Eco 576 Paper

Writing an A Paper

Keep in mind that Economics 576 is a graduate level course. Accordingly, all your papers should reflect graduate level effort and performance. In addition to writing a focused (translation: no veering off course and/or superfluous padding), well researched, thoughtful/analytical paper, your submission should reflect good organization, punctuation and documentation.

In some ways, writing a good paper is like writing and delivering a speech (remember that speech course you took way back there?) Ask yourself:

1) Who‟s the audience? (How much should I assume the reader knows and how much should I explain? Answer: For purposes of this course: assume that you are writing the assignment for the instructor and about the top 10% of the class)

2) Remember the rule from Speech 101 Tell „em what you‟re gonna say Say it Tell „em what you said

(Include a good introduction; don’t veer off course and ramble—no padding—in the body, and include a good summary and/or conclusions section)

3) How long does it need to be?

(In this respect, the paper is not so much like a speech. In the case of a speech, most often the assignment is to speak “for about x minutes.”(There, the audience is sleepy and/or hungry, and listening to your speech is merely the ransom required.) With a paper the assignment is to cover the topic, with the length more a matter of judgment.)

4) What about style?

As with the speech, try to sound like

you didn‟t just fall off the turnip

truck (Note: For non-Southerners,

that means to make it literate)

Some Specifics: Frequent, flagrant spelling and typographical errors are distracting—and reflect a lack of effort and concern for quality.

It is not a moral failure to run a spell check or even proof read a paper before submitting it.

Proper grammar need not be restricted to English composition courses. Pay attention to sentence structure, punctuation, and even basic subject and verb agreement. Words such as “to” “too” and “two,” “there” and “their,” “hire” and “higher,” “graph” and “graft,” and “affect” and “effect” are not interchangeable. Use them correctly.

Also--Headings (and subheadings)

help. They help the reader to know

what‟s coming next and to keep up,

and they help the writer to stay on

point.

What about documentation?

Questions I invariably hear--

“Do you want a bibliography?”

“Do we have to use footnotes?”

“What format should we use for…?”

Point 1: Any paper is better/stronger if it is properly documented—regardless of any rules requiring such

Point 2: The purpose of documentation is very straightforward—merely to give credit where credit is due

If you use someone else’s thoughts, figures, etc., give them credit.

If you use their words as well as their thoughts, give them credit. Most keyboards have quotation marks on there somewhere.

Statement on Plagiarism - Papers submitted in fulfillment of requirements of Economic 576 (Macroeconomic Theory and Policy) will be subject to the following standard relative to plagiarism. This policy has been adapted from definitions, policies and procedures established by New York University’s School of Education.

General Principle: Giving credit to someone whose work has helped one is courteous and honest. Plagiarism, on the other hand, is a form of fraud. Proper acknowledgment marks the difference. A hallmark of the educated student is the ability to recognize and acknowledge information derived from others. I expect that the student will be scrupulous in crediting those sources that have contributed to the development of his/her ideas. In particular, it is the responsibility of the student to learn the proper forms of citation: directly copied material must always be in quotes; even ideas and organization derived from another’s work need to be acknowledged. Paraphrasing constitutes an abbreviated restatement of someone else’s analysis or conclusions.

Definition: Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work as though it were your own. More specifically, plagiarism is to present as your own a sequence of words quoted without quotation

marks from another writer; a paraphrased passage from another writer’s work; facts or ideas gathered, organized, and reported by someone else, orally and/or in writing.

Penalty: Since plagiarism is a matter of fact, not of the student’s intention, it is crucial that acknowledgement of sources be accurate and complete. Even where there is no conscious intention to deceive, the failure to make appropriate acknowledgement constitutes plagiarism. Any paper that has been plagiarized will receive a grade of F.

Further, consider the following

References

http://www.fita.org/

http://mwhodges.home.att.net/reserves.htm

http://www.prosperityuk.com/articles_and_reviews/articles/bancor.php

What do these references tell the reader about the writer’s source materials? Does this kind of reference/citation identify (for the likely reader) the sponsors of the websites? Does it clue the reader as to whether the sponsor tends to be academic, scientific, objective, quacks, hacks, idiots or what-have-you? And, even if it does identify the sponsor, does this kind of reference tell the reader who wrote the cited piece, and if that person is worthy of note?

Point: The reader should not have to go to each cited website and check out the sponsor, author, etc. You should save them from that chore. After all, they did you the honor of reading your paper.

In short, an internet address (URL) does NOT constitute adequate or proper documentation. The

author of the work, including his/her affiliation and/or the name of the organization hosting the material must be included in the citation.

.

Additionally, in the text of the paper, you should identify sources not only to assist the reader, but also to give support and substance to your arguments.

Consider the following:

1. According to Ben Bernanke, blab, blab, blab …….

Well, okay. We all know who Ben is

2. Bud Crud argues that blab, blab, blab……

Now, who is Bud Crud, and why should anyone pay any attention to what he said?

3. Hank Stank, chief economist for Government Motors, found that whatever

Well, at least we know now who Hank is, and have a bit of information on which to decide whether we care what he claims he found

And last, I don’t care much about format. Whether you use footnotes, endnotes, or whatever is not a big deal to me. Any approved format, so long as it is consistently applied, is okay