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Writing Psychology
Research Reports
'
Writing Psychology Research Reports
Writing Psychology
Research Reports
Fourth edition

Peter A. Starreveld editor

Boom
 Foreword

No degree programme in psychology would be complete without some

instruction on academic writing. It is not only students who must pro-
duce pieces of academic writing over the course of their studies (e.g.
when completing a Bachelor's or Master's programme); psychology
graduates, too, are expected to write effectively to communicate devel-
opments in their field.

This book offers practical guidelines for writing academic psychology

texts, and is based on the two writing manuals used during the first
Cover design: Cunera Joosten, Amsterdam
two years of the Bachelor of Psychology programme at the University
Cover photo: Cunera Joosten, Amsterdam
of Amsterdam. These two manuals were produced under the guidance
Layout: Textcetera, The Hague
of Christiaan Hamaker, who inspired, initiated and - until the sum-
mer of 2004 - coordinated the programme's writing units. Under his
© Peter Starreveld & Boom Uitgevers Amsterdam, 2018
direction, Kilian Bennebroek Gravenhorst created a guide to writing
a literature review, which Christiaan Hamaker adapted himself some
Notwithstanding any exceptions under the Copyright Act, no part of this publica-
time later. He also authored the guide to writing empirical research
tion may be reproduced, stored in a digital database or made public in any form or
reports.
manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, inclu-
Over the years, feedback was incorporated into these manuals from
ding (but not limited to) electronic or mechanical copies, photocopies or recordings.
students and lecturers, to whom I am greatly indebted. The following
lecturers (listed here in alphabetical order) also made substantial con-
To the extent that reprographic copying of this publication is permitted under
tributions: Bianca Boyer, Vittorio Busato, Petra Grijzen, Jessica van
Section 16(h) of the Copyright Act, the applicable statutory remuneration must be
Sluis, Marcia Meerum Terwogt, Sanne Kateman, Katharina Kouwen-
sent to Stichting Reprorecht (the Reprographic Reproduction Rights Foundation)
hoven, Laurens Polder, Mariëlle Slierendrecht, Guido Valk, Jos Ver-
(Postbus 3051, 2130 KB Hoofddorp, www.reprorecht.nl). To include a section (or
brugge, Roeland Voskens, Natascha Weitenberg and Koen Wirtz.
sections) of this publication in an anthology, course reader or other compilation
(Section 16 of the Copyright Act), please contact Stichting PRO (the Foundation
At the request of the book's users, this fourth reprint uses decimal
for Publication and Reproduction Rights, Postbus 3060, 2130 KB Hoofddorp,
points instead of commas (as is common in Dutch) when listing
www.stichting-pro.nl).
numeric data. Chapter 2 has updated the use of the digital object iden-
tifier (DOI), and the section on layout (2.6) has been supplemented
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm
with more information on displaying statistical results. The infor-
or any other means without written permission from the publisher.
mation on literature search engines in Chapter 3 has been updated.
At users' request, Chapter 4 also includes a comprehensive treatment
ISBN 978 90 244 2540 2
of writing an academic summary, including a sample accompanying
ISBN 978 90 244 2541 9 (e-book)
assignment and a completed example (see Section 4.4 and Appen-
NUR 770
dix A). Alterations made to Chapter 6 reflect changing research
attitudes, by including a) a sharper distinction between confirm-
www.boomhogeronderwijs.nl
atory and exploratory studies and their associated analyses, b) the
Writing Psychology Research Reports

recommendation to always include a measure for the effect size when

reporting the results of statistical tests and c) an example of how to Table of Contents
report Bayesian test results. Chapter 6 also includes greater detail on
the necessary preparations before conducting research; in order to
write a coherent, convincing introduction, the writer must first obtain
a thorough overview of the relevant research domain. Lastly, the sam-
ple report in Appendix B has been revised in accordance with the rec- Scientific Reports 9
ommendations in Chapter 6, and Appendix C includes updated DOI 1.1 What is a literature review? 9
references and sample references to digital sources such as blog posts, 1.2 What is an empirical research report? 10
tweets and streaming video. 1.3 The content of this book 10
1.4 Criteria applicable to all reports 11
The purpose of this book
Academic writing is a practical skill - it cannot be learned from a book 2 Academic Writing 13
(not even this one!). 2.1 Structuring an academic text 13
You learn to write scientifically in practice, simply by doing it a lot, by 2.2 Academic style 15
taking a critical look at your own work and by receiving feedback from 2.3 Style and spelling guidelines 16
others. Nevertheless, recommendations can still be given on how to 2.4 References and quotations 21
structure the content of academic texts, the most important of which 2.5 Reference list 24
are given in this book. Practising these instructions and putting the- 2.6 Formatting 28
ory into practice will ultimately result in an effective academic text.
Completing a piece of academic writing can be a very fulfilling experi- 3 How to Write a Literature Review 35
ence. I hope that this book will help you along your way! 3.1 Selecting a topic 35
3.2 Formulating a problem statement and
Peter Starreveld provisional research question 36
June, 2018 3.3 Searching for literature 37
3.4 Overview of search engines 41
3.5 Writing a plan 47

4 Research Descriptions 59
4.1 The structure of a research article 59
4.2 Writing descriptions of scientific research 61
4.3 Steps for writing a research description 65
4.4 Writing a scientific summary 66
4.5 Writing related research descriptions 68
5 Writing a Literature Review 69
5.1 The structure of a literature review 69
5.2 Elements of a literature review 70
5.3 Checklist/evaluation framework 80
 *giving a review on what already exists

Writing Psychology Research Reports

6 Writing a Research Report 85

6.1 Preparation and process 87
6.2 Abstract 88
6.3 Introduction 88
6.4 Method 90
6.5 Results 92
6.6 Discussion 97
6.7 Reference list 101
6.8 Appendices 102
6.9 Checklist/evaluation framework 102
Before conducting any scientific research, it is always essential to
Appendix A Example Scientific Summary 107 develop an understanding of the current state of knowledge in a par-
ticular field. This knowledge is embedded in scientific literature, mak-
Appendix B Example Research Report 111 ing literature study an integral component of scientific endeavours.
The most important sources for a literature study are journal articles
Appendix C APA Reference List Guidelines 121 and books (or book chapters) that either include research reports or
critically examine or review others' research. Anybody conducting sci-
Reference list 135 entific research therefore needs to be able to locate, read, understand
and critically evaluate such publications, in order to compare them
Index 137 and incorporate them into a report. Two important types of academic
reports are literature reviews and empirical research reports. A liter-
About the Author 141 ature review reports the findings of a literature study and describes
the current state of scientific knowledge concerning a specific research
question. An empirical research report, on the other hand, brings new
information to the existing body of scientific knowledge. Both report
types also include an evaluation of the information being presented.

= persuading the reader that your

1.1 What is a literature review? stance on a scientific question is
correct by providing evidence
A literature review is an informative text (an exposition) describing
the writer's standpoint regarding a particular question. After studying
the scientific literature available on a particular topic, you will have
reached a certain conclusion. The literature review is an attempt to
convince the reader that this conclusion is correct, by explicitly pro-
viding the evidence for your conclusion in a coherent and persuasive
discussion of the material.
The evidence in this case consists of three aggregated argument types.
The first type comprises facts (i.e. research results) reported by others.
The second type consists of the interpretation of these facts by others
(usually either in the form of a new theory, or by modifying, refining,
or fully or partially proving/disproving an existing theory). The third
type of argument comes from your own evaluation of the scientific
 *giving a review on what already exists
.. Writing Psychology Research Reports
merits of the first two argument types. Your exposition will combine
these three types of arguments in such a way as to create an argumen-
tative structure leading inevitably to your personal conclusion. It will
be scientifically sound if all the available key facts and interpretations
on the subject have been considered and your positioning and evalua-
tion of them is logically correct.
1.2 What is an empirical research report?
An empirical research report is an informative text (an exposition)
presenting new facts pertaining to a particular question. The intro-
duction to this type of report will always include a succinct summary
of information pertinent to the relevant field of research. The three
types of arguments listed in Section 1.1 will apply here too; however,
in this case they must reason coherently and convincingly towards the
conclusion that a key question remains unanswered - a question that
you have investigated by making certain observations. The report will
describe exactly how you did so, and what the results of the investiga-
tion were. Next, you will interpret the results, outline their relevance
to the field of research you described in the introduction and provide a
commentary on the results. The exposition will be scientifically sound
if a) the literature review provides a succinct but thorough summary
of the field of research; b) the research design is sound and the data
obtained has been analysed correctly; and c) the interpretation of the
results is indeed supported by the facts.
*giving a detailed explanation of a study
1.3 The content of this book
This book examines the various components of both types of reports,
and is therefore a manual for writing both literature reviews and
scientific reports of empirical research. This first chapter sets out a
number of general criteria that apply to written reports. In order to
write an academic text on a particular topic, you must create a cohe-
sive written exposition that combines words into sentences, sentences
into paragraphs, paragraphs into sections and sections into a com-
plete academic text. The rest of this book provides tips and instruc-
tions relating to all of the above levels. Chapter 2 offers a number of
general recommendations for the structure, style and layout of aca-
demic texts. Chapter 3 describes how to choose the topic of a literature
review, how to search for scholarly literature on a particular ques-
tion and how to plan your review. Chapter 4 looks at how to describe
1 Scientific Reports -
empirical research in an effective manner. Descriptions of this kind
form the crux of a literature review, and are also included (albeit more
succinctly) in the introduction and sometimes also in the discussion
sections of empirical research reports. This chapter also provides
instructions on how to create a scientific summary that can be used
as preparation for writing both a literature review and an empirical
research report. Chapter 5 looks at writing the full literature review
itself. In a very condensed form, the literature review is also part of
the introduction to an empirical research report. Chapter 6 outlines
exactly how to create such a research report. Appendix B presents a
sample research report.
1.4 Criteria applicable to all reports
There are some criteria that apply universally to all reports. They are
given here at the very beginning, so that they are not obscured by the
discussion of the other elements. These general criteria are as follows:
Accuracy
The content of the report must be correct. Both literature reviews
and empirical research reports must present information taken
correctly from the articles under review; in an empirical research
report, the experimental results reported must also correspond
accurately with the results obtained. Accuracy also means that
information contradicting your position cannot be omitted.
Clarity
The report must be easy to understand. A literature review must
give the reader (who is not familiar with the original publications)
a clear understanding of what was studied and how, as well as the
researchers' conclusions. The same applies to empirical research
reports, but with the additional requirement that a reader must be
able to reproduce the study being reported on.
Structure
The report must be structured clearly and logically, with the var-
ious sections linked in a cohesive manner. An effective title, a
standardised layout and informative sub-headings are part of an
effective structure.
Language
The report must be written in good English, with correct use of
spelling, grammar and division of paragraphs. The style of the
report must also be objective and impartial, and present as much
information as possible using the fewest words.
.. Writing Psychology Research Reports

References
The report must correctly cite the publications on which it is based,
and include a list of references in the proper format.
Layout
The layout of the report must be in accordance with the rules of the
American Psychological Association (APA).
Originality
You must write the report yourself. Copying or paraphrasing
others' work (or your own prior work) without citing the source
is not permitted.
The science of psychology is based on the knowledge set out in aca-
demic publications. In practice, much of this knowledge is published
in English. Anybody wishing to write for inclusion in an English-
language psychology journal must follow the guidelines as set out by
the American Psychological Association (APA). Most psychologists in
the Netherlands follow the same guidelines in their Dutch publica-
tions (for an example, see the monthly journal of the Dutch Associa-
tion of Psychologists (NIP), De Psycholoog). The APA has compiled a
comprehensive manual for those submitting manuscripts to journals,
called the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association
[APA], 2010). Many of the guidelines in this book are based on this
manual. Reports must also use correct English - extensive advice on
this topic can be found in The elements of style (Strunk & White, 2000)
and Grammatically correct (Stilman, 2010). Wherever these books go
against the Publication Manual, the rules in the Publication Manual
take precedence.
This chapter deals with the following topics (in order): the structure of
an academic text, academic writing style, style guidelines, references
and citations, the list of references and academic text layout.

