Majors are encouraged to use APA style for all papers. You may purchase the latest edition of the APA Manual from www.apa.org or use the Internet for guidelines (you will be required to purchase the Manual for Experimental). The Research Style Crib Sheet is very handy if you do not wish to purchase the manual: it is “a concise guide to using the style of the American Psychological Association in writing research papers. Click here for the latest version.

Paper Grading rubric used by many Psychology professors

An F paper has some of these qualities:

• Is not turned in.
• Fails even to attempt the assignment.
• Is so poorly written that it is unreadable.

A D paper has some of these qualities:

• It attempts the assignment but falls far short; it misses the point.
• It has very poor sentence structure or serious grammatical errors throughout.
• It is so unclear that it is difficult to read.
• It has no clear organization, or appears to have been written quickly with little planning.
• Its paragraphs don’t hold together or lack a unifying idea; or they seem random in order.

A C paper has some of these qualities:

• It fulfills the terms of the assignment — though not very thoroughly or interestingly.
• It demonstrates an organizational plan and uses paragraphs correctly for the most part.
• It has some significant sentence structure or grammar problems.
• It has pervasive mechanical problems — punctuation, spelling, quotation errors, etc.
• It is characterized by flat, simple sentence structure.
• It is characterized by simple, general ideas without depth, complexity, or detail.
• It may have some disorganized paragraphs or unclear transitions.

A B paper has some of these qualities:

• It fulfills the terms of the assignment thoroughly.
• It reads fluently, and has varied sentence structure.
• It effectively develops ideas with examples or details.
• Organization is clear and logical; transitions are smooth.
• Paragraphs are unified and coherent.
• Opening and conclusion serve the paper as a whole.
• It has few sentence structure, grammar, or mechanical errors.

An A paper has some of these qualities:

• It fulfills the assignment thoroughly and interestingly or creatively.
• It develops ideas in a full and satisfying way, often with interesting or unusual insights.
• Organization is clear, smooth, and logical; transitions seem natural.
• Paragraphs are unified, coherent, fully developed.
• Style is personal yet correct, and the writing sounds confident and energetic.
• It reads fluently and gives the impression of a writer in charge.
• Opening and conclusion are distinctive, especially interesting, and carefully woven into the paper.
• It has, at most, one or two problems of grammar or sentence structure.
• It has very few mechanical errors, and no serious ones