once you have thoroughly read the articles, ponder the following questions (these are rough guidelines and will vary according to topical areas)

1) What perspective did the authors employ in investigating their hypothesis?

2) Is the study a test between alternative theoretical options ? Is it exploratory? Does it emanate directly from theory? Does it attempt to resolve a small/large issue in the literature?

3) What methodology was employed to study the phenomenon of interest? Are their other plausible ways of studying this phenomenon? Was the method used determined by theory? Was it determined by efforts to replicate a previous finding?

4) What did the investigators find?  How clear are the findings to the reader? Can you think of an alternative way to interpret the same findings? Did findings confirm the hypothesis? Did authors mention any difficulties associated with the findings?

5) Overall Synthesis: after reading the articles, does the information cohere in a meaningful way? Are there contradictory findings?  Together, do the studies substantively add to the literature in your opinion? What remains to be done?

Write a scholarly piece summarizing your consideration of the above issues (not all of the above may apply to your topic….and feel free to consider other issues).  Don’t be afraid to be creative. A good paper is one that succinctly describes the studies and provides critical synthesis and evaluation.

Papers will be evaluated on the following dimensions:
1) APA writing style and formatting, spelling, grammar etc.
2) Appropriate selection of research articles.
3) Demonstrated understanding of extant theory and data in selected research area.
4) Demonstrated critical synthesis and analysis.
5) Critical evaluation abilities.