2.1 Structuring an academic text

First and foremost, an academic text must be structured in an orderly

fashion. Ideas and arguments must follow in logical sequence, and the
various topics must be introduced in a logical order. Academic texts of
some length are therefore made up of several different sections, which
themselves consist of paragraphs. This section discusses these various
components.
Writing Psychology Research Reports
2.1.1 Sections and paragraphs
Sections
A section contains a cohesive unit of information on a particular sub-
topic. For example, almost all academic articles have a section titled
Conclusions or Discussion, in which the authors analyse (and criticise)
the information presented as it relates to the research question, and
make any practical recommendations or recommendations for further
research. The cohesive information in a section almost always covers
a range of aspects, which are outlined in separate paragraphs; some
aspects must even be spread out across multiple paragraphs.
Paragraphs
Paragraphs are the building blocks of a piece of writing. Each para-
graph must therefore carry a self-contained message to be expounded
on over the course of the paragraph. There are two ways to structure
a paragraph. The first is to put the main message in the first sentence,
and use the rest of the paragraph for arguments, explanations or fur-
ther details (see Box 2.1). The second option is precisely the opposite:
present the arguments first, and finish with the main message. The key
thing to remember is that a paragraph must only contain one message;
each new idea must have its own paragraph. For more on this subject,
see Section 2.13 of Strunk and White (2000).
Sample paragraph with an effective opening sentence
Misunderstandings still abound regarding the originality of Freud's
ideas. He was not the first to conceptualise a subconscious, for
example - scientists had been writing on this subject for many
centuries before him. Even Plato proposed the tripartite nature
of the soul. Freud's proposition that the human psyche is divided
into three parts (the ego, the superego and the id) is therefore little
more than a reformulation of existing ideas. The same principle
applies to many of Freud's other propositions.
Box 2.1
2 Academic Writing -
2.1.2 Organising a text into sections and paragraphs
A well-organised text lends structure to a report. The section structure
will be dictated by the various sub-topics under discussion. The struc-
ture of a literature review will depend on the topic at hand; empirical
research reports have fixed section headings (see Chapter 6).
The division into paragraphs will depend on the various aspects of the
sub-topic being discussed. A well-written paragraph will contain sev-
eral sentences on a single aspect of the sub-topic. When switching to a
new aspect, start a new paragraph (e.g. when moving from criticism to
a recommendation). Likewise, when presenting two separate practical
recommendations, it is usually best to present them in separate para-
graphs. In a well-written academic paper, the first sentences of all the
paragraphs will often serve to summarise the entire text. In addition
to a clear structure, academic texts should also be written in a specific,
academic style.
2.2 Academic style
It is impossible to communicate an effective sequence of ideas and
arguments without using proper academic language. In non-scientific
texts, it is customary to engage the reader using a variety of stylis-
tic devices, such as unexpected plot twists, withheld information or
ambiguities. While there is nothing wrong with engaging the reader,
such stylistic devices have no place in academic writing. Renkema
(2012, Section 4.1.2) compares the style of a text to a person's attire:
just like clothing says a lot about a person, so too does the style say a
lot about a text. Academic texts have a specific style: they are informa-
tive, explicit, concise and straightforward. The same applies to reports
written for scientific degree programmes.
Informative
The purpose of a literature review is to communicate the content of the
various publications you have consulted, along with your own evalua-
tion of them. As such, it is crucial to correctly describe the content of
the publications. Your own opinion thereof must be clearly segregated
from the presentation of others' work. The purpose of a research report
is to clearly communicate the question, the method, the results and
the conclusions of the study. In both types of reports, the reader must
be presented with enough information to enable an evaluation of the
conclusions.
Writing Psychology Research Reports
Explicit
Everything must be formulated explicitly, leaving nothing to the read-
er's imagination. Every step in the argumentation must be written
down. A research report must also describe the method used in such a
way that the study can be replicated by someone else. The reader must
be given all the necessary information to verify whether the conclu-
sions are justified.
Concise
Aim for concise use oflanguage, leaving out all words and phrases that
do not convey any useful information.
For example, rather than:
In the smashed condition, there were 16 participants who thought
they had seen broken glass. In the hit condition, there were only
seven participants who thought they had seen broken glass.
the following would be better:
More participants thought they had seen broken glass in the
smashed condition (16) than in the hit condition (7).
Take care, however, that conciseness does not lead to vagueness or
ambiguity. Trying to say too much in too few words can easily go awry.
Straightforward
Academic writing is clear and matter-of-fact. Keep your text free of
florid language, imagery, hip lingo and slang.
2.3 Style and spelling guidelines
Scientific texts are made up of sentences that read smoothly, and in
which all words are spelled correctly. Thorough editing is therefore
important when writing your own reports. Poor use of language will
probably result in the reader disregarding the report altogether. Good
reference works for correct use of language are The elements of style
by Strunk and White (2000) and Grammatically correct by Stilman
(2010), which clearly explain many aspects of how to use correct
English using many concrete examples.
Academic texts must also comply with many guidelines that are based
on the APA Manual (APA, 2010). This section deals only briefly with
the above, but the pointers below should help avoid frustration among
your supervisors and/or external assessors.
2 Academic Writing -
2.3. l General
The first three general points below apply to texts of any type; the rest
pertain specifically to academic writing.
Spelling
For correct English spelling, please consult the Oxford English Dic-
tionary. Other English dictionaries are also fine, as long as they are
used consistently.
Be careful with your use of compound words in particular. Many
words that might be linked together in someone's native language (e.g.
the Dutch words wachtkamer, controleconditie, validatieonderzoek)
should be written separately in English (waiting room, control con-
dition, validation study). If you are used to link such words together
in your native language, you might feel inclined to link these words
together in English as well, but doing so would be incorrect. Be sure
to get this right.
Always use your word processor's spell checker function. Although it
will not pick up all errors in a text, it will definitely make a difference.
Punctuation
Pay attention to punctuation, such as the correct use of commas, full
stops, colons, semi-colons, etc. Spaces should always come after punc-
tuation marks, not before. Use commas properly. Note the difference
in meaning between:
The children, who did not participate, were cheering.
and:
The children who did not participate were cheering.
(Only in the second sentence were there children who did participate.)
Complex prepositions
Always avoid convoluted use of language, such as unnecessary prepo-
sitional phrases. These expressions usually consist of three words, feel
rather 'forced' and can generally be replaced by a single word. With
regard to can nearly always be replaced by regarding or concerning. By
means of can be expressed by using or through. Chapter 2 in Strunk
and White (2000) provides more such examples, along with a wealth
of useful tips regarding clarity, accuracy, succinctness and appealing
writing.
Writing Psychology Research Reports
Paraphrasing
When writing scientific reports, some make the mistake of including
sentences from source publications However, you should always par-
aphrase what you have read in your own words (and always include
a reference to the source).
How much explanation is required?
A student from your own year should be able to read and understand
the report. You can therefore assume that the reader has some elemen-
tary knowledge of psychology. Common terms in general use require
no explanation, such as 'conditioning', 'significant' or 'conscious'.
Specific terms and theories essential to your question do require
explanation, however.
Re-read a report before giving it to someone else, and ask yourself the
following: Will the report enable the reader to understand the study
on its own? Is any necessary information missing? Is all of the infor-
mation in the report necessary? Is anything repeated? Are the various
sections properly linked together? Is the text consistent? Do the argu-
ments employed serve a purpose?
Full sentences, no bullet lists
All scientific reports must consist of fully formed, grammatically cor-
rect sentences. Never use bullet lists, such as:
There were five different versions:
smashed;
collided;
bumped;
hit;
contacted.
Instead:
There were five different versions, which used the words smashed,
collided, bumped, hit and contacted.
A second example of a correct enumeration is given below:
The theory takes into account a) the opinions of others regarding
the decision to be taken, b) the influence of the physical space in
which the decision is taken, c) the influence of individual attitudes
to the topic in question and d) individual views on what constitutes
a good decision.
2 Academic Writing -
2.3.2 Specific guidelines from the APA Manual
In addition to general style guidelines, editors of scientific journals
also apply specific criteria from the APA Manual. This section briefly
discusses some of the key criteria.
Use the active voice
In scientific reports it is often tempting to use what is called the 'pas-
sive voice', which can make the report sound dull and convoluted. The
active voice should therefore be used whenever possible.
In Section 3, a discussion will be included of how short-term
memory is influenced by cannabis, the effects on long-term
memory will be examined and the possible explanations will be
reviewed.
becomes:
Section 3 describes the influence of cannabis on both short and
long-term memory, as well as the possible explanations for these
influences.
The same applies to describing existing research: it is better to say
'As Cherniss (199S) notes .. .' rather than 'As noted by Cherniss (1995) .. .'
Present and past tense
Be sure to monitor your use of the present and past tenses. Most of the
report will be written in the past tense, as the study you are reporting
on has already been completed (either by you or others). The present
tense usually only occurs in parts of the introduction, in section tran-
sitions and during the discussion.
Use of 'I' and 'we'
The first-person singular and plural (J, we) should be avoided as much
as possible. Your own personal criticisms of research, for example, are
not marked by using the word T, but by the absence of any reference
after the criticism itself. Criticism by others should always be accom-
panied by a reference to the source. Scientific reports are generally not
the place to express personal opinions. Write the report in a neutral
form, e.g.:
This study sought to answer the question ... The expected results
were as follows ... The conclusion was ... One might suppose ...
Writing Psychology Research Reports
Only when describing aspects of the study for which you yourself were
responsible should you use Tor 'we', e.g.:
we implemented this mechanism in a connectionist model, in
which ... To our surprise, our results in the second experiment
suggested ...
Use parallel grammatical constructions
Parts of sentences that serve the same purpose should be formulated in
the same way. Although this may seem dull, it does make the text eas-
ier to follow. Writing academically mostly means writing clearly, and
parallel constructions are indispensable in this regard. So, instead of:
The participants saw upper-case letters in the experimental
condition, and were shown lower-case letters in the control
condition.
use:
The participants saw upper-case letters in the experimental
condition and lower-case letters in the control condition.
Also use parallel constructions in corresponding paragraphs.
For example:
Two attribute types are defined: internal attributes and external
attributes. The key aspect of an internal attribute is ...
The key aspect of an external attribute is ...
Do not use synonyms
Decide on specific terminology, and stick with it. Once you have
decided to refer to the difference between men and women as sex,
do not start calling it gender later on.
Effective use of comparisons
Always explicitly name both parts of a comparison. So, replace
'participants in the experimental condition had higher scores' with
'participants in the experimental condition had higher scores than the
participants in the control condition'. Always do this, even if there
are only two conditions.
2 Academic Writing -
2.4 References and quotations
References to other texts or sources of information are very common
stylistic elements specific to academic texts. In a literature review,
almost all of the information presented will have come from other
sources you have studied, and research reports also contain much
information from external sources. In most cases, the information
will be paraphrased, i.e. re-written in your own words. In rare cases,
reports will contain direct quotations. Whatever the case, the reader
must always know exactly where the information under discussion
(not only research results, but also ideas and lines of reasoning) has
come from. This is what the in-text references and the associated ref-
erence list are for. References form the basis of the scientific litera-
ture; they ensure that all claims made by the author can be verified
by others. Nor should we forget the adage 'credit where credit is due';
you should never present other people's ideas as though they were
your own.
Presentation of your own ideas (e.g. in the form of a new line of
reasoning, criticism, conclusion or evaluation) is made clear to the
reader by a lack of any reference. Although the difference may seem
subtle, it is very important. It must be absolutely clear to the reader
when you are speaking your own mind and when you are paraphras-
ing or quoting others directly. Doing the latter without references
is plagiarism.
2.4.1 Referencing sources
In view of the above, a report must therefore indicate all sources of
information as precisely as possible. References are used for this pur-
pose. Appendix C contains an extensive overview of various types of
references, the most important of which are touched on briefly below.
In psychology, in-text references always consist of the name(s) of
the author(s) and the year of publication. This also applies to online
sources: the URL (Internet address) should be given in the list of refer-
ences, not in the running text.
There are two options for in-text references:
Put the author in the running text, and the year of publication in
parentheses:
Rachlin and Green (2008) studied animal behaviour ...
Writing Psychology Research Reports
Put both the name(s) and the year in parentheses:
In a recent study (Rachlin & Green, 2008) on animal behaviour ...
Note: if the names are part of the running text, insert the full word
and between them; if the names are in parentheses, use the & symbol.
In-text references never give authors' first names or initials, unless
two first authors in the literature list have the same surname, which
could cause confusion.
Referencing publications by three or more authors
Publications by three or more authors can be referenced in an abbre-
viated form, by giving the name of the first author followed by et al.
(short for: et alii, which is Latin for and others) and the year. When
referencing publications by three to five authors, list all the names the
first time, and abbreviate subsequent references. Sample first reference:
Janssen, Peters and Lopez (1987) discovered that ...
Subsequent references:
Janssen et al. (1987) reported another noteworthy result.
The second reference to a study within the same paragraph may also
omit the year, provided no ambiguity results. So:
Janssen et al. (1987) discovered ... Janssen et al. also found ...
Publications by six or more authors may always be cited in abbreviated
form (even the first time).
Referencing publications by unspecified or unknown authors
Works whose authors are unknown (which is often the case with pub-
lications by large organisations) are referenced using the initial words
of the entry in the list of references, along with the year of publication.
For example:
In-text reference:
(World Health Organization, 1999)
Entry in reference list:
World Health Organization (1999). Report on the ...
2 Academic Writing -
If there is no author information whatsoever (e.g. as is sometimes the
case with online sources), use the title of the work in both the in-text
reference and the list of references. When included in parentheses, the
title may be shortened to the first word or words. Where no publica-
tion year is known, use n.d. (abbreviated form of 'no date'). Only if
the author's name is explicitly mentioned as Anonymous in the origi-
nal, you may use it as the author when referencing, e.g. (Anonymous,
2006). Do think carefully about how much store you wish to set by
completely anonymous sources.
Referencing publications that you have not read yourself
Only reference sources you have actually read. If you come across a
reference to a publication that you would also like to reference, the
best thing to do is to look it up and read it yourself. If this is genu-
inely impossible, reference the source via the publication that you have
actually read. This will prevent you from taking on interpretations by
others that are potentially debatable or incorrect. For example:
Freud (1900, cited in Ryckman, 1985) assumed that ...
According to Strickland (1989), Rotter sees a lot of similarity
between the concepts locus of control and learned helplessness ...
The above examples show that you have genuinely read Ryckman and
Strickland, but that you have not verified their claims regarding Freud
or Rotter yourself. Note: because you have not used the indirectly
referenced publication as your own source, you may not include it in
the list of references.
2.4.2 Direct quotations
Although you should keep direct quotations to a minimum, they can
sometimes serve to strengthen your arguments. References to direct
quotations must always include a page number. If you have already
referenced the publication leading up to the quotation, simply giving
the page number is enough. Quotations less than forty words in length
can be included in the running text without any special formatting,
other than double quotation marks. Use an ellipsis ( ... ) to indicate any
omissions in the quotation, which must otherwise be taken verbatim
from the source (including any errors in spelling or grammar). If you
Writing Psychology Research Reports
wish to add your own clarifying remarks, do so using square brackets.
An example of a short quotation with comments by the author:
As noted by Rescorla (1987), "The likelihood of making a response
[by pressing the lever] was substantially lowered if its reinforcer
was subsequently devalued" (p. 121).
Quotations of forty words or longer must be made typographically
distinct from the surrounding text through indentation. In these
cases, quotation marks are not used. The page number is given after
the full stop at the end of the quotation. For example:
As noted by Rescorla (1987):
The likelihood of making a response was substantially lowered
if its reinforcer was subsequently devalued. The fact that these
data were collected during extinction, when neither reinforcer
was presented, implies that the animal had previously
associated a particular reinforcer with a particular response.
(p. 121)
If the name of the publication has not been mentioned leading up to
the quotation, the reference should look as follows:
A prominent researcher described the phenomenon thus: "The
likelihood of making a response was substantially lowered if its
reinforcer was subsequently devalued" (Rescorla, 1987, p. 121).
Try to keep direct quotations to a minimum. Your writing will gen-
erally benefit from using your own words, as you can maintain the
same style throughout. Besides, your exposition will ultimately almost
always depend more on the import of the arguments rather than on
their precise formulation in the texts you have studied.
2.5 Reference list
All in-text references must be included in the reference list. The ref-
erence list provides all of the information that someone else will need
to locate the sources. Correct citation of the sources used is precision
work, and it is important to get it right from the get-go. Correct ref-
erencing forms the linchpin of academic writing, and even tiny errors
can make sources impossible to find. Search engines, for example, may
not be able to locate a source if the author's name (or even an initial)
is spelled incorrectly.
2 Academic Writing -
There are two very important considerations when creating a reference
list: the first is how to list each individual entry, and the second is the
order of entries.
2.5.1 The components of a reference list
Reference lists can include various items. The four most common
items are journal articles, books, chapters from edited books (each
written by a different author or group of authors) and references to
online publications. This section gives the rules for citing a journal
article, followed by those for books, chapters from edited books and
online articles. Further examples are given in Appendix C.
Here is a sample entry for a journal article:
Mellers, B. A. (2000). Choice and the relative
pleasure of consequences. Psychological Bulletin,
126, 910-924. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033
-2909.126.6.910
The applicable guidelines are as follows:
Authors' names
Put the author's initials after their surname, with a full stop after
each initial.
Give the surnames and initials of all authors in the same order as
they appear at the top of the article.
Where there are two or more initials, each must be separated by
a space.
If there is more than one author, use an ampersand (&) before the
final author's surname.
If there are more than seven authors, put a comma after the name
of the sixth author, then a space, then an ellipsis ( ... ), then another
space and finally the surname and initials of the final author.
Use commas to separate the authors' names.
Publication date
Put the year of publication in parentheses, followed by a full stop.
Title of the article
Capitalise only the first word in the title/subtitle.
Proper nouns in titles/subtitles must be capitalised.
Capitalise the first word after a colon.
Finish off the title with a full stop.
Writing Psychology Research Reports 2 Academic Writing -

