Quality of Review / Background:
• Did the student outline their goal clearly, and provide adequate background knowledge related to their study? Specifically, can the reader understand the rationale for why this study should be conducted, and does the reader now have the requisite background knowledge to understand the study that will be presented.
• Related to the above: Did the student relate the background to their proposed research?
• Did the student indicate a clear and reasonable hypothesis for their study? Is this a testable, directional prediction?
Experimental Design / Methods:
• How well did your experiment test the hypothesis?
• Did the method clearly indicate the participants, materials, and procedure for testing?
• Was the method easy to follow and understand?
• Will the provided methods allow the researcher to adequately test their hypothesis?
• Are there unaddressed confounds in the methodology that could cause issues with the interpretation of any data that will be obtained?
Proposed Results / Discussion
• Are the claims you are tying to make valid based on your proposed methodology and hypothesis?
• Did the student indicate all reasonable findings that will be possible to obtain from the data collected? E.g., did the student make reference to possible sex effects (or lack thereof) if they collected data using a gender-balanced subject pool?
• Did the student discuss their proposed findings in relation to their paper's hypothesis, as well as the broader literature as a whole (i.e., did they relate their findings back to some of the things they discussed in the introduction?).
• Did the student provide any possible areas for future research, or make mention of any potential confounds from this study that future research should address?
• Did the student indicate why the findings are important (or not important, depending on the findings themselves!).
Technical (mechanics/style, APA formatting, etc.)
• APA quality (i.e. were your references done correctly according to 6th Ed. APA guidelines? Where references provided in text for applicable statements? Did the student attach a reference page, etc.)
• Mechanics include things like grammar, spelling, etc. Also includes stylistic components such as:
- How clear and understandable was your paper? - Was your paper organized correctly the points you made? Was it easy to read and did it progress smoothly?
- Did the style of your writing fit with the task/topic? Did you write scientifically?