Writing and Psychological Science

Code:

LPSI101

Acronym:

ECP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Psychology

Instance: 2022/2023 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Web Page:	http://https://moodle.up.pt/course/view.php?id=1233
Responsible unit:	Psychology
Course/CS Responsible:	First degree in Psychology

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LPSIC	214	Official Curricular Structure	1	-	6	54	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

Writing is a powerful thinking tool. Hence, students will benefit from understanding it, training it, and valuing it. This course covers four important dimensions that stand at the intersection between writing and psychological science: motivation, writing mechanics, knowledge about scientific writing and metacognition of writing. On motivation, the aim is that students come to value writing as they develop its creative, fluent and critic use. On mechanics, students should improve their expertise on basic aspects of writing such as the sentence, punctuation, cohesion, and APA writing style. On knowledge, students will identify and train several forms of scientific communication. On metacognition, the aim is that students become aware and develop their personal writing strategies. By targeting these four dimensions we open the possibility that students can value and self-regulate their writing accordingly to the principles of scientific writing in psychology.

Learning outcomes and competences

In the end of this course the students should be able to:

- To value reading and writing as privileged practices of communication in science.

- To think critically about social and human sciences themes.

- To understand writing as a thinking tool.

- To use writing as a way of expressing and aiding thinking.

- To know the main formats of scientific communication.

- To know the main style norms of the scientific writing in psychology

- To use efficiently selected tools for text production in psychology.

- To know and to develop personal writing strategies.

- To monitor and regulate writing according to the principles of scientific writing.     

Working method

Presencial

Program

- Motivation for reading and writing.

- Creativity and expression of ideas.

- Information and critical thinking.

- The mechanics of writing: the sentence, punctuation, cohesion, and types of text.

- Tools for aiding writing: language handbooks, grammars, and references management.

- Principles of scientific writing.

- Forms and functions of scientific communication.

- The APA writing style for academic writing in psychology.

- Metacognition about writing: planning, text production, revision, and coherence.

Mandatory literature

American Psychological Association; Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. ISBN: 978-1-4338-3216-1
Cunha, C., & Cintra, L. ; Nova Gramática do Português Contemporâneo, João Sá da Costa, 200
Elbow, P; Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, 1998
Fawcett, S.; Evergreen: A Guide to Writing with Readings (9th ed.), Wadsworth, 2010
Kellogg Ronald T.; The^psychology of writing. ISBN: 0-19-512908-3
Lau, J. Y. F.; An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity: Think More, Think Better, Wiley, 2011
Moore, R., & Parker, B. N. ; Critical Thinking (9th ed.), McGraw-Hill, 2009
Tredinnick, M.; Writing Well: The Essential Guide, Cambridge University Press, 2008

Teaching methods and learning activities

Weekly group sessions, mainly taking the form of writing workshops. The workshops are organized around requested readings, its discussion, the use of writing aiding tools, and performing several writing exercises. The course has also an online component (http//moodle.up.pt), in which supporting workshop materials are provided.

Software

Turnitin
Endnote

keywords

Humanities > language sciences > Languages > Modern languages > European languages > Romance languages > Portuguese language
Social sciences > Psychological sciences > Psychology
Humanities > Literature > Writing

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Exame	40,00
Trabalho escrito	40,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	20,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	72,00
Frequência das aulas	60,00
Trabalho escrito	20,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	2,00
Trabalho de investigação	8,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Attendance to the pratical lessons is verified. Students that miss more than 25% of the lessons cannot present themselves to the final examination. 

Calculation formula of final grade

Evaluation is continuous with final exam. Students that miss more than 25% of the workshops will need to register again for the course. In the assessment of the course students are requested to do: a) a written work, b) oral presentation of the work, c) individual written work delivered during the examination period. In the final assessment, these components will be weighted, respectively, a) 40%, b) 20%, c) 40%. Writing assignments are submitted through the moodle platform using the Turnitin tool. All evaluations will be expressed in 0-20 scale. There is no minimim grade in any of the evaluation components.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Student-workers are not obliged to frequency checking. Their evaluation will be assessed through the assignments provided for all students. 

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Special evaluations need to be discussed with the professors at the begining of the course.

Classification improvement

Grade improvement is not possible, due to the nature of the project works carried.