Commentary Guidelines

The goal of paper commentaries is to get you to think critically about the research that a paper presents and why that research is important. The goal is not to summarize the paper — everyone reading your commentary will have already read the paper! You will need to submit a commentary for each group of papers posted on the weekly schedule. Some appropriate topics to address in a commentary are:

• why the papers do/don't seem important.

• how the papers have changed your opinion or outlook on a topic.

• observations of novel methodology or methodology that seems suspect.

• why the papers are/aren't effective at getting the messages across.

• future research directions that the papers inspire for you.

An excellent way to structure your commentary is to discuss both the positive aspects and your criticism for the papers The commentary should be around 500 words for each group of papers.  

Commentaries are due at 11:59 pm on Tuesday, submitted through graded discussion areas on Canvas. Once submitted, your commentary will be viewable by all students in the class. Late submissions will receive a late penalty of 10% per day.  If you are doing a research presentation of a topic, you do not need to submit the commentary for that topic, and you will get full points for that commentary.

Grading Rubric for Commentaries :

We will grade the paper commentary of each article on a 2.5-point scale. There are 12 commentary assignments in total, and your final grade of commentary will be 30.

• 2.5:  Your answer exhibits a satisfactory effort to understand, reflect, and critique the papers.

• 1: Your answer exhibits a passing effort to understand, reflect, and critique the papers.

• 0: No submission and minimum effort.