Information on the journal in which the article was In all other cases, the entry finishes with the page numbers.
published
Give the full title of the journal using Title Case (major words and The same general scheme is applied to all other entries. Use the exam-
words of four letters or more are capitalized). ples below as templates for references to books or chapters from an
Write the title in italics. edited book.
Put a comma after the title.
Give the year of publication: the volume number. Referencing a book
Put the volume number in italics. Here, the book title is printed in italics, followed by a full stop. Next,
Place a comma after the volume number. list the place of publication and the publisher's name, separated by a
Only give the issue number for journals whose page numbering is colon.
not continuous across the various issues in a volume; most jour-
nals use continuous numbering, and in these cases an issue num- Robinson, D. N. (1992). Social discourse and moral
ber is not required. judgment. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Give the first and last page numbers of an article, separated by an
en dash ('-', created in Word by pressing Ctr! and the minus key Referencing a chapter from an edited book
together). The abbreviation 'Ed.' or 'Eds.' refers to the editor(s) of the book.
End with a full stop.
O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's
Digital object identifiers gender role journeys: Metaphor for healing,
Most items have what is called a digital object identifier, or DOI. transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib
As of March 2017, the following DOI citation format is recom- (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle
mended (McAdoo, 2017): (pp. 107-123). New York: Springer.
https://doi.org/identifier
Do not place a full stop at the end of the DOI. Older DOI citation Referencing electronic sources
methods are DOI:identifier and http://dx.doi.org/identifier, both Electronic sources are those whose information is taken exclusively
of which also exclude the final full stop. from the Internet. In most cases, these will be journal articles. Those
A DOI makes articles very easy to locate: simply type it into Goog- that have a DOI will use the standard format; if an article has no DOI,
le search or use the DOI resolver at crossref org. The recommended but you did access it online, give the URL of the journal's home page.
way to cite a DOI is a direct URL (i.e. an online link) to the article. These types of references are generally structured as follows:
If an article has no DOI, but you did access it online, give the
URL of the journal's home page (see example below). There is nev- Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year).
er a full stop after a URL; line-break the entry as necessary after Title of the article. Title of the journal, volume

a double-slash (Il) or before any other punctuation marks (e.g, a number, page numbers. Retrieved from http://xxxxx
single slash, full stop or hyphen); never add a hyphen or full stop,
to the end or anywhere else. If the article did not appear in a journal, the entry is structured as
follows:
Sillick, T. J., & Schutte, N. S. (2006). Emotional
intelligence and self-esteem mediate between Author, A. A. (year). Title of the article. Retrieved
perceived early parental love and adult happiness. from http://xxxxx
£-Journal of Applied Psychology, 2(2), 38-48.
Retrieved from: http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index
.php/ejap/index
Writing Psychology Research Reports
2.5.2 Order of entries in the reference list
The entries in a reference list are ordered alphabetically by surname.
Pay close attention to the following rules:
Identical surnames are ordered alphabetically by initial. Eliot,
A. L., & Wallston, J. (1983) therefore precedes Eliot, G. E., &
Ahlers, R. J. (1980).
Short entries come before long entries. Brown, J. R. is therefore
listed above Browning, A. R.
Multiple publications by the same author are listed in order of
publication date. Kim, L. S. (1990) is therefore listed above Kim,
L. s. (1992).
Single author precedes multiple authors. Kaufman, J. R. (1991)
therefore precedes Kaufman, J. R., & Cochran, D. F. (1987).
Co-authored publications with the same principal author are
ordered according to the name of the second author, etc. Kauf-
man, J. R., Jones, K., & Cochran, D. F. (1992) therefore precedes
Kaufman, J. R., & Wong, D. F. (1989).
Publications by the same author in the same year are distinguished
by adding 'a' and 'b' to the year. These letters must also be used in
the in-text references. The words in the title determine the entry
order (grammatical articles are ignored). Kaufman, J. R. (1990a).
The control of ... ; Kaufman, J. R. (1990b). Roles of ...
2.6 Formatting
Any scholarly article submitted to an academic publication must be
formatted according to the guidelines in the APA Manual. This sec-
tion covers some of the more important rules.
Font size, spacing, alignment, breaks
Apply generous left and right margins (the word processor's default
settings are good), select a standard 12-point font (e.g. Times New
Roman) and use double-spacing (except in tables and diagrams).
The text should be left aligned; do not justify the right margin. Do
not manually break words at the end of a line, simply because, if your
report is published in a journal, the words that appear at the end of the
line in your manuscript will most probably appear somewhere else in
the final publication.
2 Academic Writing -
Title page
Make a title page with a centred title (maximum recommended length
is 12 words), and with your name centred below it. Other required
information may also be included on the title page (e.g. your student
ID number, supervisor's name and the word count, if submitting a
report for assessment purposes), and should be positioned in the lower
left corner, left aligned. The header (and the headers of all pages of the
manuscript) should say 'Running head' (left aligned), followed by a
colon and a version of the title that is no longer than 50 characters in
length, in all caps.
Formatting sections and paragraphs
Journal editors format articles according to the rules of the relevant
journal. The authors are (thankfully) not involved in this process: they
submit their text without much formatting, following the standard
template from the APA Manual. This template does allow the text to be
effectively structured, but the layout is hardly spectacular. Although it
will usually not appear as such in a journal, the original manuscript
must be submitted in this form.
The APA guidelines state that new sections are created by inserting
an unnumbered heading. Section headings are formatted as follows:
Bold, Centred Heading in Title Case
Principal words are capitalised, grammatical connectors (e.g. the, and,
in, with, for) are not. If subsections are to be used, a second level of
headings will apply. Subsection headings are formatted as follows:
Bold, Left-aligned Heading in Title Case
These two tiers are often sufficient, but if a third level is required, it
appears as follows:
Bold, indented heading in sentence case, ending with
a full stop.
In this case, the text continues on after the full stop (although it is no
longer bold, of course).
Writing Psychology Research Reports
Research reports (see also Chapter 6 and Appendix B) use this format-
ting as follows. A report on a single study uses the following format:
Method
Participants
The participants were ...
Reports on multiple studies are structured as follows:
Experiment 1
Method
Participants. The participants were ...
Paragraphs are used to give further structure to the various sections
of the report. New paragraphs (except in the abstract) are indicated
by indenting with a tab. Conclude a paragraph with a hard return.
Paragraphs also always contain multiple sentences, so never create a
paragraph consisting of only one sentence.
Numbers
The APA Manual (2010) states that digits should always be used for
numbers larger than nine (except in the abstract, where digits are
always used). So:
Seven men were selected.
But:
A call was issued to 17 students.
The APA Manual lists the following important exceptions to this rule.
Use digits for numbers lower than 10:
for measurements: a dose of 4 mg, lasting 6 seconds, a 4-cm strip;
for items in a series: Experiment 2, Table 4, Figure 7;
in calculations: multiplied by 4, fewer than 8% of the trials, a 1:3
ratio;
for numbers indicating date, time, age, sums of money or scores: at
4 o'clock, on 4 March 2000, the average age was 9 years, a score of
5 on a 7-point scale, each participant received 5 euros,
for statistical information: t(9) = 1.3; F(3, 8) = 3.4.
Never start a sentence with digits; numbers at the start of a sentence
are always expressed in words.
2 Academic Writing -
Variables
All empirical research reports must define the variables used in the
study. The following applies to the definition of variables. Only use
meaningful, complete descriptions in the text. Never use abbreviations
or the codes applied to the statistical processing. If lack of space in a
table (e.g. a correlation matrix) makes abbreviations necessary, define
them in a footnote.
Capitalisation
Variables are sometimes capitalised, and sometimes they are not.
The APA Manual says the following: Variables are generally not capital-
ised, unless they are combined with a multiplication symbol. So:
The gender and age variables
The Gender x Age interaction
A 2 x 2 (Gender x Age) research design
General references to tests are not capitalised. For example:
A vocabulary test
An intelligence test
However, titles of specific tests are capitalised. For example:
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
The Advanced Vocabulary Test
The names of subscales are also capitalised, although the word scale
itself is not capitalised. For example:
The MMPI Depression Scale is a scale with ...
Statistical symbols
Put a space on both sides of all operators (=, <, >, +, -, etc.). Statistical
symbols (e.g. F, p, t, N, M, SD) must always be in italics, except for
Greek letters. Some examples are given below of how to present the
study results and analysis.
In the study (N = 234) there were various ...
The effect of group size was significant, t(28) = 2.26, p = .032, d = 0.82,
the large group produced more ideas than the small group.
M = 8.16; SD= 2.11
x'(S, N = 85) = 7.19, p = .21
11/= .89
Writing Psychology Research Reports
When referring to the number of participants in a subsample, do not
use a capital letter, e.g.:
The group that scored highly on the test (n = 34) was ...
A 95% confidence interval for an average (M) is given as follows:
M = 635.7 ms, 95% Cl [625.6, 645.8]
The percentage symbol is only used in combination with digits; other-
wise, write out the word 'percentage' in full:
The percentage of women was ...
The sample was 55% female ...
Non-statistical subscripts are not given in italics, but statistical sub-
scripts are, e.g.:
but:
Rounding
Report exact p-values: only p-values lower than .001 are reported as
p < .001. Round p-values to two or three decimal places. Other val-
ues are generally rounded to two decimals; if this results in the loss
of important information, choose a different unit of measurement
(e.g. express a distance in millimetres instead of metres).
Figures and tables
Specific formatting rules apply to figures and tables, only some aspects
of which are covered here. Literature reviews virtually never contain
tables or figures; except occasionally in very long reviews. Research
reports almost always contain at least one table. For examples, see the
sample research report given in Appendix B.
Whenever you wish to include figures or tables in a report, they must
be numbered and referred to (at least once) in the running text using
this number, e.g. 'see Figure 2'. You can never expect the reader to
2 Academic Writing -
know why the figure or table has been included. Your text must there-
fore explicitly state what you want the reader to focus on in the table,
e.g.:
The two conditions differed in the preliminary measurement, but
not in the subsequent measurement, as shown in Figure 2.
Figures must be captioned with 'Figure x.' (in italics, where x is the
figure number, followed by a full stop) below the figure. Continue
the caption in normal script with a brief description of the figure.
Any abbreviations used in the figure must be explained in the cap-
tion. For the figure itself, use a sans-serif font (such as Arial, Futura
or Helvetica). If the figure is a graph, both axes must be labelled (see
Appendix B for an example).
When including tables, the running text must also explain what it is
the reader should see in the table, e.g.:
Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations of the reaction
times in the various conditions.
Number the tables and refer to them (at least once) in the text, using
the numbers. The label 'Table x' (non-italic, where x is the table num-
ber, no full stop) must be given above the table, with a brief description
immediately below (but still above the table), formatted as follows:
aligned, in italics, in Title Case. Tables in academic writing always
contain horizontal lines, but never vertical ones. Include a long, hori-
zontal line across the full length of the table (a 'table rule') immedi-
ately below the description of the table.
Then include (in order) the column headings, another table rule, the
data, and then a final table rule.
The first column in a table usually consists of text that is left aligned;
the other columns are centred. Every column in the table must have a
(centred) title. Additional headers (called 'column spanners') can be
included above multiple related columns; in these cases, a horizon-
tal line is placed above the relevant columns to group them together.
One effective use of column spanners is to identify the separate condi-
tions from two different experiments in the same table. Generally, the
numbers to be compared by the reader are listed side-by-side, not top
to bottom. The sample report in Appendix B contains two examples
of tables. These examples also demonstrate that multiple tables in the
same report should be formatted in the same way.
Writing Psychology Research Reports

