BioE 10 Paper Summary Rubric

Assigned Week 5 (Sep 26 - 30)

Due Week 9 (Oct 30 at 9:59 pm)

Individual summaries are graded out of 10

Excellent (10) Fair (8-9) Poor (<7)

Content (6) Sufficiently covers all Missing 1-2 main Missing 3 or more
of the requirements requirements. main requirements.
(listed below). Requirements are not Significant copying of
fully expanded upon. wording of paper with
minimal original
writing/paraphrasing.

Mechanics (1) Paper is written Paper is readable, Paper is difficult to

simply and clearly, though some read and/or is full of
making it easy for the grammatical errors distracting
are present that grammatical errors.
reader to understand.
distract from the
Grammatical errors, if paper.
present, don’t distract
from or interfere with
the reading
experience.

Formatting (1) - Embedded Missing one of the Missing two or more

citations in IEEE requirements. requirements.
format No citations or
- References missing citations
section at end
(IEEE format)
- Double spaced
- 3-4 pages
(750-1000 words)

Rough Draft & - Submission Missing one of the Missing both

Feedback (2) includes a copy of requirements. requirements.
the rough draft
- Submission
includes copies of
all the feedback
you received

Points calculation: 3*[(your grade + average of your group’s grades)/2] = your final grade
Total possible points: 30
Rubric areas and requirements:
● Content (6 points)
○ Introduction/motivation - why should I care about this paper? Give context for the
paper (1 point)
○ Research question - what are the authors trying to answer/reveal? What is their
hypothesis (if applicable) (graded with other sections)
○ Methods - what key methods did the authors use? For a review, what methods
did they highlight? (1 point)
○ Results - what are the main findings/takeaways of this paper? Include key
figures/tables (3 points)
○ Next steps/evaluation - What is next for this field? What questions arise from the
paper? (1 point)
● Mechanics (1 point)
○ Readability - how easy is it for the reader to understand what you have written?
Strive for simplicity and clarity in your writing. Do grammatical errors
interfere/distract from reading your summary? Is the summary sufficiently
succinct, or does it include too much information?
● Formatting (1 point)
○ Embedded citations in IEEE format - Are articles cited in the body of text
○ References section at the end?
○ Double spaced
○ Length = 3-4 pages double spaced (750-1000 words)
● Rough draft & feedback (2 points)
○ Include copy of your rough draft (1 point)
○ Include a copy of all feedback you received from your group (1 point)