A reaction paper is just what its name suggests: a formal paper explaining your reaction to a peer-reviewed journal article whose topic is relevant to this course. The paper is a review because your reaction will involve judgment or evaluation; it is an analysis because you will focus on the research methodology and results.
Keep in mind that you are writing a formal essay for an academic audience. Like any good essay, your reaction paper should develop one primary idea or perception, support it with specific evidence (examples from your article, etc.), and present both ideas and evidence in clear language and a logical way.
- Select a peer-reviewed journal article whose topic is relevant to this course
- Consider reviewing the Psychology Research Guide at the Evans Library (Links to an external site.) for assistance in finding your articles
- Write a paper analyzing the journal article and explaining your reaction to it
- Each paper must be two pages long and follow APA format (no abstract required)
- Understand that following APA format in terms of margins, font, in-text citing, referencing, quoting, and the like is very important and makes up a good portion of your paper’s grade
- In addition to the APA guide, the following website offers valuable APA format information for you to follow when you are writing this paper: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ (Links to an external site.)
