University of North Carolina School of Public Health
Department of Epidemiology

EPID600, Principles of Epidemiology for Public Health

About the final paper project (Exam 3)

The instructions for the most recent final paper assignment, which changes slightly each semester (and is written on a different article), are at www.unc.edu/epid600/critique/.

Some historical background:

When I took over EPID160 several years ago, the final paper was in fact just that. It was required to have introductory and concluding paragraphs, could have cross references, etc. The assignment was to write a critique of two published articles, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each and comparing them. The paper had a maximum of 10 single-sided, double-spaced pages (12-point font, 1 inch margins).

My first change was to reduce the number of articles critiqued to one and the length of the paper to 6 pages (to reduce the workload for the summer session). The following semester, though, I was able to arrange for 8 papers to be graded by four different graders. As I expected, there were substantial differences in scoring, since graders have different expectations and styles.

Assigning a score to a piece of written work is a difficult and imprecise activity, all the more so when the document is lengthy and complex. Although many students find it more satisfying to express their thoughts in that manner, and it may allow for a better (or at least more thorough) critique, the variability of grading means that a student's grade on the assignment can depend to a considerable extent upon the luck of the draw.

Even if it were practical for one person to grade all of the papers, it's very difficult for anyone to grade consistently from paper to paper, especially over a long grading session (and perhaps even to grade the same paper consistently if read at a later time). Commercial organizations that grade written material (e.g., e.g., the NC writing competency exam) have elaborate systems to promote consistency and are generally grading simpler material.

So I broke the assignment up into essay questions in order to avoid, at least, the inter-grader variability, and to be able to be more specific about what graders should look for - something that's much harder to do on a piece of writing that extends over more than a page and without a fixed organizational structure. The number of questions varies with the ratio of graders to class size.

As in most written work, a part of the task is to identify among all the points that you can make, which ones are most important. Another part is to make them succinctly. Since many journal articles are restricted to 2,500 words for the entire article - or in some cases less - the need for selectivity and succinctness is fundamental. Similarly, you may work for two years on a project and get 12 minutes to present it at a national meeting. Even with the word limits the graders have their eyeballs full.

The objectives of the "paper" are to structure a learning opportunity, provide feedback, and have some reasonably fair way to assign grades. However, I am still refining this exercise, and welcome your feedback and suggestions.

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Updated 7/19/2005vs, 1/7/2007vs, 8/20/2007vs