Penn Professors on Writing in Psychology

Dr. Ayelet Ruscio

About the Professor

Professor Ruscio teaches and studies clinical disorders, specifically mood and anxiety disorders. One of her favorite psychologists in the field is Paul Neal, who was an influential clinical psychologists, who, as she says, "had a way of getting to the heart of the matter."

Important Criteria for Student Writing

Professor Ruscio rates reasoning, evidence and having original ideas as highly important criteria for a successful student paper. She wants students to demonstrate that they are critical thinkers, and not just take what they read at face value. Students should ask questions in an active way: how do we know that, who says?, what is the evidence?

Personal Writing Process

For Professor Ruscio, the entire process of conducting a research project typically takes about two to three years. This is largely due to the long and slow process of recruiting participants for clinical research projects. After the research is complete and the data is collected, she tries to get the paper written within six months. In addition, the peer review process can be quite lengthy because it sometimes requires multiple submissions, often to different psychology journals.

Links

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Other professors in psychology: Dr. Kable