Operant conditioning is a way to conditionally train a person or even an animal to make a set behavior you [Eliminate second person (you, your) in academic documents and avoid addressing the reader directly. Prefer third-person pronouns (he, she, they, it)] want completed. This proved to be possible by giving a positive or negative response to the set behavior wanted until the tested subject gets the intended behavior correct. In summary this manipulates the subject for a specific result. B.F Skinner also known as the creator of this study “believed that the mechanisms of learning are the same for all species” (Kiernan, fall 2013) [The citation for a direct quote needs the page number] . Skinner’s taught us [Use "we," "us," or "our" to mean yourself and coauthors, not general humanity (or yourself and the reader)] that any behavior can be accomplished if presented and taught properly through the rules of operant conditioning by simply punishing or reinforcing. Although Skinner was seen [The passive voice is a form of "be" (was) and a participle (seen). Over-use of the passive voice can make paragraphs officious and tedious to read. Prefer the active voice. For example, passive voice = The paper was completed on time. Active voice = the student completed the paper on time.] as the primary figure in this theory, he wouldn’t [Contractions are inappropriate in academic writing--write it out] have been able to [Wordiness: this phrase can be simplified to one word--"could"] accomplish it without the input of E.L Thorndike. Thorndike discovered the “law and effect method stating that behaviors followed by positive outcomes are strengthened and behaviors followed by negative outcomes are weakened” (King, 2013, p178) [The abbreviation for "page" in an in-text citation is "p."] . This was the basic format for Skinner’s approach only that Thorndike discovered this in 1898.