It’s time to go back to your draft and make improvements to produce a final document.

If you have earned enough points for an A by this time in the semester, you are not required to submit a Final Paper to receive an A for the course.

Only final papers that are substantially revised from their draft form will receive credit. That is, if you only need a couple of points to bump up your final grade, you cannot simply re-submit your draft paper. (If you did not submit a draft paper, then any paper you submit meets this criterion.)

Objectives

  • Integrate feedback from a variety of sources.
  • Produce a brief review paper communicating current knowledge about a specific topic in behavior genetics.

Time Estimate

12 hours (assuming you’re working from an existing draft)

Assignment Instructions

Your final paper will be about 3,500 to 4,000 words (12 – 15 pages) for undergrads, or 4,000 to 4,500 words (15 – 18 pages) for grad students, plus references. It is evaluated primarily on topic coverage and synthesis, as well as organization, grammar, formatting, and responsiveness to reviewer comments.

Some suggestions for how to tackle the revision process:

  1. Use the peer reviews you received as a checklist of issues to potentially address. Some will be straightforward, others will require some thought, and still others may just be bad suggestions that you ignore.

  2. Think about how your popular source changed as it developed. Were there any new pieces of information or new approaches to organizing your material that could be integrated into your paper?

  3. Go through these tips for self-editing your writing.

  4. Go through the document to check for APA-style, including a title page, abstract, full list of references, and use of in-text citations.

Evaluation

9 points possible. See the Final Paper Rubric below for how points will be assigned.

Criteria High Quality = 100% Mid Quality = 50% Low Quality = 0% Total Points Possible
Topic Coverage Provides broad coverage of a range of behavior genetic approaches to the topic, or in-depth coverage of a specific area/method of genetic research on the topic. Information comes from a variety of primary research reports and includes the student’s own synthesis or summary of the current research literature. Concepts are clearly presented and technical terms are defined. Coverage of the topic is superficial. Some technical terms remain undefined or there are points that are not clearly presented/described. Excessive use of quotations (research findings not restated in the student’s own words). Presented research is not clearly related to course themes. Reliance on one or two existing review papers of the topic, instead of primary research reports. 6 points
Organization, Grammar, Formatting, Response to Peer Review Well-organized and easy to follow with a clear narrative flow. Near perfect grammar and spelling. Near perfect APA style, including paper structure and formatting, title page, abstract, in-text citations, and reference list. Final paper is clearly responsive to reasonable suggestions made during the review process. Specific topics clearly organized into sections, but little to no transition between topics and/or lack of “big picture” summary of topic, either in introduction or conclusion sections. Several noticeable grammar or spelling errors. Several noticeable errors in APA style. Some improvements made in response to reviews but several major concerns or reasonable suggestions that were made in review are ignored. Little to no clear organization; difficult to follow or understand topic being addressed or argument made in several sections. Frequent errors of grammar or spelling that make the paper difficult to read. Little to no evidence of use of APA style; missing a major element such as title, abstract, or citations. Little to no evidence of improvement since the draft version. 3 points

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