If a table presents the results of statistical analysis, asterisks can be

used to indicate which statistical results were significant (e.g. any
F-values or correlations). Include a footnote directly beneath the final
table rule to explain the abbreviations used and how significance is
indicated (when using asterisks to indicate a significance level of0.05,
this becomes: *p < .05.).
It must be possible to read and interpret figures and tables inde-
pendently of the text. The brief description above/below the table/fig-
ure must provide enough information to understand it without having
to read the text of the report.
Various steps are necessary before actually writing your literature
Formatting a reference list review. To give you an idea of what is required before producing a final
Use a hanging indent: the first line of the reference is not indented, but version, the key steps are listed below:
the following lines are. Choose a topic.
Formulate a (provisional) problem statement or question.
Final remarks Search for literature on the subject.
Don't let all these rules distract you from the content of your report! Make a selection from the literature you find.
The form is only the means of conveying your message; it does not Scan through the literature.
replace the message itself. The best way to reach other researchers Reformulate your (provisional) problem statement or question if
(your future colleagues) is to produce writing that is consistent and necessary.
persuasive. The proper form will serve this purpose; improper form Study the selected literature thoroughly.
will detract from it. Write a detailed plan for your literature review.

Only after completing the above steps can you actually commence
writing, during which time revisions will always be necessary based
on your own or others' remarks.

For many students, selecting a topic and formulating a good ques-

tion is already quite a task. Sections 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 will deal with this
aspect in greater detail. Section 3.4 describes several popular litera-
ture search engines, and the chapter concludes with tips for writing
a detailed plan for a literature review.

