While the specific assignments will vary from course to course, I describe here some general expectations for student papers in all of my undergraduate courses. These guidelines may be helpful for classes with other professors as well.

What the paper should do

In every paper, I expect you to carefully develop an argument. In other words, you should try to persuade the reader to conform to your position on a subject that invites dispute. To do so, you must have a position on the subject at hand. You should have arrived at that position after a careful evaluation of alternative points of view. And you should convey to the reader why you believe your position is superior to the positions you have rejected. This cannot be accomplished by advancing unsubstantiated "opinions" about the topic; it requires you to review all sides of an issue, to outline the strengths and weaknesses of competing positions, and to support your conclusions with reasons and/or evidence.

In many cases, the hardest part of the assignment will be to figure out what you want to argue and why. Once you've done so, you're ready to roll. Usually, the argument that you've come up with should appear in a thesis statement at or near the beginning of your essay. The form of this thesis statement can be simple and direct ("In this essay, I will argue that ..."), or you can express it in some more imaginative fashion. The point is to let the reader know where you are going, and to do so at the outset of the paper. In this light, it's probably best to avoid an overly grand introduction (e.g., "The U.S. Constitution is the greatest one in history."). In a short paper, you don't have a lot of space to make your argument, so it's generally better to get right down to business.

In advancing your argument, you may assume an audience composed of people who have already read all the required reading for the course. If you're discussing a book or article or Supreme Court decision that we've read in class, you don't have to summarize that material, because your audience has already read it. We have not, however, read the material in quite the same way that you've read it, which is the point of your paper: to advance your own distinctive take on the subject at hand.

The grading process

My grading process is a holistic one. In other words, rather than assigning separate points for your thesis, evidence, style, etc., I read the paper as a whole and assign a grade based on the extent to which it achieves the goals described above. (In cases where the paper is graded by a teaching assistant, I will instruct her to undertake the same process, though her judgment may always be appealed to me.) I want all students to understand why their paper earned an A, a B, or whatever the case may be, so I encourage you to talk with me about your papers once you get them back. When you do so, however, don't ask, "What did you take points off for?", because I will borrow Michael Berube's reply: "Your paper was not born with an A. Your paper was born with a 'nothing,' and I made up my mind about it as I read it" (Michael Berube, "Analyze, Don't Summarize," Chronicle of Higher Education, October 1, 2004).

In making up my mind about your paper, I will be looking for a series of things that are not easily quantified: "[M]astery of the material. Cogency of supporting evidence. Ability to imagine and rebut salient counterarguments. Extra points for wit and style" (Berube, ibid.).

Principles of style and composition

Each writer should have a style of her own, but the following tips should be helpful for everyone. (Most of them are borrowed from The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White):

• Choose an organizational design that makes sense, and then stick with it throughout.
• Write in a way that comes naturally, but with a tone that is appropriate to the setting. I.e., the paper's voice should be your own, but perhaps not quite the same voice you would use in conversing with your friends. If your language is too conversational or colloquial, it may look like you're not taking the assignment seriously.
• When you use the passive voice, it is often unclear who is responsible for the action you're describing. (E.g., "the Communications Decency Act was declared unconstitutional.") Use the active voice whenever possible. (E.g., "the Supreme Court declared the Communications Decency Act unconstitutional.")
• Use definite, specific, concrete language. Omit needless words, avoid the overuse of qualifiers (e.g., rather, very, pretty), and avoid unnecessarily fancy words. 
• Avoid the overuse of long quotes. However, when you do have a quotation longer than two full lines, please block quote (double indent and single space). Do not place quotation marks at either end of a block quote. An example of a block quote from O'Hare and Kline appears below.
• Capitalize proper nouns (e.g., Congress, the Constitution); do not capitalize adjectives (e.g., congressional, constitutional). The President has presidential powers.
• Revise and rewrite. Then revise and rewrite again.

In addition to the book by Strunk and White, the most recent edition of The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers, 15th edition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003) has a helpful chapter on grammar and usage.

Citations and plagiarism

Avoiding plagiarism

To avoid committing plagiarism, you must provide complete citations for any references which you make to someone else's work. This applies whether you are paraphrasing or providing a direct quotation. As Frank O'Hare and Edward A. Kline note,

Plagiarism falls into two categories: using someone else’s words or using someone else’s ideas as if they were your own. You must be scrupulous in avoiding both categories of plagiarism in your writing. Properly cite all quotations, paraphrases, and summaries of information from other sources. The only exception to this rule is common knowledge, or information commonly known and accessible to your audience. . . . If you are unsure whether certain information constitutes common knowledge, document it. Collusion, a form of plagiarism, occurs when two or more people agree to devise a piece of writing that will be attributed to only one of them. . . . For any individual writing assignment, the idea and the organization of ideas in your paper must be your own. . . . You can incorporate into your writing ideas that have arisen from class discussion [and] lectures . . .You may revise and edit your writing with other people [at the Writing Center, e.g.,] . . . but you should not have others do your writing or revising for you (O’Hare and Kline, The Modern Writer’s Handbook, Fourth Edition, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1996, pp. 447-450).

If you have any questions about this definition, please talk to me before turning in the assignment. Plagiarism is a very serious example of academic misconduct, so you should err on the side of caution. When I find evidence of plagiarism, my policy is to assign an "F" for the course and refer the matter to the Dean of Arts and Sciences for any further sanctions.

Citation formats

There are a variety of standard citation formats, and they are all acceptable for use in my courses. The most important things are to make sure that you (a) provide all relevant bibliographic information; and (b) use a consistent format throughout your paper. The best source for answering questions about citation formats is The Chicago Manual of Style.

The 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style includes everything you need to know about citing electronic sources, but here are a few general guidelines:

To direct readers to an entire Web site (but not a specific document on the site), it's sufficient to give the address of the site in the text. For example,

            Kidspsych is a wonderful interactive Web site for children (http://www.kidspsych.org).

No reference entry is needed.

To create a reference for a specific document on a web site, however, a more detailed citation is necessary. Web documents share many of the same elements found in a print document (e.g., authors, titles, dates). Therefore, the citation for a Web document often follows a format similar to that for print, with some information omitted and some added. Here are some examples from the website of the American Psychological Association:

An action alert posted by APA's Public Policy Office:

American Psychological Association. 1995. "APA public policy action alert: Legislation would affect grant recipients" (Announcement, September 15). Washington, DC. Retrieved January 25, 1996, from the World Wide Web: http://www.apa.org/ppo/istook.html.

An article from the journal American Psychologist:

Jacobson, J. W., Mulick, J. A., & Schwartz, A. A. 1995. "A history of facilitated communication: Science, pseudoscience, and antiscience: Science working group on facilitated communication." American Psychologist, 50, 750–765. Retrieved January 25, 1996, from the World Wide Web: http://www.apa.org/journals/jacobson.html

In addition to The Chicago Manual of Style, the American Psychological Association also has a helpful on-line guide to citing electronic sources.

Format

All papers should be typed and double-spaced with a one-inch margin on all four sides and stapled in the upper left-hand corner (no fancy folders, please). A separate title page is not necessary, but the first page should include your name, a title, your email address, the current date, my name, and (if applicable) your TA's name.

Miscellaneous

It is your responsibility to keep an extra copy of your papers in case my copy is lost amid the shuffle. In addition, I highly recommend that you keep a file of all of your papers once I hand them back to you; you never know when you, or I, might need to refer to them.
 

Last updated: May 31, 2006.

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