Writing Research Papers in Human Development

The college-level research paper is more than just a summary of book chapters and research articles. An acceptable paper takes a clearly defined topic or idea, supports it through research of the current literature, and presents it in a logical and consistent fashion. Below are resources that will aid you throughout the process of writing a research paper in human development.

Student Guides for Doing Research in Huamn Development

• Library Research in Psychology
  "This information was created to help students and nonpsychologists find relevant research on psychological topics and includes links to the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, and various APA databases, including PsycINFO and PsycEXTRA" (APA)
• Psychology Writing Center
  The University of Washington Psychology Writing Center provides numerous guides for writing about psychology. The writing guide section about "Scientific Writing and APA Format" includes such topics as "Summarizing a Research Article," "Writing an APA Lab Report" and "Writing a Psychology Literature Review."

Using the APA Style for Writing Your Research Paper

• American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  This print resource provides all the rules that govern the formatting of your final manuscript. Please note that this style guide governs more than just the organization of your bibliography. There are rules, for example, concerning your paper's font size, margins, pagination and punctuation. You can locate this guide in virtually any public or academic library or online.
• APA Style Help
  Links to resources on the APA Style website.
• APA Style
  Online summary of the American Psychological Association's guide to writing research papers. This resource provides summarized instructions for citing references as well as how to prepare a manuscript.