3.1 Selecting a topic

This section looks at the first step in writing a literature review: choos-
ing a topic. Some students can easily come up with a list of topics they
would like to write a literature review on, while others have more
trouble. Some suggestions are given below to help you get started on
making a choice.
A good way to start is to browse through the books you have already
studied up to now - this will at least give you an idea of where your
Writing Psychology Research Reports
interest lies. If you are particularly interested in social psychology, you
may want to consider choosing a topic from that field. As a follow-up
step, you could look through a social psychology handbook. The added
advantage of this approach is that you can already gain an idea of the
research that has been conducted on a particular topic by looking
through the list of references in the handbook.
A second strategy is to select a topic that interests you, but which you
have not yet delved into. Psychology covers a broad range of topics,
and writing a literature review can enable you to learn more about a
topic that is not in the limelight of modern psychology. The risk is that
you may not find any or sufficient suitable literature. Section 3.3 talks
about what to do in this situation.
Lastly, talking to your fellow students or a lecturer can also help
you choose a topic. The lecturers have all written multiple literature
reviews and can tell you about how they came to choose their topics.
Perhaps the most important thing is that you find the topic interesting,
engaging and/or challenging, so you feel motivated to work on writing
the review (and hopefully enjoy it!).
3.2 Formulating a problem statement and
provisional research question
A problem statement can be viewed as an initial indication of the ques-
tion you aim to answer, and gives a broad, general idea of how you
intend to approach the topic. For example: if you choose to write a lit-
erature review on attribution, your problem statement could focus on
the question of how certain types of attributes (e.g. internal or exter-
nal) originate. A problem statement like this must then be further
honed into a provisional question - this is a necessary step to allow
you to search for literature in a targeted fashion. Your question will
usually require adjustment, sometimes even to a significant extent,
once you have located a few articles.
In most cases, you can formulate your provisional research question in
one of two ways. In experimental research, the question will take the
form of: 'What is the influence ofX on Y?' In correlative research, this
becomes: 'Is there a relationship between X and Y?' In experimental
research, Y represents an aspect of human behaviour (e.g. extrover-
sion, independence, memory performance, reaction speed, depression
or a type of attribution). X represents the possible variables that deter-
mine (or are related to) this behaviour, and can include environmen-
tal variables (such as others' behaviour) and aspects of the individual
3 How to Write a Literature Review -
themselves (such as intelligence or a person's tendency to seek the
cause for events within themselves or in the outside world). One pos-
sible example of a question is: 'Are the types of attribution made by a
person influenced by their ability to exert control over their environ-
ment?' In correlational research, X and Y are generally both aspects of
human behaviour (such as reaction speed and memory performance)
or personal characteristics (such as intelligence and extroversion).
One possible example of a question here is: 'Does a person's social sta-
tus correlate to their attribution style?' Box 3.1 gives several additional
examples of provisional questions.
A major advantage to formulating a question this way is that you
already have at least two terms you can use to search for literature.
The following section looks at selecting search terms and searching
for literature.
Examples of a provisional research question
On the topic of Parent-child relationships, one potential question
could be: 'Does parenting style influence children's personality
development?' A very specific question might be: 'How does an
authoritarian approach to child-rearing influence the development
of extroversion in children?' This latter question assumes that the
personality characteristic is determined by the environment.
On the topic of Memory development, potential questions might be:
'What are the short and long-term effects of targeted training on
short-term memory development?' (environmental determinant),
or: 'What is the relationship between general intelligence and
long-term memory development?' (intra personal determinant).
Box 3.1
3.3 Searching for literature
Scientific literature consists primarily of journal articles, chapters in
edited books or even entire books dedicated to a certain subject. There
are various ways to find suitable literature.
Working from a suitable starting publication
A good way to start is to look in textbooks to see whether your cho-
sen question is covered anywhere. If so, the book will almost always
Writing Psychology Research Reports
include references to articles or books (or book chapters). The full ref-
erences can be found in the reference list in the back of the textbook.
If they look promising, you can find the publications in question by
searching through digital databases, either by using several words
from the title or by searching directly using the authors' names. Once
you have found what you are looking for, you can use this as the basis
for the rest of your search (see 'You find too little literature' under
Section 3.3.1).
Using search terms
If you have no publication to use as a starting point, one option is to
search a range of digital databases. PsycINFO is the best place to start:
it is a major database including all articles, books and book chap-
ters from the psychology research literature that are of any impor-
tance. Base your search terms on your question and enter them into
a search engine (OvidSP) that specialises in searching databases such
as PsycINFO. Based on the titles you find and the accompanying
abstracts, you can then evaluate whether these publications are suita-
ble for inclusion in your literature review. This process is described in
more detail in Section 3.4, along with how to use the Web of Science
and PiCarta search systems.
3.3. 7 Overview of the search process
An effective literature search process is a very active one. It does not
simply involve passively entering search terms and seeing what turns
up - effective searching is driven by what you find during the search
process itself. The search process effectively allows you to start writ-
ing your detailed plan (see Section 3.5). Taking careful note of titles
and abstracts will quickly give you an idea of the different variables
at play in your research question. You will encounter a wide range of
research methods, groups of participants and theoretical perspectives,
for example. This information will help you to structure your litera-
ture review (e.g. by including separate sections on research regarding
children and regarding adults). These ideas for structuring your liter-
ature overview can be actively applied during the search process, by
formulating your search terms so as to effectively cover the relevant
sub-areas. This will quickly reveal whether your structural concept is
tenable, or whether you should discard it. The latter may be the case if
there is too little literature available in a certain specialist field.
3 How to Write a Literature Review -
Search terms
Searching digital databases for publications on your topic requires
search terms. For your initial foray, use the principal words from your
research question. Always use English search terms, as both the data-
bases you will be searching and the psychology literature are nearly all
in English. Examples of suitable search terms are personality develop-
ment, extraversion, short-term memory or intelligence. When formu-
lating search terms, it is helpful to make use of the thesaurus function
(if the search engine has one). The thesaurus contains a hierarchical
system of key words that describe every publication.
Search terms can be combined with Boolean operators, such as AND,
OR and NOT. A search using AND will only produce results that
include both search terms; OR will give publications that include
at least one of the search terms. Use NOT to exclude certain terms;
publications that contain these terms will not be shown.
The initial foray
After typing your terms into the search engine, you usually initiate the
search by pressing a button labelled Search. The first relevant informa-
tion you find will usually be titles (along with the author's name, the
name of the journal/publisher and the year of publication). Titles pro-
vide little information on the content of a publication, but enough to
make an initial assessment. If the title seems relevant to your literature
review, the abstract (a brief summary) is usually only a mouse-click
away. Reading the abstract will give you a much better idea of whether
the publication is useful for your literature review. Your final task is to
locate the full text of the publication. For recent articles, this usually
only requires a few mouse clicks. If you wish to include an article in
your literature review, you must always have access to the full text.
More searching
An effective combination of search terms will probably furnish one
or more titles that are relevant to your question. You may find exactly
the right amount; however, this is unlikely. There are multiple possible
scenarios at this point.
You find too many suitable results. In this case, you must narrow
down and refine your search. There are various ways to do so:
Add more terms to your search; this will limit the number of
results to the publications suitable for your specific question.
Continue searching based on a publication that you find par-
ticularly interesting. In this case, proceed as described below
(as though you have too few results, but at least one that is
extremely suitable for your question).
Writing Psychology Research Reports
You find too little literature.
First of all, you can try using different search terms. If the term
speaking produces no results, the terms language production,
formulation, articulation, sentence production or word genera-
tion might do better. Be creative, as most authors do the same!
If possible, also use the search engine's thesaurus to find suita-
ble search terms.
If you have found at least one publication that seems suita-
ble for your question, use the terms listed therein (or related
terms) as new search terms.
Some search engines (e.g. Web of Science, see Section 3.4.2)
can also use a certain publication as the starting point for
searching backwards or forwards in time. Search backwards
in time by closely examining the publication's reference list; it
is very likely that it will contain relevant articles on the same
topic. Search forwards in time by retrieving all articles that
appeared later and contain a reference to the original article.
This will be very likely to produce relevant results.
Terms used in the articles found in this manner can also serve
as inspiration for new search terms.
Lastly, many search engines allow you to search for articles
that resemble the starting publication.
You find no publications whatsoever that are relevant to your ques-
tion. In this scenario, you must broaden the scope of your question
and conduct a new search accordingly.
3.3.2 Evaluating the results
When evaluating the suitability of an article, book or book chapter,
start by establishing whether the content relates to your problem state-
ment or provisional question. To do so, look at the title and subtitle
(if there is one), then read the summary (or abstract) that is often also
included in many databases. A quick way to tell whether an article is
useful is to read the abstract to identify the dependent and independ-
ent variables and their operationalisation, and potentially also the
theoretical framework and the types of participants. This will allow
you to see at a glance whether the article in question is relevant to
your question and the rest of the literature you found.
Evaluating the suitability of a book (or part thereof) is somewhat
similar. As with articles, you can most likely look at the title and/or
author(s) to see whether the work is suitable or not, and scanning of
the table of contents will give you a general overview of the contents
3 How to Write a Literature Review -
of the book. This is usually enough to get a good idea of how the book
is structured. Books often include a summary or a first chapter giving
a brief outline of the chapters to follow. This is a good basis for decid-
ing whether it is suitable, and seeing which chapters/sections might
be useful. The reference lists in such books are also a good source of
additional information and/or further useful sources.
Lastly, the impact factors of articles can give an idea of how important
the article is. In scientific practice, articles are only useful if they are
read by many others and incorporated into their research. This last
aspect can be measured in the form of impact factors, which are higher
the more other researchers reference articles published in the jour-
nal. Nearly all psychology and other journals have an impact factor.
The scientific journals Nature and Science are widely read, for exam-
ple, and their impact factor is high (around 40). Journals such as the
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools have a low impact
factor (around 0.1). Impact factors are recalculated each year, and can
be accessed at all university libraries. They can also be found within
online university environments by searching the Internet for InCites
Journal Citation Reports.
3.4 Overview of search engines
All universities provide access to a wide range of digital databases, all
of which contain information on millions of scientific publications.
The information on a single publication is called a record. Each record
consists of several elements, called fields. For example, there are fields
for the name(s) of the author(s), for the title, for the publisher, for
keywords, for the publication year, occasionally for the abstract and
the list of references, etc.
This section discusses the various search options as follows:
searching for journal articles and chapters from edited books in
PsycINFO;
searching by reference in Web of Science;
searching in Google Scholar;
searching for books in PiCarta.
Nowadays, more and more search results can be viewed straight away
online; if not, the search engine will provide the necessary informa-
tion to find a printed copy. Bringing up entire publications online does
require searching from a university computer, however. It is some-
times also possible from other locations, but external computers must
have a VPN connection to the university network. Ask the library for
more information.
Writing Psychology Research Reports
3.4. 7 Searching for publications in PsyclNFO
To find journal articles and chapters from edited books on your topic,
PsycINFO is generally the best place to start. It contains records and
articles from around 1500 academic psychology journals, along with
chapters from edited books. All important publications in the world
of psychology are contained in it. Only in special cases can it also
be worthwhile searching elsewhere (e.g. medical databases, such as
MEDLINE or PubMed). PsycINFO provides an abstract for all refer-
enced articles, enabling you to evaluate straight away whether an arti-
cle is relevant to your question. PsycINFO can be accessed from the
online library of any university in the Netherlands.
Opening PsycINFO will take you to Ovid - this is the search engine,
and PsycINFO is the collection of databases that can be searched using
Ovid.
Searching with the thesaurus
All PsycINFO records include a 'keywords' field. In PsycINFO, they
are called subject headings. All keywords used are part of a hierar-
chical system of keywords - the thesaurus - which you can apply to
your search. By searching with the words in the thesaurus, you can
take advantage of the work by many librarians who have allocated key-
words to each publication. Publications found in this way will never
contain your keyword by chance, but will be of genuine relevance.
Search for effective keywords in the thesaurus as follows: click the
Search option under the Search Tools tab, then click Thesaurus (to the
left of the search field). Type in your search term and click Search. If
your word does not appear in the thesaurus, you will be presented with
the thesaurus entries that are alphabetically close to where your word
would be. If your keyword is in the thesaurus, you will see an overview
of more general, more specific and/or related words in the thesaurus.
Clicking on one of these words will take you to another part of the
thesaurus. You can also see straight away how many publications are
associated with each keyword.
Starting with the term 'behaviour', you can click through to the
related term 'behaviour therapy', then to the more specific term
'systematic desensitization therapy' then to the related term
'relaxation therapy' and then to 'muscle relaxation'.
Continue in this fashion until you find a keyword that describes your
topic, then find publications in PsycINFO containing the keyword in
one of the subject headings as follows: check the box beside the term
3 How to Write a Literature Review -
and click Continue (at the top of the screen). A list of titles will then
appear, which you can browse through. If one of the results looks
interesting, view the abstract by clicking the Abstract button. Reading
the abstract will allow you to assess whether the publication will be
useful for your literature review.
Saving suitable results
If you think a result might be useful, mark it by checking the box
beside it. There are buttons immediately above and below the list that
allow you to show the checked records (Keep selected), print them,
e-mail them (to yourself) or save them in a file (Export).
Searching with different keywords
(If necessary, first click Search at the top of the Ovid screen, e.g. if you
have been using the thesaurus).
If you cannot use the thesaurus (or if you do not want to), you can also
simply enter different search terms. Click in the Search panel under
the Basic Search tab and type your search terms into the empty field.
You can even just enter your research question (in English) into the
field. Then click Search, and a list of results will appear on the screen.
Combining search terms
If your question combines two or more concepts, you will usually be
looking for a combination of two or more search terms. There are var-
ious ways to do this. In Basic Search, the search terms can be entered
in the same field; in Advanced Search, they must be separated by the
word and. If you have already done several searches and you wish to
combine the results, you do not need to enter the search terms again.
Instead, the collected results can be combined by selecting the relevant
searches in the Search History panel (at the top) and then clicking the
And button. Note: Basic Search results are filtered for relevance using
an algorithm created by the software provider. If you want to view
all of the records containing a certain search term, use the Advanced
Search, as these results are not filtered.
Refining searches
There are more options available in PsycINFO for refining searches
even further:
If you are looking for a certain publication, or all publications by
a certain author, use the Find Citation tab.
Searches can be limited (e.g. to publications from certain years, to
participants from certain populations, etc.) under the Advanced
Search tab, by clicking Limits and Additional Limits.
Writing Psychology Research Reports
Limit searches to certain fields (such as the title) under the Search
Fields tab.
Search Fields can also be used to find out what happened to the ide-
as in the article after it was published. To search for publications
that refer to a single publication that you have already identified,
enter the full title of the publication into the search field and select
cv: Cited Reference Title. Then click Search and the search results
will appear at the bottom of the screen. The Filter by option will
appear left of the results; if you click it, and then click Subjects, the
relevant publications will be sorted by keyword (subject headings).
Search by author. This is worthwhile if you have found a use-
ful publication and want to find more publications by the same
author; do so via the Advanced Search, by selecting the Author
option. Enter the author's surname and click Search; this will take
you to a screen where you can select the correct author. Then click
Search for Selected Terms (right above the tabs).
Search different spellings of the same term under Advanced Search
by using 'or' instead of 'and', or use what is called a wild card:
behavio",
Explore these and other options yourself in PsycINFO. More infor-
mation on PsycINFO is available under the 'help' button at the top
of the Ovid screen.
3.4.2 Searching in Web of Science
One of Web of Science's main features is that all the information in it is
interconnected, much like the threads in a spider's web. Once you have
found an article that is central to your topic, Web of Science provides
an easy way to ascertain the background to the ideas presented, and
the path they took after publication.
Just like PsycINFO, Web of Science uses search terms to find various
types of literature, with the added advantage that it includes more
journals than PsycINFO. Especially in fringe areas (e.g. where psy-
chology meets biology/medicine), Web of Science can produce many
more results than PsycINFO. Web of Science is both a database and a
search engine. The search function uses the reference lists of articles
in the database.
General searches
Enter your search terms in the field in the opening screen. You can also
specify where you want Web of Science to search. The default setting
is Topic, but this can be altered (e.g. to Author or Publication Name).
3 How to Write a Literature Review 11111
Other fields can also be added and combined with the results from the
first field by using the operators AND, OR and NOT. Clicking Search
will bring up a list of articles that match your search terms. Use Refine
Results (on the left) to limit the results. Of course, you can also change
your search terms. If an article seems interesting, you can read more
about it by clicking its title. This will bring up a screen containing
information such as the abstract and all sources to which the article
refers. If it looks usable, you can add it to a list by selecting it and click-
ing Add to Marked List, just above the description of the search results.
The list of articles created in this manner can be viewed by opening
the Marked List tab (top right), where it can also be emailed (e.g. to
yourself), printed or saved in various file formats.
Searching for related articles
To find out about the background to the ideas in a specific article, or
to find out how the ideas spread after publication, use the right-hand
column in the article's information window.
To find out the history of the ideas discussed in the article, search
backward in time for all publications referenced by it. To do so, click
on the number above the words Cited References. To see how the ideas
put forward in the article were used after its publication, search for-
ward in time for all articles (published later) that include the given
article as a reference by clicking the number above Times Cited.
Lastly, Web of Knowledge can also provide a list of articles that cite
the same publications as your starting article. This can furnish a list of
other researchers who have published work on the same subject (but
who may not have referenced each other). This is a quick way to gain an
overview of your topic. Web of Science can also search for related arti-
cles if you click below Cited References on View Related Records. This
will show a list of all Web of Science articles that have at least one ref-
erence in common with your starting article. Thankfully, the articles
containing the most reference overlap are shown at the top of the list.
3.4.3 Searching with Google Scholar
Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.nl/ or https://scholar.google
.com/) is a search engine for scientific literature, based on the well-
known Google Search. It is a very intuitive system. The standard open-
ing screen accepts not only content terms, but also other terms, such
as authors' names or journal titles. In addition to the standard search
field, there is also an Advanced search option in the top left. Clicking it
will display more options for refining your search, such as specifying
Writing Psychology Research Reports
whether search terms must appear in a certain publication, or exclud-
ing results that contain certain terms.
After clicking Search, a list of search results (titles) will appear, show-
ing the authors underneath. These results are ordered by relevance,
according to the Google algorithm. Clicking on a title will take you
to the abstract, if available, or sometimes even the entire publication.
If you have searched via the university network, a direct link to the
relevant publication may appear beside the title.
A number of links are given below the title description: To find out
how the ideas put forward in the article were used after publication,
click the Cited by link. There are also links to related articles (useful
for getting a quick overview on a certain topic) and to all versions of
the publication that Google Scholar found online.
One drawback of working with Google Scholar is the difficulty in
conducting a systematic search - you will never know, for example,
whether you have found everything that is available, or how the results
are ordered/prioritised. You will also see a lot of irrelevant results, as
Google Scholar searches the entire Internet, not just scientific data-
bases. One major advantage of Google Scholar is that you can use your
knowledge of the Internet to get started straight away.
3.4.4 Searching for books: PiCarta
PiCarta is the best place to start searching for books on your topic.
Among other things, it is the combined catalogue of books in many
Dutch libraries, including all university libraries. It also includes
a large collection of journal article entries, but it is better to use
PsycINFO for journal articles, as it includes the abstracts, which
PiCarta does not, nor does PiCarta specialise in psychology. In addi-
tion to journal articles, PiCarta also includes audio-visual materials,
websites and other resources.
Searching for books in PiCarta
The first line of the PiCarta search screen includes tabs for each of
the various search options. The second has drop-down menus that
allow you to fine-tune how the search engine works. Search terms
are entered on the third line. If you have more than one search term,
use the left-hand drop-down menu in the second line to set whether
the terms should be combined using [en} ('and', which will give fewer
results) or [of] ('or', giving more results). More options are available at
the top of the Pi Carta search screen under Geavanceerd (Advanced).
3 How to Write a Literature Review -
Once you have entered your search terms, click zoeken (search) and
a numbered list of entries will appear. The symbol to the left of the
number will tell you whether it is a book, a journal article, a video,
a website or something else. To view more information, click on the
entry title. Doing so will bring up a full bibliographic reference.
Keywords
The books in PiCarta can easily be found using either Dutch or Eng-
lish search terms - using English will generally produce more results
than using Dutch. Search by keyword as follows: in the middle drop-
down menu (in the second line), select trefwoord (keyword), enter your
term and click zoeken (search).
Searching for a specific book
Search for a specific book (e.g. an edited book you have found in
PsycINFO) by putting the whole title in double quotation marks
and selecting the titelwoorden (title words) option from the centre
drop-down menu in the second line of Pi Carta.
3.5 Writing a plan
Once your literature search is complete (or nearly complete), you can
start to draft the structure of your literature review. Writing a plan
is a very important step in this process. Writing a good plan is a lot
of work, and most people underestimate the time required. This is
because nearly all beginning writers find it hard to get an overview of
and keep track of a relatively large number of publications.
A well-written text always has a narrative that runs throughout.
Writing a good plan fixes this narrative in place, and is therefore an
important step in writing a literature review. Read below on how to
write a plan, and to see what it might look like once finished.
3.5.1 How to write a plan?
A literature review will always consist of an introduction, a body and a
conclusion (Chapter 5 looks at this in greater detail). Before you start,
you must therefore decide on what to put in your introduction and the
remaining sections, and what the overall answer to your (provisional)
question is. A well-conceived plan is of great help when writing your
literature review. The more solid your plan is, the less trouble you will
have in writing your literature review.
Writing Psychology Research Reports
Before you start
Before writing your plan, you must thoroughly study the literature
you have found. Your perspective on the literature will determine how
you structure the review, and you cannot form a perspective without
having read the literature. To this end, determine for each publication
which section of the research being reported on is relevant to your
research question. In articles that describe multiple studies, only one
will be truly relevant in most cases (and the others were only per-
formed either to exclude different interpretations of the results, or to
add further detail that you do not need).
Write a brief summary of the research question that is relevant to you,
along with the method, the results and their interpretation by the
authors.
Then, to all of these elements, add your own evaluation. Assess the
relevance of the authors' research question to your own. Some authors
state their research question explicitly; in other cases, you may need to
read between the lines to some extent to discern what it was they were
investigating. Once you have identified the authors' research question,
you can assess how important it is to your own. Also look at whether
the study was conducted properly (e.g. look at their operationalisa-
tien, and whether the research design was sound). Check whether the
analyses are correct, whether the authors' interpretation of the results
was impartial, and whether the results could be interpreted differently.
Evaluations of this kind are not easy, and require you to think scien-
tifically about what you have read. They are also challenging because
they allow you to put all your knowledge about psychology, methodol-
ogy and statistics into practice. More importantly, evaluations of this
kind are absolutely necessary in order to take the next step: planning
your review.
Planning your review
Only once you have thoroughly studied all the publications can you
start thinking about how to structure your literature review. This is
the most difficult part of the entire writing process, in which you must
combine all of your analyses and evaluations of the various publica-
tions, and find a narrative that ties them all together.
It is often easiest to start with the end. Ask yourself what the answer
is to your research question, based on your analysis of the literature.
Next, think about how you arrived at this conclusion. At this point,
there are generally four possible scenarios.
The first is that the answer to your research question can more or less
be determined directly through the analysis of your publications. If so,
scrutinise precisely how you arrived at your answer - in most cases,
3 How to Write a Literature Review -
the answer will follow from a logical series of steps, each of which
can be seen as the answer to a 'sub-question'. This will allow you to
divide your review into sections, each of which answers a particular
sub-question. The progressive unravelling of the research question
into sub-questions thus forms the narrative.
A second possibility is that the answer to the question is not clear-cut.
In this case, given the results of your analysis of the literature, you can
seek to explain why there is no unequivocal answer. To do so, analyse
which aspects are integral to answering your research question. Does a
certain theory work well for adults, but not for children, for example? If
this seems to be the case, two sections in the main body could discuss
the effects of the therapy on adults and children. The best result will
be achieved by constructing an over-arching hypothesis that is sup-
ported by all of the literature you have found. You may be able to state
what the difference is between adults and children that accounts for
the difference in therapy effectiveness - this is an important insight,
and could form the narrative that runs through your literature review.
A third possibility is that the research question cannot be answered
because the various studies contradict each other. The obvious strat-
egy here is to group studies with similar results together into sections.
Here too, however, it is your job to try to formulate an over-arching
hypothesis. Why do the results contradict each other? If you can
show, for example, that the variation can be attributed to differences
in research methods or operationalisation, this offers a nice narrative
for your review.
Lastly, you might find that your question and selected literature are
not such a good match after all. You may discover that you are missing
crucial information that is necessary to answer your research ques-
tion. In this case, you can go in search of new literature to fill the gap.
You may also discover that you cannot answer your original research
question at all - no need to panic, since you can always simply adjust
your research question afterwards. As long as there is a narrative that
ties all of your publications together, you can always rework it into a
new research question. There are various places to look to find a nar-
rative: for example, you can compare the various studies' theoretical
perspectives, operationalisations, research designs, analyses, results
or the way the results were interpreted. The theoretical narratives are
usually the ones that readers find most interesting.
Writing Psychology Research Reports 3 How to Write a Literature Review -

