Poli 480 Senior Thesis Prof. Sammy Basu Date ………………

Author ……………………………………………… Reader ………………………………………………

Reader Evaluation of Senior Thesis First Draft

Your task is to evaluate the first draft, provide feedback and suggestions for improvement in each of the following areas:

· Title: subtitle (catchy enough?: explanatory?)

· Abstract and keywords (is the abstract clear? is this an optimal list?)

· Logic and thoroughness of Outline (does this sequence make sense?)

· Introduction and specification of thesis/problem/topic (is there a clear statement of what will occur in the paper? Is the significance of the topic justified?)

· relevant existing scholarship (are there clear categories of scholarship identified? Can you state them?)

· own hypotheses (is it clear what author is doing and how this is a contribution, new different, testing, counter-intuitive, etc?)

· methods of enquiry/testing (what is author offering to support case?)

· body of paper (is it doing what outline lays out?)

· bibliography (is there a range, are some recent?)