Spanish Class - Week 4 Cultural Comparison Paper For Guatemala and Honduras
Cultural Comparison Papers: Requirements and Point Deductions
These individual assignments allow you to choose two Spanish-speaking countries in week 2 and compare and contrast different aspects of their cultures throughout the course. These papers are completed in weeks 2, 4, and 5 and are worth 50 pts each. Below you will find an explanation of the requirements and point deductions related to these assignments. There are no exceptions to the point deductions based on your personal circumstances. They will be applied transparently and fairly to any student that does not meet any requirement listed below.
Requirements
1) All papers must be in English.
2) All papers must include: a title page, the actual paper with an introduction, a body with analysis, data, examples, and references, and a developed conclusion. You may use the following resource from the Harvard College Writing Center to understand how to write a proper conclusion for an academic paper: https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/
pages/ending-essay-conclusions.
3) All papers must include at least 3 credible/quality references. References may include academic sources (i.e. journal articles and/or scholarly books) and/or official sources of information (i.e. newspapers, magazines, government organizations, international institutions, etc.). If you plan to use an Internet website please consider the credibility/reliability of where you get your information. Not all information is quality information appropriate for academic papers. You may use the following link from the Harvard College Writing Program to understand how to evaluate the quality/reliability of sources and how to avoid plagiarism: https://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/.
4) All papers need to be properly formatted in APA style with an appropriate running header, title page, introduction, body, conclusion, and reference page. APA style also includes proper spacing and use of white space, fonts, font size, and margins. The font color in all parts of your papers should be black only. In your syllabus there is a link called “Academic Writing Resources” with examples and resources you may view to learn about proper formatting of academic papers in APA style.
5) All papers should be written with professional/academic language. These assignments are not informal writing pieces so please avoid using informal language. Please use the following link from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) to learn more about academic writing: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/2/.
Point Deductions
a) Papers are not accepted if there is no reference page. Forgetting to upload/include your references with your paper is not a valid excuse.
b) Papers are not accepted if they are written in any other language than English.
c) Papers are not accepted if you write about Brazil or Portugal or any other non-Spanish speaking country even if you compare them to one Spanish-speaking country. Please view the list of acceptable countries in your syllabus in Recommended Activity 3 for week 1. Note: You may work on Puerto Rico although it is officially not a country, but rather a Spanish-speaking commonwealth of the United States.
d) Papers are not accepted if you use Wikipedia as a reference. This site should be avoided for all papers in this course.
e) Papers are not accepted if they do not directly address the assigned prompt, question, and/or topic in the instructions in your syllabus.
f) Papers are not accepted if any part has been plagiarized. This is academically dishonest and should be avoided by using your own words, always acknowledging/giving credit to your sources, and properly citing quotes, statistics, and other data/information. If you have been found to have plagiarized, you will be referred to Academic Affairs.
g) 25 points will be deducted from papers submitted up to one day late (within 24 hours after the deadline). Papers submitted after this time will not be accepted.
h) 15 points will be deducted if your paper is under the minimum word count. The word count includes the main part of your paper only (i.e. your introduction, body, and conclusion). There is no penalty for going over the word count.
i) 15 points will be deducted if your paper does not follow APA style. See requirements above for what this encompasses.
j) 15 points will be deducted if your professor deems that all/most of the information in the body of the paper comes from other sources and does not contain any (or very little/few) analysis, examples, data and/or commentary to make it substantive.
k) 15 points will be deducted if your paper contains no introduction and/or conclusion.
l) 15 points will be deducted if there are not at least 3 credible/quality references. See requirements above for details about what constitutes credible/quality resources for academic papers.