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***THE PAPERS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN MAY 2*** at the start of class. This is the DUE DATE. They can (and should) be turned in earlier. Late papers will be PENALIZED at 10 points a day, up to 30 percent of the grade. NO PAPERS ACCEPTED AFTER May 7. PLEASE TAKE NOTE:PLAGIARISM IS FORBIDDEN! If you are caught, you are hosed!! PERIOD! Nor is cutting/pasting and simply re-writing material from elsewhere acceptable. You paper should be driven by ideas, and outside material used to suppor them. It should be YOUR thought, not simply regurgitation from other sources. Failure to developy YOUR ideas will be graded accordingly. Your papers should follow any generally-accepted format for term papers in that they have a) a clear introduction, specifying "what's at stake," and organizing your forth-coming discussion; b) a strong discussion in which you make your key points and present your argument; and c) a convincing conclusion. There is no required length, but the expectation is between 17-20 pages. A 10 page paper will be considered two-thirds of the assignment and graded accordingly. REMEMBER: Papers must flow logically and be well-organized. If you are not sure how to write a paper, check a term paper manual out of the library!! Have a friend read the paper over for clarity, style, and typos. You should use ACADEMIC JOURNALS, although in some cases magazines are appropriate (as when doing a media content analysis). Remember to use good grammar---don't use glib speech without a purpose (eg., "cops," "guys," etc). Be careful not to "genderize" language (eg, use police officer for policeman, etc). Relying on the Internet generally leads to mediocre papers. YOU MUST HAVE AT LEAST HALF OF YOUR CITES FROM THE LIBRARY. How many cites do you need? Enough to show that you have done your homework. USE THE LIBRARY! I am looking especially for well-thought out analysis that tells us something NEW about the topic, and ties in some broad social issues (e.g., ethics, gender, race, policy, values, etc). No comments will be made on final papers, because few students pick them up. Exceptions will be made for papers turned in early. It is my policy to comment upon paper drafts PRIOR to submission, because this when feedback helps the most. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, SEE ME AFTER CLASS!! YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO TURN IN ROUGH DRAFTS (AS OFTEN AS YOU WISH) UP TO 14 DAYS PRIOR TO DUE DATE. I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO READ THEM AFTER THIS DATE! ============================ RULES FOR PAPERS Hints 1) NO DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS!!! 2) Type the papers and DO NOT use binders 3) Number your pages 4) Use SCHOLARLY sites, NOT Reader's Digest or Vogue 5) NUMBER YOUR PAGES! (5 point penalty for failure to number) 6) DO NOT use plastic paper covers/jackets 7) Be CAUTIOUS of Internet resources: "Garbage in/Garbage out" 8) USE LIBRARY SOURCES (You MUST have at least HALF of the citations from real books and journals)!!! 9) Number your pages The following rules are common sense, but there may be serious consequences if you violate them. When writing a paper, there are a few basic rules: 1) Do your own work 2) Do not recycle papers you wrote for other courses to this one 3) Do not falsify bibliographies 4) Turn in the ORIGINAL (NOT a carbon or duplicate) Violation of the following may result in a 10-90 percent reduction in your paper grade: 1. Failure to follow the assignment 2. Failure to submit your original copy (ie, no zeroxes or carbons of any page) 3. Failure to include your bibliography 4. Messy or untyped papers 5. Late papers 6. Reproducing abstracts of articles as if they were your own words 7. Citing items in your bibliography that you did not read ALSO: PLEASE NUMBER YOUR PAGES; DO NOT put them in plastic binders. The following will automatically result in an F on the paper: 1. Falsifying bibliography 2. plagiarism 3. Using a paper you have used for another class in this one without permission 4. Using text from the internet without citing it, and/or using language from web sources as your own words. 5. Using electronic abstracts as if you had read the original works The following will automatically result in a course grade of F and may result in judicial disciplinary hearings: 1. Submitting a paper written by another as your own 2. Lying when confronted with explicit evidence of violations in any of these rules 3. Evidence of using "term paper mills" to upload/download papers relevant to this class 4. Uploading a paper to a website in order to obtain "information" from that site (ie, electronic paper-swapping)
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