Experimental Research Paper – Title page, Introduction, & References (40 pts)

*Upload 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.)

• One blank double-spaced line between title and byline (.5 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