PSY 418 -- Burnham Spring, 2004

Grading Criteria for Report of Experiment – Due April 9

Name: ___________________________ Section: Rispin Hare

_____ (1) Abstract. Is there an abstract? Is it a reasonable summary of the study and the results?

_____ (10) Introduction. Opening paragraph on topic of study. Hypotheses clearly presented and supported by reasoned arguments and/or prior research. Appropriate presentation of prior research. Independent and dependent variables and their operational definitions either stated or capable of being easily inferred from material in introduction.

_____ (10) Method. Nature of respondents. Presentation of appropriate information about the study. Is the design clearly presented? Could someone read the method section and replicate the basic aspects of the study? Is the procedure clearly presented?

_____ (10) Results. Appropriate presentation of descriptive statistics for the dependent variable, e.g., graph or table of condition means and standard deviations. There should be a statement that an alpha of .05 was used as a criterion for statistical significance. Appropriate presentation of results of analysis of variance (Fs).

_____ (10) Discussion. Verbal summary of the findings. Implications of the statistically significant findings. Explanations for failure to support hypotheses. Attempts to resolve discrepancies between prior research and current results. Specific criticisms vs. general criticisms. E.g., not “a different sample should have been used” but a specification of a more appropriate sample; not “the wording of the questions should have been different’ but a statement of more appropriate wording. Is there a suggestion for further research that is reasonably specific and a reasonable next study?

_____ (10) Writing. Is the paper well-written? Is it clearly written? Is it cohesive with clear transitions between paragraphs? (An unclear paper may lose points here and also on the grading of the sections.) Are the sentences well-formed? Are there grammatical errors, e.g., data are; affect/effect; noun-verb disagreements; noun-pronoun disagreements; etc. Are there spelling errors? Is the writing non-sexist?

_____ (9) APA Style. Does the paper conform to APA style? Does it ‘look like’ the paper in the back of the Goodwin text. Is it divided into sections? Was the past tense used whenever possible? Were first person pronouns avoided? Were digits used for numbers 10 and above? Do the references and citations in the paper correspond to APA style?

-____ ( - ) Penalties. Should have three relevant references -- penalty of -2 for each missing or irrelevant reference. Penalty of -2 for each class period (or portion thereof) that paper is late.

_____ TOTAL POINTS. Maximum of 60. A = 54-60; B = 48-53.5; C = 42-47.5;

D = 36-41.5