*Uploading a single Word document directly to TRACS.
PDF and other submission types will automatically be deducted 10%*
Overall Formatting: (6 pts. total) _____
- 1” Margins (0.5 pt.)
- Double-Spacing, no extra spaces (1 pt.)
- Times New Roman, 12 pt. font (1 pt.)
- Header (SHORTENED PAPER TITLE on all pages; flush left and fits on one line, 1 pt.)
- Page numbers on all pages, flush right (1 pt.)
- Proper order and pagination* of sections (Title Page, Introduction, References; 1 pt.)
- Each paragraph indented ½ inch (0.5 pt.)
*Pagination: Title page should be own page, References start on own page
Title Page: (4 pts. total) _____
Descriptive title that uses causal language (1 pt.)
Authors (1 pt.)
Affiliation (1 pt.)
Proper formatting (centered, each on own line, no extra information; .5 pt.)
Introduction: (19 pts. total) _____
Format ______ / 1 pt.
Title of paper on first line – bold, centered; no additional header (“Introduction” or “Literature Review”)
Articles cited ______/ 5 pts.
- No less than 5 peer-reviewed, empirical articles (from 2005 – present) cited correctly (1 pt./citation, -0.5 pts per error = 5 pts.)
Content ____/ 11 pts.
- Clear and effective introduction of the problem and to broader literature (2 pts.)
- Clearly presented and explained background research (5 pts.)
- Background research was appropriate and relevant to topic (1 pt.)
- Discussed findings and implications of background research (2 pts.)
- Identified gaps in previous research/current knowledge (2 pts.)
- Effective closing paragraph (4 pts.)
- Clearly stated the purpose/research question of the proposed study
- Clearly identifies independent and dependent variables
- Briefly (1 or 2 sentences) summarized procedure of the proposed study
- Clearly stated hypothesis of the proposed study
Style ____/ 2 pts. (0.2 pt. each)
- Referred to studies by author last names and year of publication only (article titles not used in text)
- Organized (paragraphs, transitional sentences, etc.)
- Past tense used to describe previous literature
- Future tense used to describe the proposed study (“The proposed study will test…”)
- No contractions used (use “will not” instead of “won’t”)
- Grammar, punctuation, spell-checked
- Clear and appropriate word choice (e.g., does not use “prove”)
- Complete sentences (no sentence fragments or run-on sentences)
- No non-essential direct quotes; essential quotes cited with page number
- Objective language used (do not use “I” or subjective language such as “We believe” “We think that”)
References: (11 pts. total) _____
Format: ____/ 1 pt.
- References heading (References, bold, centered, on own line)
References: ______/ 10 pts.
- 2 pts. per reference – 0.5 pts. deducted for each error
Paper Grade _________/40 pts