Excellent papers will show the following characteristics:

• The paper has a central integrating theme or themes. The entire essay should "hang together" as a whole.
• The paper makes a convincing argument for a particular position on the topic.
• The paper demonstrates critical, creative, and/or insightful thought about the topic.
• The paper utilizes the relevant primary scientific literature effectively including:
• describes the general strategy of a primary scientific paper.
• describes how well the experiments performed test specific hypotheses.
• analyzes at least some of scientific data in a scientific paper in detail.
• The paper is generally well-written and well organized. It follows the format and page limits described in the project assignment.