PSYC 1030H WI2024 1

Written Article Summary Instructions

An important aspect of doing research in psychology involves writing literature reviews based on
published research articles, using APA writing style. Literature reviews are scholarly documents
that synthesize existing research to provide an overview of a specific topic or area. Article
summaries, which provide a structured description of a single research study, are key building
blocks of literature reviews. The American Psychological Association (APA) outlines a common
template for how all psychology papers should be written and formatted. The purpose of this
assignment is to give you practice writing a research article summary using APA writing style.

The Witten Article Summary (worth 15% of the final grade) is the final phase of the PSYC
1030H course assignment, where you will read a peer-reviewed journal article describing a
psychological research study and write a scientific article summary to convey your
understanding of the article.
Tip: It is strongly recommended that you start writing your Article Summary at the
same time as you prepare for the Research Article Quiz, do not wait until after the quiz!

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

The Written Article Summary must be each student’s individual work, free of plagiarism and
cheating as per the definitions outlined in the Trent University Academic Integrity Policy.

PREPARATION TIMELINE

 Review all the materials posted on Blackboard in the Course Assignments folder.
 Read the assigned research article by Smolarski et al. (2015) (posted on Blackboard).
 Re-read the article and take notes (see the preparation guides posted on Blackboard).
Tip: Take notes using entirely your own wording instead of copying phrases directly
from the article – this will reduce the risk of plagiarizing the article in your summary.
 Get support as needed from Prof. Keefer, Dr. O’Brien, or the Academic Skills Centre.
 Complete the Research Article Quiz when it becomes available (January 31-February 2).
 Complete the Written Article Summary (including title page and references) and upload it to
Blackboard before Seminar 3.
 Bring two printed copies of your completed Article Summary to Seminar 3 and participate in
the peer-review workshop to receive constructive feedback from each other.
Only students who attend their assigned seminar group and bring copies of their
completed article summary will receive grades for this workshop (5% of course grade).
 Revise and submit your Written Article Summary on Blackboard by your assigned due date.
Note: Collaborative study of the research article during the preparation period is welcome!
However, the Research Article Quiz must be taken individually and kept confidential, and
the Written Article Summary must also be entirely your own individual work.
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ASSIGNMENT FORMAT

 The Written Article Summary should be approximately 3 to 4 double-spaced pages

consisting of:
1. Title Page (on a separate page)
2. Article Summary (max. 600 words, in paragraph format)
3. References (on a separate page)
 Unlike editorials or creative papers, article summaries are written in a highly structured way.
Your summary should closely follow the outline provided below. The final write-up should
be in paragraph format without any lists, bullets, or headings.
Tip: Ensure that each point in the outline is addressed in your summary, in the order it is
presented below – the assignment marking key is organized around these points!
 Your article summary must be written entirely using your own wording (all information
fully paraphrased, no direct quotes from the article, no text written by AI chatbots), and must
include appropriate APA citations to the source article throughout the text.
An assignment that does not include citations or that is worded too closely to the article
would constitute plagiarism and will receive a grade of zero. Direct quotations from the
article will not count for marks (even if they are properly cited).
 Your entire document should be formatted according to the APA 7th ed. style for psychology
papers (see APA rules below).

ARTICLE SUMMARY: WHAT TO INCLUDE

Overall, your summary of Smolarski et al.’s (2015) article should speak directly to the following
main research question and variables of interest:
Question of interest: Does expressing happiness through drawing result in greater
mood enhancement than venting stress through drawing?
Variables of interest: Purpose of drawing (to express happiness vs. to vent stress) and
Negative mood
Keep your write-up focused on the main question of interest and omit unrelated background
details, variables, procedures, and results (e.g., about the distraction drawing group).

Outline:
 Start by introducing the study with a name citation and state the purpose of the study in
terms of the main question of interest. For this opening sentence only, choose one of the
following template sentences and copy this sentence word-for-word:
Smolarski et al. (2015) conducted a study to examine whether expressing happiness
through drawing would result in greater mood enhancement than venting stress
through drawing.
OR
The purpose of the study conducted by Smolarski et al. (2015) was to examine
whether expressing happiness through drawing would result in greater mood
enhancement than venting stress through drawing.
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 Describe the researchers’ hypotheses.

