greater respect for the writing process.

"Lazy writing doesn't lead to less lazy readers."

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