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SUBMISSION STANDARDS

All submissions are read and evaluated by groups of faculty and students in various disciplines. Faculty members of each discipline head up the committees, and submissions are reviewed by the appropriate committee that is familiar with the submission's content area. In order to help students decide if their works should be submitted for publication consideration, we have compiled the following standards against which each submission will be judged.

Selected submissions will

• have been written during the spring, summer, or fall semesters of the previous calendar year
• have a faculty sponsor
• evaluate material presented rather than simply summarizing material
• offer insight into the subject at hand through clear detailed explanations
• support all claims with relevant evidence
• demonstrate a mastery of the fundamentals of paragraphing and organization or the requirements of the assignment (i.e. a chemistry lab needs to demonstrate mastery of the format, analysis, and presentation of data)
• be virtually free of grammatical and mechanical errors, including spelling and punctuation
• reflect an awareness of audience and an understanding of how to influence readers through language use (i.e. use of counter-argument, humor, description, etc.)
• present an interested, involved voice which enhances the paper properly document all sources used
• demonstrate precise, interesting and appropriate word choices, smooth phrasing, varied sentence structures, and logical, smooth transitions from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph (section to section)
• avoids a reliance on cliches, passive voice, repetitious points, and wordy phrasing

Additionally, the following standards have been suggested by faculty in these areas:

Biology

• Asks a good question at the start and then pursues the answer in detail in order to come up with an overall answer at the end of the assignment
• Must call upon outside sources for support and evidence for assertions
• Uses proper documentation format according to the instructor's assignment

Education

• Provides evidence of imagination such as sustained metaphors and stories
• Offers applications to real-life situations

English

• Uses MLA format correctly
• Linguistic papers must use APA documentation correctly

Journalism

• Uses AP style

Mathematics

• Follows Scientific Method with certain modifications to suit the Method of Problem Solving in Mathematics
• Mathematical calculations should be incorporated into sentences
• Graphs and tables should be inserted in places that will catch the reader's eye
• Avoids technical details that would give document a complex appearance

Sociology

• Must be either a theoretical work or a research work
• Deductive research papers must describe the theory being tested and state the problem, review the literature of previous studies conducted in this area, state problem and hypothesis, describe research method, analyze data, discuss results, reach a conclusion, and offer suggestions for future research
• Inductive articles should initially discuss a topic in fairly vague, open-minded terms, then discuss the research method, followed by detailed quantitative reporting. Finally, the article should discuss the theory in light of the research experience and may conclude with suggestions for future research

CONTACT

Dr. Jay Sloan
Writing Center Director
jdsloan@kent.edu