REFERENCES
Use your references effectively to argue for the gravity of the problem and the soundness of your solutions. Your intervention ideas rest on the credibility of your references: You may use review articles but a couple of peer-reviewed empirical articles are necessary to bolster your argument.
Besides the credibility of your references, you, the author, also needs to be credible. One way to accomplish it for a new author is to show some ability to read and understand scientific research. Below are two writing samples from popular outlets. The first is an illustration of how to describe a phenomenon using numbers and percentages. It also does a good job of creating a voice out of expert opinions and avoiding the word “I”. The second sample illustrates a way to disseminate research findings. My suggestion is to use about a page or so in your paper to describe study details that are the most pertinent to your argument.
GRADING CRITERIA
Correct format
• Does your paper have the required length of 5-6 pages (excluding the title page and the reference page)? This means your paper ends on p6.
• Is it (consistently) double-spaced with 1-inch margins all around?
• Did you use 12-point Times New Roman?
• Did you include a title page and a reference list?
• Did you use a professional style for in-text referencing and reference list?
• Do you have at least 5 references?
• Did you include page numbers? Please do not number the cover page and start numbering when your paper actually starts.
• Did you realize that you don’t need to write separate sections for abstract, methods, results and discussion sections?
• Did you avoid direct quotes? For the unavoidable direct quotes, did you use quotation marks?
• Did you avoid section titles and use real transitions instead?
• Is your plagiarism score at 12% or below? Did you take advantage of the multiple submission feature?
Details and structure
• Did you check spelling and grammar?
• Is your language formal, akin to a typical empirical paper in psychology?
• Did you include an introductory and a concluding paragraph?
• Does your paper have a central theme? Can you describe your paper in a series topic sentences and transitions? Does the logical progression make sense?
• Do your paragraphs have the proper length? Long paragraphs require readers to keep track multiple ideas in a paragraph? Short paragraphs require readers to read between the lines.
• Is the structure of your paper guided by the step-by-step logic in your/author’s mind? The structure should not be determined by the references you cite (i.e. reference 1 says…. Reference 2 says).
Convincing evidence and informed ideas
• Does your paper have enough depth? Depth is best accomplished by limiting the breath of your paper to one outcome (or a couple of related outcomes)?
• Did you incorporate the types of information required by assignment 1-3?
• Did you describe the research findings in just enough detail to establish the credibility of you as well as your argument?
• Did you find the most straightforward references? Are your explanations of these references straightforward too?
• Is it obvious to a reader why a reference is in your paper and how it supports your main argument?
• Do you consider your writing evidence-based (as opposed to opinion based)?
• Did you use necessary and sufficient evidence to argue for your intervention ideas? Did all of your mediators directly or indirectly feed into your (preventative) intervention ideas?
• Does your paper resemble the typical introduction section of empirical research papers in the way that they use previous literature to argue for their hypotheses?
The wow factor
• Do you have an informed and novel idea to offer to your readers? If you cited existing intervention, did you add any ideas of your own?
• Could a motivated high-schooler or a good hearted housewife author a paper like yours?