3.5.2 What will the plan look like? I Elements to be included

Title The title of the literature review
Ultimately, your review will be an exposition, providing a well-consid-
Introduction Introduction to the problem area
ered response to the research question. As you may have guessed from
Description of the problem area, including:
the description of the 'narrative' process above, there are three types relevant theories;
of arguments that your exposition may employ. The first two types prior research;
can be taken directly from the studies under review. Both the results an explanation of concepts/terminology.

themselves and the authors' interpretation thereof can be used as Justification of the study question (i.e. relevance)
arguments. The third type comes from your own scientific evaluation within the problem area:
study question;
of the first two types of arguments. The final literature review must justification of the strategy chosen to answer the
combine all of these arguments into a coherent, convincing whole. question, leading into the structure of the literature
Your plan must contain the entire argumentative structure of the final review.
literature review, and indicate how the structure works both within Body (section by section; Section title (sub-topic)
and between sections. As shown in the example, a plan will begin with the number of sections
Introductory paragraph that includes the sub-topic
a working title for the literature review. Next comes an introduction will depend on the num-
ber of sub-topics) Description of the first study, stating:
outlining both the topics to be discussed in the following sections and
why you are including/describing it;
the question being investigated. Each section in the main body must what the researchers did and what the results were;
indicate the sub-topic under discussion (often aided by a sub-ques- your evaluation of the study (what the results mean
tion), what information you are presenting as an argument, which for your exposition);
howt his study relates to the rest of your exposition.
articles the information was taken from and the section conclusion you
draw based on this information. You can also indicate exactly how Description of second (and possibly third, fourth, etc.)
these sections are linked (transitions). In your conclusion, state what study

the answer to the main question will be, supported by the various sec- Section conclusion:
tion conclusions. You should also include any points of criticism you substantiated answer to the sub-question;
link back to the theory;
wish to address, and the associated consequences for the conclusion transition to next section.
(in the form of concrete suggestions and recommendations for further
Conclusion and discussion Answer to the main question:
study). Note: before writing your plan, you should do a lot of work; use supported using section conclusions.
the order as described in Section 3.5.1.
Points for discussion:
See below for a checklist of the plan structure; Box 3.2 contains a sam- interpretation of the given answer (linking back to
ple plan for a review on the subject of violent computer games and theory);
aggression. It is recommended to read through the example, to get an evaluation of the given answer;
idea of what your own plan might look like. recommended further research.

