1. Is there an abstract with a list of keywords preceding the research paper?  

• Cover page?
• Page numbers?
• Indented paragraphs?
• 1” margins?
• A total of 5 pages, not including the cover page, abstract and references page?

 2. Introduction: Is the thesis clear?  What is it?  

 Does it appear soon enough in the paper?

• What questions does the thesis promise to answer? There are usually three, sometimes two, sometimes four or more.
• 1
• 2
• 3

1. Introduction: Is there some background given in the introduction that gives you some idea of why this topic is important or timely or relevant?  What is it?
2. Introduction: Is there an engaging first sentence?  
   • Is it an interesting fact, 
   • alarming statistic, 
   • question, 
   • quote, 
   • story
3. Introduction: Is there any terminology you need defined sooner to better understand the discussion that follows?
4. Body: In which paragraphs has each of the thesis questions been answered?

1. Body: Evidence: Has evidence been given to back up the claims made the research paper?  Since the research paper is required to have four sources, you should find at least four different sources cited in APA style as in-text citations (also called parenthetical citations).

 i.   

 ii.   

 iii.   

 iv.   

Body: Evidence: What type of evidence is each of the above – data, studies, expert opinion?          

1. Body: Evidence: Is there enough evidence given to be convincing?  Could it be improved? 

 i.  How? 

updated statistics, any statistics, an explanation for conflicting statistics

a quote from an expert, 

a more credible source, a primary source, 

a case history or example

1. Body: Evidence: Are the in-text citations done properly in APA style? 
   • Were you able to easily match up the in-text citation with the first word(s) in the References page?
2. Body: Evidence: In each paragraph, does the writer explain how each piece of evidence is pertinent to the thesis?   If not, where? 
   • Remember paragraph structure:

 i.   Topic sentence

 ii.  Support sentences

 iii.  Closing sentence to help integrate the information in the support sentences with the topic sentence and with the paper’s thesis.

1. Body: Evidence: Are there any in-text (parenthetical) citations missing for quotations, expert opinion or data?  Where?  

 i.  Were there any citations given for paraphrasing? Where?

                           ii.   Are there any claims made that don’t have evidence for them? That are based solely on the writer’s opinion? 

1. Body: Evidence: Are the cited sources credible and convincing?  
   • Do any of the quotations or opinions or data need a signal phrase 

 i.  to explain who the author is and why the author is credible 

 ii.  or where the data comes from?  

1. Body: Is there a logical progression of ideas? 
   • Did each idea help support the thesis, or is something missing that would help you better understand the writer’s points?
   • Are there transitions missing that would help you understand how an idea, paragraph or sentence is connected to the one before it? Where?
2. Body: Are there any sentences that are too long and convoluted to be easily understood? Where could they be broken down into more than one sentence?
3. Are there any personal pronouns (“I, me, mine, you/your”)? Where?
   • If “you/your/yours“ is used, is it being used strategically to directly address the reader? 
   • Is it always clear who” they” are or what “it is? If not, where? 
4. Conclusion: Is there a conclusion? 
   • What does the conclusion do? What type of conclusion is it? 
     • Does it ask something of the reader? Of some other group or institutions? 
     • Does it make a recommendation or give advice? 
     • Does it inform the reader of proposed or possible solutions to a problem? 
     • Is it a call to action? Tor awareness, education? 
     • Does it speculate about the future? 
     • Or does it make an observation based on what has been learned in the course of reading the research paper?  
5. Conclusion: Are you left with any questions about the subject/argument?
6. No more than 20% of the paper is quotes (80/20 rule).
7. References: Is there a References page in proper APA style?
   • Is the heading bold and centered?
   • Is the list alphabetized?
   • Are hanging indents used?
   • Are there at least four sources?
   • Are about half of them primary? 
   • Are the names of the publications included in primary source citations?
   • Is each electronically accessed source followed by a doi: or URL?

you may work off the essay provided. add to it. this needs to be done within 4 hours!