Microsoft Word – fall 2018 Final Report rubric.docx
STA 402/502 Final Project Rubric
Fall 2018
The final project report contains your research questions, the methods or approaches you used, discussion and conclusions. The targeted audience are people who have statistics as well as SAS knowledge. The main part of your final report should be 4-8 single-spaced pages. Additional graphs, tables and references are not limited to the page restriction. Please submit the final report using a word or a pdf format through the canvas website by Wednesday, December 12, 12:00pm noon. The SAS code and dataset (if you choose to use your own data) should also be submitted separately through the canvas website. The following is the description and the rubric of the final project.
1. The final report should contain the following parts:
Title and authors;
Abstract: A paragraph-long summary of the research including the context, research questions,
methods, and findings;
Introduction: The introduction should include a description of the data you are analyzing and
clearly state your research questions. The questions should focus on the statistical analysis, not
on describing what SAS procedures you used. You can also provide background on the topic
including existing research if there is any;
Methods: Describe how did you carry out your study using SAS. You should describe what SAS
programs you have done to analyze the data. Also include a description of the macro programs
in this part. So that after reading this part, people can have the idea of how your SAS program
works;
Results: Use graphs or tables (make sure they are properly labeled and formatted to answer all
the research questions you raised in the introduction section. In this part, you should include
the statistical conclusions based on the graphs/tables you get;
Conclusion and Discussion: A conclusion paragraph that summarizes your findings from the
project. Also include some questions you have and any idea for potential follow-up work;
References: Choose a particular citation format (for example APA, Chicago, MLA, etc, styles).
You should cite any resources you used outside class (it could be journal articles, SAS
documents, website, etc);
Appendix: Other graphs or tables that you didn’t include in the main part of the project, if
there’s any.
2. The SAS program should follow the following requirement:
(1) The code must be well documented and structured for readability. It’s a good idea to indent the code and have necessary comment along the code. So that people can understand your analysis based on reading your SAS programming file.
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- (2) The code should be able to execute by minimal changes (for example, change the dataset path). After those necessary changes, other people should be able to run and generate whatever you get by clicking on the “running” button.
- (3) If the program takes long time to run, you may save some datasets generated in the middle of the process and upload to the canvas website. Make sure you include such comment in your program.
- (4) The macro should be flexible so that if the macro variables are changed, I’m still able to get results by running the macro.
3. Grading Rubric
| Different Aspects of the final project | Criteria | Points |
| Abstract and introduction | Clearly introduce the problem, the data and the research questions | 6 |
| Methods | Describe the logical and the possible approaches to solve the research problems. So that others can use those described SAS programming methods to get a solution. | 6 |
| Results | Clearly address the research questions by providing results you get by running the SAS program. Include meaningful descriptions of the results. | 6 |
| Conclusions | Clearly summarize your findings through the project. Propose future work or possible research directions. | 6 |
| Format | Make sure the graphs and tables are necessary to demonstrate your conclusions. Include appropriate labels and numbers. Include the necessary references, and no grammar issues for the whole written report. | 6 |
| Readability of code | The code must be well documented and structured for readability. Use comment to instruct users the functions of each part of your program. Properly indent the code. | 8 |
| Execution of code | The code should be able to execute by minimal changes (for example, change the dataset path). | 8 |
| Flexibility of code | For each project, there should be at least one macro used. After I change the values of some variables in the macro, the code should also work. For example, if you work with a certain year’s data, I should be able to get the result with no error if change the year value. | 8 |
| Code complexity | The code should not be complex enough. It should not be repeated simple SAS procedures. The macros should be meaningful and useful, not just accomplish one simple task. | 8 |
| Code correctness | The results from the code should be the same as you provide in your report. No editing of the tables/graphs after running the program. | 8 |
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