FOR ARISTOTLE ONLY

Common Mistakes in CA499

Mistake #1 - Not Following Directions

Your paper is a minimum of 4000 words with 10 resources. I do not count your references page, long quotes or lists as part of the 4000 words. This is to get a C. Most A papers are 5000-6000 words and use 100% peer reviewed resources. Every resource under 10 you use you lose 5 points off your final grade. Every peer reviewed resource under 5 that is used gets you another 5 points off. Be sure you do the absolute minimums. I also deduct at a 1:1 ratio for being under 4000 words. If you do 3600 word after deleting your references page and long quotes, I'll take 10% off the top before grading content (since you only did 90% of the paper)

Mistake #2 - Not writing a research paper

It sounds obvious, right? But it's not always so obvious. Your paper must be an actual research paper. A research paper basically is centered around a topic or two topics that you want to do research on and learn more about. Writing a general interest paper will not suffice. An example of this is one student wrote a paper about the civil war - and discussed everything from Fort Sumpter to the surrender at Appomatox Court House. It didn't have a research question on it. It just gave information. Your paper must have a question or something that you can research. If you don't do this, you will not pass the course. Your question will likely be embedded in your title - if you do the step by step approach as will be discussed in the lessons. Your paper must be based in research from peer reviewed journals. You may use other sources to assist your paper (websites, books, magazine articles) - but the majority of your research should be based in peer-reviewed research.

Mistake #3 -- Not documenting library resources

I know some of you students are go-getters, and you do not need much help. I appreciate that. This paper and final assignment would be a bad time to be stubborn and not get help using the library. You cannot pass this course without library resources. So you might ask, how will I know if something is a library resource? All properly documented library resources will have a sentence in the works cited page that says "Retrieved from the EBSCOHost Database at http://eris.ebscohost.com/blahblah/blahblah.htm on WheneverMonth 10th, 2013." Other types of statements you might see if you use a local library would be something similar to "Retrieved from the Social and Behavioral Science Database at www.ebscohost.com/blahblah/blahblah.htm on WheneverMonth 10th, 2013." If these sentences are not in your work, it's easy to assume it's not a library peer reviewed database resource. Some of you may find that libraries have easy resources - like Newsweek or Time. These, in small moderation, are fine, but five of your resources must be journal articles - and students who tend to do better papers tend to have more than that.

Mistake #4 - How to do an outline

As odd as it sounds, some people have never used an outline before. The week you have to create your outline, you need to read all of the websites about how to create an outline. Look at my sample outline on schizophrenia if you need to do so. It is roman numerals, divided up - it is not the first paragraph of your paper. For some reason, about 10% of students submit the first page of their paper for the outline, and that's not the outline. The proposal option is rarely a good top to bottom option, and usually takes longer. I will certainly accept a proposal - but why spend twice as long writing something you can't use - that opens you up to more deductions for not doing the assignment right?

Mistake #5 - Using APA Format

APA format may be something you've never used before - it may be something you've used but teachers never really enforced the proper format. If you do not do this paper in proper APA format, you may lose two letter grades right off the top. Proper APA format will have the following (not everything is included on this list)

· Running head: YOUR TITLE IN ALL CAPS is on the first page and then YOUR TITLE IN ALL CAPS is on every additional page. (Note, you may come across two versions of the running head - one for student papers and one for professional publications. I want my students to use the "professional publication" one - because if your paper is ever good enough, I may recommend it for inclusion in student research publications - so strive hard - be sure to follow that view.

· Properly formatted title page

· Second page is an abstract page

· Proper margins (1 inch all around)

· Proper font (12 point, times new roman font)

· In-text citations for everything (Diggs, 2013) is an example of what an in-text citation looks like.

· Everything you get word for word MUST be in quotes and have an in-text citation after it.

· Everything you paraphrase must have an in-text citation after it.

The works cited page must be formatted properly with citations matching the in-text citation. If you have something like (Diggs, 2013) as an in-text citation, in the references page - you should have something that says Diggs, M. (2013). The Art of How to Write a Paper. Retrieved May 20th, 2013 from EBSCOHost at ..."

Use citation builders. They'll build the references for you if you give it all the information.

CA499 – Professional Strategies – Frequently Asked Questions!

Q: How long do my written assignments have to be?

