paper 1

1) Academic honesty and integrity are crucial to a good education and effective learning. The paper must be a product of your own composition, written specifically for this class, and must have proper citations for paraphrases and quotations. Passing off other sources as your own constitutes plagiarism, and at best is poor scholarship, and confirmed plagiarism will result in a grade of 0.0 for the assignment and possibly expulsion and forfeiture of tuition. Footnotes and endnotes are not simply there to avoid plagiarism, however. They show the interested reader where to go for more information, and give credit where credit is due. When in doubt, err on the side of footnoting too often with too much information (which is a very difficult mistake to make, if it is even possible!)

2) Pay attention to content, style, and grammar. For example, verbs must agree in number with subjects and pronouns with their antecedents. Avoid using passive voice, first or second person constructions, and contractions in formal writing. I mark off for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling mistakes as well as unclear writing. Please proofread your paper at least once before turning it in. Grammar-checking and spell- checking tools are VERY POOR SUBSTITUTES for proofreading and can be quite unreliable.

3) Use a style that is concise, positive, confident, and clear. Consider yourself an historian with something to contribute to our understanding of your topic. Write with authority backed up by evidence. The hearts of history instructors are extraordinarily warmed by reading papers that show some thought on the part of the writer. Use your own educated judgment when you make decisions, and make a direct statement of argument. Make your thesis statement direct and to the point, without prediction or vagueness or question-and answer.  For example, do not write as your thesis "In this paper I will show X happened" – instead, come right out and simply state, "X happened."  Consider your audience to be a peer who is not in the class. (For example, someone with general knowledge of an event, but who has not read the same books you have.)

4) Start with an introduction which generally defines the topic, lets the reader know what the paper will be about, and contains the thesis of the paper. Divide the paper into logical units, with specific examples to support all the paper’s generalizations. All the points in the paper should flow from the original thesis. Include a conclusion that brings the paper back to the thesis and closes the paper for the reader.

5) The page limit refers to the typed or word-processed text only, and DOES NOT COUNT any of the following: title page, illustrations, bibliography, endnotes page, etc. The paper must be double-spaced, with reasonable margins and font, without extra “padding.” Resist all temptations to make the paper look longer than it really is -- such tactics are always obvious to an instructor who has pulled all those tricks himself.

6) In general, only quote primary sources, and do so sparingly, only when absolutely necessary. Use bloc quotes for quotes over 4 lines long, and be sure that the quote has a foot- or endnote. You should reserve long quotes for long papers, because they take up too much space in a 4-5 page paper.

7) Make use of rough draft opportunities, office hours, and e-mail communication as much as possible. Papers that have been reviewed and re-written are consistently better. I am here to help you write the best essay you can.