You can download the rubric Research Paper Rubric
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Superior |
Good |
Adequate |
Unacceptable |
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| Introduction (20 points) | ||||
| Does your introduction communicate your research question succinctly, clearly, and in an interesting way? Is the puzzle easily identifiable? | ||||
| Have you effectively explained why this question is interesting and important to political scientists, policy makers, and ordinary citizens? | ||||
| Have you provided a road map for your paper, providing a sentence or two summary of each of the sections? | ||||
| Does your title communicate the puzzle, cases, and argument in as clear and as memorable a way as possible? Would you look at something with that title and say enthusiastically, “I’d like to read this!” | ||||
| If your title is catchy, is it still appropriate for a formal writing assignment? Is its meaning clear to the average reader? | ||||
| Literature Review (20 points) | ||||
| Introductory paragraph describes scope of literature, why topic is important | ||||
| Clearly states the research question, but not in question form | ||||
| Identifies major trends or patterns in the results of previous studies | ||||
| Identifies gaps in the literature if those exist | ||||
| Identifies the relationship(s) among studies | ||||
| Presentation of distinction between assertion and evidence | ||||
| Research Design (20 points) | ||||
| Have you written introductory and concluding paragraphs for the research design section? Have you developed and included an appropriate heading title for this section? | ||||
| Does your section introduction “introduce” by explaining the purpose of the section and providing the reader with a road map to this section? | ||||
| Have you developed an actual plan for operationalizing your concepts (~i.e., conceiving of measuring your variables?) This plan explains exactly what steps you will take to know the value of your variables. | ||||
| Does your plan seem reasonable and workable? Have you included a discussion in the text about the validity and reliability of your measures? Have you really thought through this discussion? | ||||
| Are you looking at the universe of cases or a sample? What type of a research design have you employed? Why? Why is your selection of cases a good one? | ||||
| Have you identified your data sources? Are they primary sources? Have you discussed any bias that you might intro- duce from these sources? Why are these sources the best? | ||||
| If you are generating data by coming up with a plan for content analysis, writing a survey, or conducting interviews, have you attached in an appendix the actual plan, survey, or interview questions? | ||||
| Does your section conclusion “conclude” by explaining why the choices you made are the best ones for your purposes? | ||||
| Analysis (20 points) | ||||
| Clearly presents the analysis using good charts/data/evidence | ||||
| Attempts to answer the research question using the data/evidence presented | ||||
| Conclusion (10 points) | ||||
| Does your conclusion provide closure for the reader? | ||||
| Does your conclusion make reference to the line of argumentation you specified in your introduction? | ||||
| Do you explain whether you answered your research question and if not, what further line of inquiry would be useful to do so? | ||||
| Paper Form (10 points) | ||||
| Proper Citations | ||||
| Spelling/Grammar | ||||
| Good use of subheadings | ||||
| Originality, creativity |