A: The paper is a minimum of 4000 words. It sounds like a lot, but over 8 weeks, that's only 500-600 words a week if you're diligent on it. Remember, the paper is a minimum - not a maximum. I regularly get 5000+ word papers that really sink into a subject. When we add up all of the assignments in the course, including the long paper, it is about the same as most of your other classes. The work is mostly at the backend with the paper. There are several weeks where you only have one assignment to compensate for the fact you are writing a long paper - including Week 1 and 2

Q: What happens if I go under the word limit?

A: Any words under the word limit will be deducted at a 1:1 ratio. For instance, if you submit a 2000 word paper (half of the 4000 word minimum) - the highest grade you can get on the paper is a 50. If you submit 3600 words (10% less than the required minimum) - the highest grade you can get is a 90% before any other deductions are made. You'll find it helpful to aim for the higher side of 4000 words. It's a pet peeve of mine when students submit 4002 word papers. I don't count long quotes (any quote long enough to be a block quote - which is a quote of 40 words or more), the bibliography or a long abstract as part of your word count - it's 4000 of your words - not the quotes of articles you've found.

Q: Do I have to cite my sources?

A: Yes – Angel has auto-built in plagiarism tools and if you do not cite properly, this may be considered unintentional plagiarism. If you get information from somewhere – you must cite it – and I would prefer if you only use one quote per assignment. If your assignment is just quote after quote – I know what the Wikipedia says – I want to know what YOU think! Plagiarism is a failing grade – intentional or unintentional and could have administrative consequences as well! If you plagiarize the final paper in any significant way, you'll fail the class and come see me in eight more weeks (I'm the only one who teaches this class, so you're stuck with me!) :)

Q: What do I have to do to get a perfect grade on the assignment?

A: The key to this class is really to follow the directions. I'm not a stickler about a lot of things, but I have created this tool so you can have all the questions that are asked. The point of this class is to produce a multidisciplinary RESEARCH PAPER. Not something you get from USA Today or Newsweek or HowStuffWorks.com. Your library resources should be PEER REVIEWED RESOURCES. If you have any questions about how to use the Grantham Library - please contact Linda Catlin at [email protected] - and she will be more than happy to help you find resources for your paper that are library resources. In fact, everyone should be contacting her at least once during this course.

Q: How can I find my minimum of five library resources for my paper?

A: Grantham has an online library available for you with magazines, journals, reference books and even some multimedia resources. Our system, EBSCOHost, has the same research database I know every university in Texas has - so it's a pretty solid system. Grantham’s library also has websites selected to help you with your research these can be found in Glife and Angel. You may use your local library in lieu of this - but our librarian knows this assignment and will have more of what you need. Be sure when you're doing your research, if you are not getting librarian help, to make sure you check the box that says "Scholarly Peer Reviewed Articles Only" - articles from Time Magazine are great for your "other" research, but not the 5 peer reviewed articles (remember, that's a minimum!)

Q: Can you talk a little more about plagiarism? I've done this my whole educational career and now you're saying I can't?

A: I am not an English person - I'll be the first to admit that. However, when I am reading - I can tell the difference between your "tone" and a professional "tone" - so when I get the feeling that this work is from somewhere else, I scrutinize it more. Here are the rules of thumb for APA format:

If you use something word for word - it must be in quotes (100% of everything you said) with a proper citation. If you paraphrase something (i.e. get the information from somewhere else and put it in your own words) - you STILL HAVE TO CITE IT by putting the source where you got it from in parenthesis right after it (Diggs, 2012).

Students,

Either because students don't know how to write research papers, or they don't have enough time - sometimes they buy research papers and sometimes they copy and paste information.

ANGEL has built in tools to where it will google search EVERY sentence of your paper to see if someone else, somewhere wrote that sentence. If another website comes up with that same exact sentence - it is considered cheating and you will get a 0. This will fail you from the course.

DO NOT GO TO WEBSITES AND COPY AND PASTE INFORMATION!

I will catch you. You will fail if this happen. You will then have to redo the course. I love my classes, but I don't want to see you again until the next course. Make sure you CITE CITE CITE.

If you want to learn more about plagiarism - please go to this website and read up. It teaches you quite a bit on how to properly paraphrase - what is and isn't plagiarism. This is a must read for the rest of your educational career.

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

Q: Can I use Wikipedia as a resource?

A: No. I can and have as in class activities edited Wikipedia to say non-sense. Please do not assume it to be accurate. You can edit it to say non-sense as well. Scholars try to keep some of the information accurate, but people like me exist who terrorize it as a classroom project to prove it isn’t accurate.