 Describe the participants used in the study. Who were they? How were they recruited and
where were they from? How many people participated (including number of men and
women)? What was their mean age or age range (if reported)? If participants were grouped,
how was this done? How many were in each group?
 In a few sentences, describe how the study was carried out. What did the researchers do?
What did the participants do? In what order?
 Describe the materials used to measure key variables.
Tip: For this assignment, do not state the proper name of a measure, but rather describe
what it was (e.g., a questionnaire) and what it measured (e.g., feelings of anxiety). If you
do state the name of a measure, it must be accompanied with a secondary source
citation.
 Describe the results of the study. What did the researchers find? Were their hypotheses
supported or not supported? (Do not report any statistics here!)
 Describe the meaning and implications of the results. How did the researchers interpret the
results? What do the results mean and why are they important? How might the results be
applied in real life (i.e., implications)?
 Describe two distinct ideas about either the limitations of the study or suggestions for future
research, and briefly explain why those are limitations. These should be your own ideas, not
those discussed by the authors of the article. Avoid cliché limitations such as small sample
size and self-report measures.
Reminder: Keep your write-up focused on the main question and variables of interest and
omit unrelated background details, variables, procedures, and results.

Writing Style:
Check your write-up to ensure that:
 The article summary is no more than 600 words, excluding title page and references.
 Writing is clear, concise, and free from errors (e.g., grammar, punctuation).
 Information is presented in the order outlined above (i.e., purpose, hypotheses, participants,
procedures and measures, results, discussion of results).
 The article summary is written in third person and past tense.
 The tone of the report is formal and technical (not colloquial/conversational).
 Information is paraphrased in your own words (e.g., no plagiarism or direct quotations).
 Appropriate sentence and paragraph structure is used (e.g., no single-sentence paragraphs).
 Correct use of terminology (e.g., do not use the words “prove”, “correct”, or “wrong” when
referring to the hypotheses). Use proper terminology for hypotheses (i.e., “the hypothesis was
supported” or “the hypothesis was not supported”). Correct use of the terms “correlation”,
“experiment”, and “cause and effect”.

APA FORMAT

Your write-up must be formatted according to the APA 7th ed. style, as covered in the APA
resources posted on Blackboard, and the APA Manual (7th ed.).

Title Page
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 See the example title page posted on Blackboard.

 Title page must be in APA format for student papers.
 Title should be informative and should reflect the variables and purpose of the study (do not
put “Article Summary” as your assignment title).

In-Text Citations
 Introduce the study with an in-text name citation (see suggested wording above).
 Refer to the authors by last name and do not mention the title of the article in your summary.
 If there are two authors:
 When using the authors’ names within the body of the text (a name citation) use “and”
e.g., Taylor and Parker (2017) found...
 When using the author’s names in a parenthetical citation use “&”.
e.g., (Taylor & Parker, 2017).
 If there are more than two authors: State the first author’s last name followed by et al., then
year of publication: e.g., Swinson et al. (2020) or parenthetical (Swinson et al., 2020).
 Cite the authors in the same order as in the journal article.
 If the proper name of a measure is used, a secondary source citation must be provided.

References Page
 The reference page starts on a new page (use Insert Page Break function).
 Follows the APA format, titled References (not Bibliography or Works Cited).
 Includes only the reference for the article summarized (secondary source citations are NOT
included on the reference page).

General Document Formatting

 Double-space and type the entire document. No extra spaces between paragraphs.
 Use one-inch (2.5 cm) margins on all sides of the page.
 Number all pages in the top right corner, starting on the title page.
 Use the same font type and size for everything (title page, body of paper, page numbers).
 Left-justify (i.e., straight edges on left, jagged on the right, like this document).
 Indent each paragraph.
 Numbers under 10 written as words (e.g., one, four), numbers over 10 written as numbers
(e.g., 11, 101).

SUBMISSION

Complete draft is due before your Seminar 3.

 See the Seminars section on Blackboard to find out your assigned date for Seminar 3.
 Upload your assignment as a .pdf or Word (.doc or .docx) file to the First Draft
Submission Dropbox on Blackboard (in the Course Assignments section).
 This draft will not be graded; however, we reserve the right to not grade final assignment
submissions that do not have a first draft uploaded to Blackboard.

Final submission is due before Noon (12:00 pm) on Friday two weeks after your Seminar 3.
 This will be March 15 or March 22, depending on your assigned Seminar 3 date.
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 Upload your assignment as a .pdf or Word (.doc or .docx) file to the Final Submission
Dropbox on Blackboard (in the Course Assignments section).
 ANY OTHER FILE TYPE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED (e.g., pages, google docs, etc.).
 Email submissions will NOT be accepted and will receive a grade of zero (unless you
receive prior permission from the Course Instructor or Demonstrator).
 A late penalty of 10% per calendar day (starting at Noon on the due date) will be applied
to late submissions. Assignments that are more than five calendar days late will receive a
grade of zero. Extension requests based on SAS accommodations or extenuating life
circumstances must be submitted to the Instructor or Demonstrator ahead of the due date.