Broader context
Plan outline Reference list Complete and in alphabetical order
Use the following outline to write a plan. The elements in the right-
hand column are what you need to include, and all information
sources must be cited.
Writing Psychology Research Reports
Sample Plan
Title
The Effects of Playing Violent Computer Games on both Behaviour
and Attitudes in Young People
Introduction
Introduction and social relevance
Massacre at Columbine High School in the United States (Littleton,
Colorado, 20 April 1999). The teenagers involved were avid players
of Doom, a violent computer game.
A potential correlation between violent computer games and
violent behaviour or attitudes among young people could affect
whether they should be allowed to play them.
Description of problem area
Prior research. Violent computer games are a relatively new
phenomenon, and no particularly intensive research has been
conducted on it to date. This is not true of violent television
programmes and their effects, however, which have been
researched (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski & Eron, 2003).
This study showed a positive correlation between exposure to
television violence at a young age and aggressive behaviour
as adults.
Theory. According to observation theory (Bandura, 1969), humans
can learn behaviours simply by observing them. This may explain
the effects of watching TV on behaviour. The effect of computer
games could be even stronger, as people not only observe the
behaviour, but also carry it out (in a virtual environment). What is
more, violent games also reward the violent behaviour (operant
conditioning, Gray, 2011).
It is therefore possible that the pathway from playing violent
games to exhibiting violent behaviour runs via attitudes
to violence. According to the theory of planned behaviour
(Ajzen, 1991), attitudes toward certain behaviour can give rise
to that behaviour. The more positive the attitude, the more
violence might be expected.
It is also an established fact that men are more aggressive than
women, for which there are evolutionary explanations (Gray, 2011).
The correlation could therefore be stronger in men than in women.
3 How to Write a Literature Review -
The ideas below will be explained as they are introduced: Violent
computer games, aggressive behaviour, observation learning,
operant conditioning, attitude, evolutionary explanation,
proximate explanations (on mechanisms) and ultimate
explanations (on why the mechanism exists). The studies refer to
both 'computer games' and 'video games'. In this literature review,
the term 'computer games' is used to refer to both.
Research justification
The theory shows that there might well be a correlation between
playing violent computer games and aggressive behaviour.
Question
Does playing violent computer games give rise to aggressive
behaviour and aggressive attitudes in young people?
Structure (with explanatory notes)
Sub-question 1: does a correlation exist? A correlation has been
demonstrated, and so the second sub-question concerns the
mechanism (proximate explanation): does the change in behaviour
run via a change in attitude regarding the use of violence?
A change in these attitudes has also been demonstrated, and could
be responsible for the change in behaviour. The fact that men are
more aggressive than women on average (which can be accounted
for by an ultimate explanation) leads to the third sub-question: is
the correlation stronger in men than in women? This also proves to
be true. The above is followed by a discussion of the results.
Section 1:
The Effect of Violent Computer Games on Behaviour
Introduction
Is there a correlation between playing violent computer games and
aggressive behaviour?
First study
Why raise this study? To demonstrate that a correlation exists.
What are the details? Silvern and Williamson (1987) used several
questionnaires to survey 12-to-14-year-olds on their 'habits'
regarding playing violent computer games and their behaviour.
A correlation was found between playing violent computer games
and aggressive behaviour.
Writing Psychology Research Reports
What does this mean? The results seem to indicate that playing
violent computer games leads to aggressive behaviour, but the
study could not establish any causal relationship. It could be that
people who are naturally more aggressive simply enjoy playing
violent computer games. It is also possible that an entirely separate,
third variable produces the correlation, such as built-up frustrations
due to social isolation.
Where to from here?These questions can be answered by studies
using an experimental design.
Second study
Why raise this study? To introduce an indication that the correlation
is causal.
What are the details?Colwell and Payne (2000) had a group of very
young children (aged four to six) watch a violent cartoon and play
a violent computer game. Their behaviour during play was scored
for aggressiveness before and after exposure to the violent stimuli.
The researchers found that aggressive behaviour during play was
higher than the baseline following exposure.
What does this mean? This study points strongly to a causal
relationship; however, there was no control group to establish
whether the manipulation genuinely caused the rise in aggression.
The children might just as well be more aggressive after watching
a non-violent cartoon and playing a non-violent computer game,
e.g. because of a need to release some physical energy after sitting
still for so long.
Where to from here? An experimental study with a control group
is needed.
Third and fourth studies
Why raise these studies? To demonstrate that the correlation is
causal.
What are the details? Anderson and Dill (2000) and Bartholow and
Anderson (2002) conducted studies on young adults aged 18- 23.
The participants were divided randomly into two groups, and played
either a violent or a non-violent computer game.
Afterwards, the participants were given a competitive task to
complete, and aggressive behaviour was observed. The results
showed that playing a violent computer game led to more
aggressive behaviour.
What does this mean?The correlation has been demonstrated in two
studies involving young adults; it would now appear to be causal.
Where to from here? Draw section conclusions.
3 How to Write a Literature Review -
Section conclusion
Prior research has shown not only a correlation between playing
violent computer games and aggressive behaviour, but also that
there is a causal relationship. Just like violent TV programmes,
violent computer games have been shown to elicit aggressive
behaviour. This relationship has been shown among both young
adults and children aged 4- 14, and can be explained by the
observational learning theory.
Transition
Now that a causal relationship between violent computer games
and aggressive behaviour has been established, the question of
how this relationship is established remains. One possibility is
that playing violent computer games influences young people's
attitudes to violence, in a positive sense. It is assumed that
attitudes can produce certain behaviours (Ajzen, 1991); a change
in attitude could therefore lead to a change in behaviour.
The next section looks at the influence of violent computer games
on attitudes.
Sections 2 and 3
The structure of these sections is analogous to those preceding,
therefore they are not shown in this example.
Conclusions and discussion
Response to the question
Supported using section conclusions. It would seem that playing
violent computer games does indeed lead to violent behaviour
in young people. The causal relation has been demonstrated in
young adults aged 18 - 23, and there are strong indications that it
also exists for younger children.
After playing violent computer games, young males also display
more aggression than young females.
Discussion
Interpretation (including links to theory). The established causal
relationship between violent computer games and aggressive
behaviour can be explained by Bandura's (1969) observational
learning theory and operant conditioning (plus generalisation).
The behavioural change could be facilitated by changing
attitudes. There is evidence that playing violent computer games
leads to the development of a more positive attitude towards
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They made the journey back to town without incident. Their arrival,
with Slim marching ahead and Frank keeping the outlaw covered
with the revolver, created a sensation. Word quickly sped about the
mining camp that one of the members of Black Pepper's notorious
gang had been captured and a crowd congregated about the jail as
the little procession disappeared into the sheriff's office.
The sheriff was a shifty-eyed man of middle age, obviously weak and
susceptible to public opinion. When he saw Slim led into the office
he scratched his head dubiously.
"We want this fellow locked up," said Frank.
"What fer?" asked the sheriff reluctantly.
"For being mixed up in the gold robbery, for one thing. If that isn't
enough you can hold him for carrying a revolver. If that isn't enough
we'll charge him with assault, pointing a weapon, and half a dozen
other things."
"I don't know," drawled the sheriff. "It ain't quite usual——"
Clearly he did not wish to put Slim in a cell. Frank became impatient.
"Look here," he said. "You're sheriff here and your duty is to lock up
lawbreakers. We'll give you all the evidence you need against this
chap, but we want him kept where he can't do any harm. If you're
afraid of Black Pepper——"
"I'm not afraid of nobody," said the sheriff hastily.
Just then the door opened and a bearded old prospector strode in.
He went right up to the desk and shook his fist beneath the sheriff's
nose.
"Lock him up," he roared. "We've stood for about enough from you,
and I don't care whether you're sheriff or not. If you're goin' to
encourage outlaws and thieves, me and the boys will mighty soon
see that there's a new sheriff in this here man's town."
Frank and Joe then saw that other miners were standing in the
doorway, crowding against one another, muttering truculently.
The sheriff blinked, wavered, and finally gave in.
"I just wanted to make sure it was all right," he muttered. "Don't want
to lock anybody up that don't deserve it."
"You know mighty well that Slim Briggs deserves it, if any one in this
camp ever did," retorted the old miner. "Lock him up."
The sheriff took a ponderous bunch of keys from his pocket and
unlocked a heavy door leading to the cells. "This way, Slim," he said
regretfully.
Slim Briggs followed him into the cell. He looked around, plainly
expecting to see the rest of the gang in jail as well. Suspicion
dawned on him.
"Where's the others?" he demanded wrathfully.
"What others?" asked the sheriff mildly.
"Black Pepper—the rest of the boys."
"They ain't here."
Slim gaped in astonishment.
"They ain't here?" he shouted finally. "Why, those boys told me
they'd all been rounded up! I spilled everything I knew, just so I'd get
let off easy!"
"You're the only one that's been pinched," said the sheriff.
"So far," added Frank pointedly.
Then, as Slim Briggs burst into a wild outbreak of bitter recrimination
against the way in which he had deceived himself, the boys withdrew
and the cell door clanged.
The old miner laughed and slapped Frank on the shoulder.
"I guess Bart Dawson come along just in time!" he declared. "Sheriff
would have let that bird go if I hadn't got the boys to back you up."
He turned to the sheriff. "We've seen that Slim is in jail," he said.
"You're responsible for keepin' him there. If he gets out—" he
snapped his fingers ominously—"it means a new sheriff in Lucky
Bottom."
 CHAPTER XVII
The Outlaw's Notebook
"Are you Bart Dawson?" asked Frank.
"That's me," said the old man. "I'm the fellow they stole that there
gold from."
The Hardy boys looked curiously at the old miner. From what they
had heard of Bart Dawson from Jadbury Wilson they had been
prepared to dislike him. But he appeared so genial and friendly and
his grizzled old face was apparently so honest that they could not
help but feel drawn to him. He certainly did not look like the sort of
man who would desert his partners and rob them in the way Jadbury
Wilson had described. Still, the evidence seemed all against him. He
had betrayed his comrades and decamped with their gold, according
to Wilson's story.
But why, argued Frank, should he wait twenty years to return for the
wealth he had hidden? Why should he return with one of the
Coulsons? Could it be possible that the pair had been in league with
one another against Jadbury Wilson? The mystery defied
explanation, but the more Frank looked at the jovial, honest face of
the old man before him the more he was convinced that Bart
Dawson had none of the earmarks of either thief or traitor.
"We've got one of 'em behind the bars now," said Dawson, rubbing
his hands with satisfaction. "I only wish we had 'em all."
"Perhaps we will have them all before long," remarked Frank. "We've
run across a few clues that may lead to something."
"That's good! That's good!" declared the old man. "Do your best,
lads, and you may be sure Bart Dawson won't forget you."
Frank and Joe forbore any mention of the name of Jadbury Wilson. It
was best, they decided, to keep that information to themselves until
they should learn more about the affair of the stolen gold. They had
long since learned that one of the axioms of successful detective
work is to listen much and say little. Accordingly, they bade good-bye
to Bart Dawson and left the jail.
"Where to?" asked Joe.
"Back to where we caught Slim Briggs. We were on the right trail to
the camp."
"But if the outlaws have left there isn't much use going up there
now."
"We never know what we'll find."
The boys made their way up into the mountains again and, after
about an hour of steady traveling, found themselves on the trail that
led into the defile where they had trapped Slim so neatly. On the way
they discussed their meeting with Bart Dawson.
"I can't imagine that old fellow being the kind of man who would
desert his partners and steal their gold, the way Jadbury Wilson
described," said Frank, for the tenth time. "I just can't figure it out at
all! You can tell with half an eye that he isn't a crook."
"Yet Jadbury Wilson was absolutely convinced that he had left them
all in the lurch."
"And he had the gold in his possession. We know that. He came
back here to dig it up. That shows he must have hidden it, as Wilson
said he did. The whole story hangs together mighty well."
"Yet why should he bring Coulson with him?" objected Joe.
"That's another queer angle. I can't figure it out at all. I think we
should see Coulson and tell him what we know, tell him what
Jadbury Wilson told us, and ask him about it."
"That's the best idea. But isn't it strange how Jadbury Wilson, away
back in Bayport, should be connected with this case, away out here
in Montana?"
"It's a coincidence, all right. We just seem to have blundered into the
affair from both ends. Bart Dawson and Coulson know a lot that we
don't know, but then we know a lot that Bart Dawson and Coulson
don't know."
"I think we hold the advantage. To-morrow we'll try to find Coulson."
The boys were going down the defile now and they passed between
the overhanging rocks where they had captured the outlaw. The
marks of the struggle were still plainly evident in the snow.
"Poor Slim!" remarked Frank, with a laugh. "He'll be kicking himself
all around the cell for talking so much."
"He was nicely fooled. He was sure the rest of the gang were all in
jail."
"We didn't tell any lies about it. He took it for granted that the outlaws
were arrested. All we did was to look wise and let him keep on
thinking so." The boys chuckled at the recollection of the ease with
which the dull-witted Slim had been duped.
"If only the rest of them are that easy!" said Frank.
"No such luck. I'm thinking this Black Pepper will give us trouble
before we are through. He seems to have Lucky Bottom pretty well
under his thumb."
"He has the sheriff buffaloed, at any rate, by the looks of things. If
Bart Dawson hadn't shown up when he did I don't think Slim Briggs
would have been put in jail at all."
The trail now led toward a clump of trees, and here there were
evidences of recent habitation. Some of the trees had been chopped
down, presumably for firewood, and the stumps rose above the level
of the snow. There were numerous footprints about the little grove
and in some places the snow was closely packed down. As the boys
drew closer they caught a glimpse of a small cabin in the midst of the
grove.
"We'll go easy from now on," said Frank quietly. "Some of them may
have come back."
The boys went cautiously forward, keeping to the shelter of the trees
as much as possible. Every few moments they would stop and listen.
But they heard not a sound. There was not a voice from the cabin.
The only noises were the rustling of the trees in the wind. Quietly, the
Hardy boys stole up toward the cabin. It stood in a little clearing in
the wood. At the edge of the clearing they waited, but still they heard
nothing, and finally Frank was satisfied that the place was, in fact,
deserted.
"No one here," he said, in a tone of relief. "We'll take a look around."
They advanced boldly across the clearing, directly toward the door of
the cabin. It was half open. Frank peered inside.
The place was deserted. The cabin was sparsely furnished, with a
rude table, two chairs, and bunks on either side. There was a small
iron stove at the far end of the building and the place was dimly
lighted by one window.
There was every evidence that the outlaws had left the place in a
hurry. Papers, articles of clothing and rubbish of all kinds lay about
the floor, scattered here and there in abandon. One of the chairs was
lying overturned on the floor. The place was in confusion.
The boys entered.
"Looks as if they didn't waste much time in getting out," remarked
Joe.
"I'll say they didn't. The cabin looks as if a cyclone had hit it."
"Wonder if there'd be any use looking through those papers." Joe
indicated a scattered heap of old envelopes, letters, tattered
magazines and torn sheets of paper lying on the floor.
"That's just what I was thinking." Frank scooped up a handful of the
papers and sat down on a bunk. He began to sort them over. The
magazines he flung to one side as worthless. Some of the sheets of
paper contained nothing but crude attempts at drawing or penciled
lists of figures presumably done by some of the outlaws while idling
away their time in the cabin.
One or two of the letters, Frank put to one side, as liable to give
some clue to the identity of members of the gang. When he had
looked through the first handful of papers he picked up some more.
Suddenly he gave an exclamation of satisfaction.
"Find something?" asked Joe.
"This may be valuable." Frank held up a small black notebook and
began flipping the pages. On the inside of the cover he read:
"Black Pepper—his book."
"This is the captain's own little record book. There should be some
information here."
Frank began studying the book carefully. The first few pages gave
him little satisfaction, the writing consisting largely of cryptic
abbreviations evidently in an improvised code known only to the
outlaw himself. There were the names of several men written on
another page, and among them he recognized the names of Slim,
Shorty and Jack, the trio who had captured them at the abandoned
mine working. Across from their names had been marked various
sums of money, evidently their shares of the gang's takings in some
robbery.
Then, on the next page, he found a crude map.
He studied it curiously. It looked something like the ground floor plan
of an extremely crude house. There was one large chamber with two
passages leading from it. One of these passages was marked with
an X, and each passage led to a small chamber. From one of these
led still another passage which branched into a tiny room, in one
corner of which was inscribed a small circle.
"That's the funniest plan of a house I ever saw!" said Joe, looking
over his brother's shoulder.
Frank studied the plan for a few moments and then looked up.
"Why, it isn't a house at all. It's a mine!" he declared. "This is the plan
of a mine. This big room is the main working at the bottom of the
shaft, and these passages are tunnels leading out of it."
"Perhaps it's the mine where the gold is hidden!" cried Joe, in
excitement.
"There may be something about it on another page." Frank turned
the leaf of the notebook. There he found what he was so eagerly
seeking.
At the top of the page was written, in a scrawling, unformed hand:
"Lone Tree Mine." Beneath that he found the following:
 "Follow passage X to second cave, then down tunnel
to blue room. Gold at circle."
Frank looked up at his brother.
"This is what we wanted," he said jubilantly. "They've had the gold
hidden there all the time. All we have to do now is find the Lone Tree
Mine and we'll recover the stuff in no time."
"Unless the outlaws have taken it away by now," pointed out Joe.
"That's right, too. I hadn't thought of that. They may have taken it
away right after they abandoned this camp. Well, we've just got to
take our chances on that. If they've left it in the mine this long they
may think it's safe enough there a while longer." Frank got up from
the bunk and stuffed the notebook into his pocket. His eyes were
sparkling with excitement. "Joe, I believe we're on the right track! We
know just where the stuff has been hidden and I've a hunch it's there
yet. We haven't any time to lose. Let's start right now, before those
rascals get ahead of us, and hunt for the Lone Tree Mine."
"Why, I'll bet I know where that is!" declared Joe. "Don't you
remember an old mine working near where they caught us the other
day? There was a big pine right by the top of the shaft, standing all
by itself."
"I'll bet that's the place! Come on! We'll try it, anyway!"
Hastily, they left the little cabin. They were sure now that they were
on the trail of the hidden gold. Frank remembered the lone pine tree
that Joe had mentioned; it seemed to identify the abandoned
working as the place they sought.
It was snowing heavily as they started down the trail but the boys
scarcely noticed it in their excitement. They even forgot that they had
not had their lunch.
"If the outlaws haven't beaten us to it," declared Frank, "we'll have
that gold before the day is out!"
 CHAPTER XVIII
The Blizzard
The Hardy boys set off down the trail at a good pace. The wind
howled down from the crags and whistled through the trees. The
entire mountain was veiled in a great mist of swirling snow and, as
the wind rose, the snow stung their faces and slashed against them.
"Storm coming up," said Frank, burying his chin deeper into his coat
collar.
"I hope it doesn't get any worse. We'll never find the place."
"We won't give up now. If we wait until to-morrow it may be too late."
The storm grew rapidly worse. The snowfall was so heavy that it
obscured even the tops of the great masses of rock and it quickly
drifted over the trail so that the boys were forced to follow the path
by memory. This was difficult, as in some places the trail had wound
about through tumbled masses of boulders and when it was hidden
by snow they had to guess at its intricate windings. Several times
Frank lost it altogether, but he was always able to pick up the trail
again in some place that was sheltered from the storm.
The boys struggled on in silence. The wind was increasing in volume
and the snow was so heavy that Joe could scarcely see the dim form
of his brother but a few yards ahead. Suddenly he saw his brother
stop.
"I've lost the trail!" shouted Frank, turning back.
They were standing ankle deep in snow. There was not the slightest
vestige of a path. High above them they could discern the gloomy
mass of a steep rock cliff and before them loomed a sloping declivity
of rock that afforded not the slightest foothold.
"I lost the trail farther back, but I thought I was following it all right
and could pick it up farther on. We'll have to turn back."
They retraced their steps. So furiously was it snowing that their own
footprints were almost obliterated and they could scarcely find their
way back to the place where they had left the trail. They found it
again, however, and struck out in another direction.
It was growing bitterly cold, and although they were warmly clad they
began to feel the effect of the chill wind that swept down from the icy
mountain slopes. They pulled their caps down about their ears and
made their way slowly forward against the terrific wind that buffeted
them and flung sheets of snow against them.
Frank gave a shout of triumph when he finally picked up the trail
again in the shelter of some huge rocks where the snow had not yet
penetrated. They advanced with new courage.
At length they emerged through the defile where the trail to the
outlaw's deserted camp led off the main trail up the mountain, and
then they rested.
Far below them they could see the slope of the mountain, veiled in
sweeping banners of snow that shifted and swirled madly in the
blustering wind. The town was hidden from view, obscured by the
white blizzard.
"Do you think we should try to make it?" asked Frank.
"The mine?"
"Yes."
"You're leading this procession. Whatever you want to do."
"If you think the storm is too bad, we'll start for the cabin."
"What would you rather do?"
"I hate to give up now," replied Frank, after a moment of hesitation.
"I feel the same way about it," Joe said. "I vote we try to find the
mine. Once we get there we'll be able to get in out of the storm,
anyway."
"I thought you'd say that," laughed Frank. "We'll head for the Lone
Tree Mine then. As far as I can remember it is just below us, and
then over to the right."
"We'll find it, I guess."
They started down the slope. But once they left the shelter of the
rocks where they had rested they found that the fury of the storm
was increased tenfold on the mountainside. The full force of the
blizzard struck them.
The wind shrieked with a thousand voices. The snow came
sweeping down on them as though lashed by invisible whips. The
roar of the storm sounded in their ears and the fine snow almost
blinded them.
"It's worse than I thought," muttered Frank.
The slope was steep and precipitous. They could not distinguish the
details of the trail other than as a vaguely winding path that led
steadily downward. Frank lost his footing on a slippery rock and went
tumbling down the declivity for several yards before he came to a
stop in a snowbank. He got to his feet slowly and limped on,
suffering from a bruised ankle.
The trail wound about a steep cliff and he skirted the base of it, then
disappeared between two high masses of rock. Joe could dimly see
the figure of his brother, and he hastened on so as not to lose sight
of him.
But when Joe came around the rocks he was confronted by an
opaque cloud of snow, like a huge white screen that had dropped
from the skies. He could not see Frank at all.
He followed the trail as well as he could, but in a few moments he
came to a stop. He was out on the open mountainside and the winds
at this point converged so that the snow seemed to be swirling about
him from all sides. The faint trail had been wholly obliterated.
He shouted.
"Frank! Frank!"
But the wind flung the words back into his teeth. A feeling of panic
seized him for a moment, but he quickly calmed himself, for he
realized that when Frank looked behind and saw they were
separated, he would retrace his steps.
He went on uncertainly a few paces, until it occurred to him that he
might be wandering in the wrong direction and that if Frank did turn
back he might not be able to find him. So he tried to return to the trail
again. But the snow was falling so heavily by now that he seemed to
be wandering in an enormous grey void, from which all direction had
been erased.
He was hopelessly lost, so he stood where he was and shouted
again and again. There was no answer. He could only hear the
constant howling of the wind, the sweep and swish of snow.
Once he thought he heard a faint cry from far ahead, but he could
not be sure, and although he listened intently he could hear it no
more.
As he stood there on the rocks, with the snow sweeping down on
him and with the wind howling about him, with only the gaunt,
gloomy shapes of the boulders looming out of the heavy mist of
storm, Joe felt the icy clutch of the cold and he began to beat his
arms against his chest so as to keep warm. He knew the danger of
inaction in such a blizzard.
Anything was better than remaining where he was. He struggled
forward, slipped and fell on the rocks, regained his feet, and moved
slowly on into the teeth of the wind. He did not know whether he was
following the trail or not but, to the best of his judgment, he tried to
descend the slope.
As for Frank, he had been plunging doggedly on through the storm,
confident that Joe was close behind, and it was not until he had gone
far down the trail that he became aware that his brother was not
following. He turned, and when he could no longer discern the figure
in the storm behind he retraced his steps, shouting at the top of his
lungs.
There was no answer.
He searched about, going to left and right of the trail. He did not dare
go far, being fearful of losing the trail himself. Frank was alarmed lest
Joe had slipped and fallen on the rocks and injured himself. If he
were unable to proceed he would freeze to death, lying helpless on
the mountainside.
With this thought in his mind, he searched frantically. He tried to
follow back up the trail, but the snow had swept over his footsteps
and he soon found himself knee-deep in a heavy drift and he knew
he had lost the path.
He tried to regain the trail, but the white screen of snow was like a
shroud over the rocks and he had lost all sense of direction.
He floundered about in the snow aimlessly, but the trail constantly
evaded him. Frank set his jaw grimly and went hither and thither,
stopping every little while to shout. He knew that the wind drowned
out his voice and he realized the futility of his cries, but still he hoped
that there was just a chance that Joe might hear him.
Frank Hardy felt an overpowering sense of loneliness as he
wandered about among the rocks and the deep drifts. He seemed to
be alone in a world of swirling, shrieking winds and flailing snow that
stormed down from a sky of leaden hue.
He shouted again and again, but to no avail.
It was mid-afternoon, but the sky was so dark that it seemed almost
dusk. If darkness fell and they were lost out on the mountain there
was little hope that they would survive until morning. They would
perish from exposure.
"I'd better go back to Hank Shale's place and get a searching party
to come up and look for Joe," he thought.
This seemed the only sensible solution. But when he turned and
tried to find the trail down the mountain again he found that it eluded
him. There was not the vestige of a trail, not the sign of a path.
"And I'm lost too!" he muttered.
The wind shrieked down from the rocks. The snow swirled furiously
about him. The blizzard raged. The roaring of the storm drummed in
his ears as he stumbled and floundered about among the rocks and
snow.
The Hardy boys were lost, separated, in the storm.

