Scientific Writing 

Guidelines for Scholarly Reviews

Over the course of the semester students will complete a total of 3 short scholarly reviews. The articles for review have been chosen by the instructor and cover various subsets of the field of geology. Scholarly reviews generally focus on a critical review of the scientific merit of the relevant article. For the purposes of this class, these reviews will focus on your ability to determine the main points and findings of the article and clearly and concisely summarize and evaluate them.

Each student will submit written critical reviews of the assigned articles. Scholarly reviews should consist of:

1) a brief summary demonstrating that the student understood the technical content of the article

2) a critical and insightful review of the article.

The essence of the scholarly review is that the student demonstrates a critical analysis beyond the author’s discussion and conclusions. Scholarly reviews should be a least two full pages in length (excluding any tables or figures), 12-point Times New Roman font with 1.5-line spacing. Additional literature sources are not required for these assignments, but may be used to buttress students’ arguments. 

Scholarly reviews will be graded on the following criteria:

i) Summary of article (15 points)

a. Statement of importance

b. Background information

c. Topical summary

ii) Completeness of review (35 points)

a. Scientific content

b. Critical analysis

iii) General writing style and format (50 points)

a. Format

b. Grammar

c. Figures, tables (if any)