Is The Question Being Addressed Made Clear Up Front? Is

1. Content Is the question being addressed made clear up front? Is the discussion of relevant material from class clear, accurate, and complete? Does it provide an accurate discussion of the content of the recent article including the motivation, methods, results, and conclusions? Does it include a conclusion that integrates everything? Does it make any claims without substantiating them (if it’s not obvious, this is not a good thing!)? Your Comments: Provide specific comments about the paper's content. What parts of the content were the strongest? The weakest? Be very specific about the problems and try to suggest ways to fix them. The author’s main question is clear from the beginning of his/her essay. From the introductory paragraph, I was able to deduct that he/she was addressing the question of the differences between female and male brains in the process of mental rotation. I enjoyed reading the introductory paragraph because it gives clear and interesting background information regarding why this topic is important. Although the author mentions that we discussed visuospatial processing in lecture, he/she focuses more on the information in the book rather than lecture. The author should include more details about related information from lecture. The third, fourth and fifth paragraphs of this essay describe the research from the article “Mental Rotation in Human Infants.” These paragraphs give a complete analysis of the motivation, methods, results and conclusion of Moore’s research. It is well incorporated into his/her essay because it relates directly to the question that the author is trying to answer. In the conclusion, the author discusses what he/she has learned from this research article and from the book, however, the author should not introduce new information that he/she has not discusses in the rest of the paper. For example, in the fifth line from the beginning of the conclusion, the author writes about factors that influence spatial cognition, some of which include sex hormones. The author should incorporate this information towards the beginning of the paper instead of in the conclusion. Overall, the introduction and the 3 paragraphs discussing the research article were the strongest, but the author should work on incorporating more information from lecture and the conclusion.

Your Rating: Based on your comments above, how would you rate the logical arguments of this paper? No problems: Very thorough and accurate summary of both relevant class material and of the recent paper. Makes clear the motivation, methods,  7. Excellent results, and conclusions of the recent paper and includes a conclusion that integrates everything. Only one or two very minor concerns about the content. Overall, the  6. Very good discussion of class material and the recent paper were quite thorough and accurate, although there is a little room for improvement. A few problems with the content were distractions, but it still did a good  5. Good job discussing both the relevant class material and the recent paper.  4. Average Some significant problems in the content definitely detracted from the paper, but at least it discussed a relevant recent article and tried to relate

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3. Poor

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2. Very poor

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1. Disastrous

it to class material. Serious problems with the content. Either did a poor job describing the recent paper, failed to discuss relevant class material, or included lots of factual errors. Although it is a paper, it didn’t even come close to doing what was requested in the assignment. Um...yeah. Hard to call this a paper at all.

2. Style Is the paper clearly and appropriately organized (does it tell a compelling story)? Is the writing style clear, direct, and concise (e.g., does it follow the suggestions in Strunk & White’s Elements of Style)? Is it grammatical and spelled correctly? Your Comments: Please make specific comments about the strengths and weaknesses of the writing style. Be very specific about the problems (e.g., point out the offending sentence or paragraph) and try to suggest ways to fix them. The author does a good job of organizing his/her paper; however, the writing style could be more direct. For example, the first three sentences of the second paragraph could be more concise. The author could combine these sentences into one to explain where he/she obtained information from the book. Furthermore, the author does not have to explicitly say the page number that the information is from in the book (he/she states that the info is from chapter 7 and pg. 275) because the full reference citation at the end of the paper should include this. Strunk and White’ Elements of Style suggest sticking to one tense throughout the writing; the author uses present tense when he/she explains the book but uses past tense when he/she writes about the research done. Use either past of present for the book and the research to be more consistent. The author writes well; I did notice however that the last sentence of the paper is wordy; the author should end the paper in a more concise way or split this sentence into two sentences. Overall, there were no spelling mistakes made in the paper. Your Rating: How would you rate the writing style of this paper? No problems: smooth, well-organized, clear, concise, grammatical, and  7. Excellent correctly spelled. Only one or two very minor stylistic concerns or awkward sentences, but  6. Very good they didn't detract from the paper. A few stylistic problems were distractions, but the overall flow was still  5. Good good and easy to follow. Some significant stylistic problems definitely detracted from the paper, but  4. Average I was still able to follow it. Enough real stylistic problems that they significantly interfered with my  3. Poor ability to follow the paper. The stylistic problems were severe enough that I couldn't follow the paper  2. Very poor at all.  1. Disastrous Um...yeah. Hard to call this a paper at all.

3. Conformity Does it address a question we covered in class? Does it conform to the specifications of length, typeface, margins, etc.? Does it include a list of references providing full citations for all the articles cited? Your Comments: Make specific comments about how the paper did or did not conform to the requirements in the assignment. Be very specific about the problems and try to suggest ways to fix them.

The author does address a question that we covered in class, however, he/she should write more about our lecture discussion of mental rotation. This paper is two pages singly spaced but if the author discusses more lecture material the paper would extend to three. This paper does conform to the writing requirements of length, typeface and margins. The author correctly lists the citations on the Reference page and in the text itself; furthermore, there are no quotations in the paper which is good. Most of the information that the author uses is from the article; in order to make the paper more compelling, the author should incorporate information from sources other than the article. He/she does use information from the book, however, referring to lecture and maybe other research would add validity to the paper. Lastly, although the references are listed correctly on the reference page itself, make sure that bolding and underlying the word “Reference Page” is acceptable. If it is not okay, make sure that the font of the title is the same as the rest of the paper.

Your Rating: Based on your comments above, how would you rate the insights of this paper? No problems: Conformed perfectly with the requirements of the  7. Excellent assignment.  6. Very good Only one or two very minor issues.  5. Good A few problems but overall it conformed to requirements well.  4. Average Some significant problems that should be fixed. A lot of problems; the paper really didn’t conform to the requirements very  3. Poor well. Although it was a paper; it seemed to ignore the requirements of the  2. Very poor assignment.  1. Disastrous Um...yeah. Hard to call this a paper at all.