CHAPTER XIX
The Lone Tree
Suddenly, Frank Hardy had an inspiration.
In the shelter of some rocks he cleared away the snow, then began
to search about for wood in order to build a fire. If he were lost the
best plan was to build a fire which would serve the double purpose of
keeping him warm and possibly guiding Joe toward him as well.
He found some small shrubs and stunted trees and managed to
break off enough branches to serve as the basis of a fair-sized
blaze. He had matches in a waterproof box in his pocket, and after
several unsuccessful attempts he finally managed to get a fire going.
The wood was damp, but the small twigs caught the blaze and within
a few minutes the flames were leaping higher and higher and casting
warmth and radiance.
Frank crouched beneath the rocks and warmed himself by the fire.
Once in a while he got up and went away to search for more wood to
cast on the blaze. Occasionally he peered through the screen of
snow in the hope of seeing some sign of Joe. At intervals, he
shouted until he was hoarse in the hope of attracting his brother's
attention.
The flames leaped up in the wind and as he piled more wood on the
blaze the fire grew brighter. It was in a sheltered spot where the
gusts of snow could not quench the flames.
At last he thought he heard a faint shout.
Frank sprang to his feet. He gazed through the shifting veil of snow
that swirled about his shelter, but he could see nothing. Then he
called out:
"Joe!"
The fire roared. The wind shrieked. Snow slashed against the rocks
above him.
Then, out of the inferno of wind and snow he heard the shout again,
and a moment later he caught sight of a dim figure plunging toward
him. He ran forward.
It was Joe. He was almost exhausted and he was blue with cold. He
staggered over toward the blaze and collapsed in a heap beside the
fire.
"Thank goodness I saw the flames!" he gasped. "I was almost all in. I
couldn't have gone another step."
"I thought I'd never find you. I hunted all over."
"I got lost. I couldn't find the trail."
"We're both lost now. I got off the trail myself when I was looking for
you."
"I don't much care where we are so long as we're together again and
we have a fire."
Joe extended his trembling hands to the blaze. In a short while he
ceased shivering, and as the warmth pervaded his chilled body his
spirits rose.
"That fire was a lucky thought," remarked Frank. "I was cold and it
just occurred to me that you might see a fire through the storm even
if you couldn't see me."
"I just caught a faint glimpse of it—just like a little pink patch shining
through the snow. I was just about to give up and lie down on the
rocks when I saw it."
"You'd have died of exposure."
For a while the two lads were silent as they thought of how narrowly
the blizzard had been cheated of its victim. Then, when Joe had
become warmed by the fire, they began to consider their course of
action. Frank looked out at the storm.
"The wind seems to be dying down a bit," he said. "I can see farther
down the mountain now than I could a while ago."
"Think we ought to start home?"
"Do you feel well enough now?"
Joe got to his feet.
"Sure. I feel fine now. There's no use staying up here until nightfall.
This storm may last a couple of days."
"All right. Let's go."
They stamped out the fire and resumed their journey down the
mountain. They stayed close together this time, taking no chances
on again being separated. As Frank had noticed, the wind had
indeed lost much of its fury, although it still howled and blustered on
the mountain slope, and the snow still fell steadily in a drifting cloud.
The trail was almost obscured by the snowdrifts but Frank was able
to find and follow it and they finally reached the place where they
had turned off toward the abandoned mine workings several days
before.
Here they hesitated.
"What do you think?" Frank asked.
"Now that we're so close to the mine I think we may as well go on
with our search."
"I was hoping you'd say that. It shouldn't take us more than an hour
or so and it isn't dark yet. Besides, we have our flashlights."
"I haven't mine. But one's enough. Go ahead. It shouldn't be hard to
find the Lone Tree from here."
Frank turned off the trail. He headed directly toward the old mine
workings they had previously visited and from which he remembered
having seen the lone pine tree. The snow was deeper than they had
expected and they ploughed through drifts up to the waist. They
went on, however, and in a short while reached the abandoned mine
of their harrowing experience underground. Here they paused.
"The lone tree was over to the right, I think," said Joe.
They peered through the storm. They could see nothing but drifting
snow and the dull masses of the rocks. A shift in the wind raised the
curtain of storm for a moment and then, like a gloomy sentinel, they
saw the tall pine tree, solitary against the bleak background of grey.
"That's it!"
Now that their goal was definitely in sight they felt invigorated, and
they hastened on through the snow toward the tree with new vitality.
Forgotten for the moment was their weariness and exhaustion, the
cold and the snow, in the lure of the gold that they felt sure lay
somewhere in the neighborhood of that lonely tree.
Stumbling and plunging through the snow, they reached their goal at
last. The tree creaked and swayed in the wind, and as they stood
beneath it they saw that they were standing on the verge of a deep
pit that seemed to have been scooped out of the earth by giant
hands. There were a few ramshackle ruins of old mine buildings near
by. The roofs had long since fallen in and the buildings sagged
drunkenly. At the far side of the bottom of the pit, clearly discernible
against the snow, they saw the wide mouth of a cave.
"That must be the shaft opening," said Frank. "We're on the track
now."
The boys descended into the pit. The going was precarious, for the
rocks were slippery and the snow concealed crevices and holes, so
that they were obliged to proceed cautiously. But at length they
reached the bottom and made their way across to the mouth of the
cave.
Frank produced his flashlight as he prepared to enter.
"Stick close behind," he advised his brother. "We don't know what
we're liable to run into here."
The snow flung itself upon them and the wind shrieked with renewed
fury as they left the unsheltered pit and entered the half darkness of
the cave mouth. It was as though they were entering a new world.
They had become so accustomed to the roaring of the gale and the
sweep of the storm that the interior of the passage seemed strangely
peaceful and still.
The flashlight sliced a brilliant gleam of light from the blackness
ahead.
Step by step they advanced across the hard rock. The dampness
and cold became more pronounced. As they went on the passage
widened and in a few minutes they found themselves in a huge
chamber in the earth, a chamber that extended far on into darkness,
and they could not see the opposite walls.
A curious rustling sound attracted their attention as soon as they
entered the place, and Frank stood still.
"What was that?"
They remained motionless and silent. Away off in the darkness of
this subterranean chamber they could hear a scuffling and rustling,
and sounds that the boys judged were caused by pattering feet.
Frank directed the beam of the flashlight toward them, but the light
fell short and they could see nothing.
They advanced several paces. The rustling sounds became
multiplied. Then, suddenly, Frank caught sight of two gleaming
pinpoints of light glowing from the blackness.
"What's that light?" asked Joe.
"I don't know. I'm going closer."
Frank stepped forward again. As he did so, instead of two pinpoints
of light, he saw two more, then two more, until at least a dozen of
those strange glowing green spots shone from the darkness,
reflected in the glow from the flashlight.
"Animals," he said quietly to Joe.
At the same instant he heard a low, menacing snarl.
The glowing greenish lights began to move rapidly to and fro. Into
the radiance of the flashlight shot a lean, grey form that disappeared
as swiftly as it came.
A prolonged and wicked snarling rose from the gloom. Frank glanced
to one side and saw that two of the greenish lights had moved until
they were circling behind him. He leaped back.
"We'd better get out of here!" he said. "Those are wolves."
But when the boys turned to retrace their steps they were confronted
by a lean form that barred their way to the cave entrance, and in the
glow of the flashlight they saw two greenish eyes that glowed
fiendishly and two rows of sharp white teeth bared in defiance.

CHAPTER XX
Down the Shaft
Frank Hardy swung the flashlight, and the wolf before them sprang
back, snarling ferociously, into the darkness. The pattering of feet at
the back of the huge cavern became more insistent. The boys were
conscious of those greenish eyes all about them. The wolves were
circling around the cave.
Another wolf joined the animal that barred the entrance. By some
animal cunning, they seemed to realize that by so doing they could
entrap their prey. The Hardy boys knew that they had wandered into
a veritable den of timber wolves who had found in this abandoned
mine an ideal refuge and shelter, who had probably made the place
their own for years.
The wolves drew closer. The circle was narrowing. The animals were
beginning to pace about the cave in long strides, drawing in toward
the boys as the circumference of the circle grew smaller.
"Keep the flashlight on," said Joe. "They're afraid of the light."
Frank kept turning slowly about, keeping the glare of the flash full on
the circling wolves, and every time its radiance illuminated a gaunt
grey form the animal would leap back, snarling, into the shadows.