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November 11, 2015 version

ECO200: WA Instructions: Fall 2015 Page 1

ECONOMICS 200 Fall-Winter 2015 / 2016

Writing Assignments: The Critical Analysis General Instructions

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DUE DATES As reprinted from the syllabus, here are the assignment due dates:

Date Time Assignment 1 Fri, 4 December, 2015 5:00 pm Assignment 2 Fri, 1 April, 2016 5:00 pm

IF YOU READ NO FURTHER THAN THIS SECTION

1. We are looking for a critical analysis. Perhaps the biggest mistake you can make is submitting a writing assignment that is largely a summary of the assigned article.

2. Depth is preferred to breadth. The student providing a strong analysis of two relevant points will earn much higher marks than the student identifying a number of points without fully analyzing any of them.1

3. We define critical rather broadly. It is certainly possible to write an excellent critical analysis in which you agree with the author of the article. Likewise, you should not feel shy about disagreeing with an author. In either case, the strength of your analysis will depend on your ability to thoughtfully apply ECO200 tools.

4. You must submit your assignment on both the BB Portal and Turnitin.com. See below for logistics of how to do so. Don’t be late – there are penalties!

5. You earn bonus marks for attending the writing tutorial.

PURPOSE

To be successful in the workforce and as an economist, you need to be able to critically evaluate economic arguments and convey your reasoning to a general audience in writing. The assignments in this class will help you develop these skills. You will need to demonstrate your ability to apply economic concepts and tools to different, more open- ended contexts. This also helps you learn to apply and to view events through the lens of economics.

What does it mean to be critical in Economics? Critical examination involves the following steps.

1. Translating a written argument into a form that can be analyzed using the tools we have learned in class.

1 In preparing your analysis, we hope you identify a number of points you can make. We understand that it can be difficult to leave out a point you have spent time thinking about and developing. If you find yourself in this situation, please consider something along the following lines: “While the author’s argument certainly does rely on assuming X, in this analysis I focus on Y and Z, and argue that . . .”

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ECO200: WA Instructions: Fall 2015 Page 2

2. Using economic tools to critically examine the argument being made. Analysis involves doing more than merely paraphrasing the textbook, class notes or using jargon. It involves the following:

a. identifying the appropriate model or tool for the context; b. checking to see if the model’s underlying assumptions required are

sufficiently satisfied; and c. identifying important differences between the model and the real-world

context, and identifying how these differences affect qualitative and quantitative predictions.

3. Comparing your analysis with the author’s arguments and articulating any differences or similarities in a precise manner.

4. Translating all of this into clear language that readers can easily understand.

N.B. The Critical Analysis is NOT a research paper per se. While you may find it helpful to consult outside resources, it is not necessary to do so, and it is entirely possible to earn full marks without doing so. The primary metric upon which we judge your analysis is your ability to thoughtfully apply ECO200 tools in analyzing the real-world applications.

TASK

This is an individual writing assignment. There will be two writing assignments for this course to give you practice and opportunities to get feedback on your writing. These are the general instructions for both assignments.

For each assignment you will be given an article to critically evaluate. You will be graded on the quality and thoroughness of your analysis. Writing skills are essential to enable you to communicate your ideas to others. Therefore, you will also be graded on the clarity, flow and overall cohesiveness of the writing in your paper. The rubric we shall use (the marks you can earn for each desirable skill demonstrated) is posted on the BB Portal.

How to Structure your assignment 1. The introduction (first paragraph) briefly identifies and summarizes the point(s)

you will make. 2. The next part should provide your analysis of a limited subset of the article’s

arguments. Your analysis should use economic concepts you have learned in class. Be careful to address the appropriate audience.

a. Remember, narrow your focus so that your analysis can be more in-depth. In-depth analysis is much more important than hitting every point made in the article.

b. Appropriate Audience: You should assume that your reader is a University of Toronto graduate who has read the article but has never taken ECO200.

3. Briefly draw the evaluation together in a short concluding paragraph.

NOTE: Any references you cite should be identified and listed at the end of the paper. They do not count toward the word limit.

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Getting Started  To evaluate the article, you need to first understand the author’s arguments. Start

by identifying the assumptions inherent in the argument, checking to see if the conclusions follow from these assumptions. Try to distinguish the argument from the evidence provided to support the argument.

 To do critical evaluation, essentially you should take apart the various steps in the argument and see if they make sense separately and as a whole. Can you use the tools learned in class to think about the argument in another way? Check to see if the author is missing anything in her argument or has used some tool or method incorrectly or inappropriately. Is there evidence that contradicts the author’s argument?

 See the hand-out “Where do I start? A step-by-step guide to completing your written assignment” by Jessie LaMontagne: http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/wit/resources/resources-by-discipline/eco-step-by- step-writting.pdf

Refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for advice on how to write up your references. It is available at http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

Length Your assignment should have a maximum of 750 words (excluding the title page). Given the required format below, 750 words is approximately three pages.

Style Because you are writing for the general reading population, you will need to explain your arguments in a way that someone who has some understanding of basic economic concepts, but not detailed knowledge, can understand it. A good guideline: assume a reader who has taken ECO100 a few years ago. She will understand basic ECO100 concepts, but will have certainly forgotten most of the subtleties and many of the implications.

As 750 words is not a lot, you need to seriously limit the space you devote to summarizing the article. You should assume that your reader has read the article, even if she has not (yet) critically thought about it.

How to format your assignment To earn full marks, you must do the following:

 Your assignment should be typed, double-spaced and have a font size of at least 12 points.

o We highly recommend a typeface designed to be easy to read, such as Times New Roman. In choosing a font, ask yourself the following question: “Does this look like the fonts I usually see in books, newspapers, and magazines?” If the answer is no, choose a different font, or just choose Times New Roman and stop thinking about it.

 Put the word count of your assignment in parentheses at the end. For example, “(750 words)”

 The title page should have your full name, student id number and the class information (i.e., ECO200, Fall 2015).

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 The file you submit must be either a Word (doc or docx) or PDF document.  Files must be named FamilyName_GivenName_ECO200_1 for the first

assignment and FamilyName _ GivenName _ECO200_2 for the second assignment, where FamilyName is your family name and GivenName is your given name.

LOGISTICS

 The assignment due dates are clearly indicated in the syllabus. For your convenience, we have reprinted them on the first page of these instructions. (If there is a discrepancy, the syllabus wins.)

 Submit each assignment online to both the BB Portal (i.e., Blackboard) and Turnitin.com.

 Instructions for submitting your assignment to Turnitin.com have been posted in the “Writing Assignments” folder on the BB Portal.

 To submit your assignment on the BB Portal, follow these instructions o In “Writing Assignments” click the item titled “Writing Assignment #1

Submission” to submit assignment #1. For Writing Assignment #2, click the item “Writing Assignment #2 Submission”.

o Follow the file naming guidelines above. o Uploaded files should not include special characters in the file name for

example, # ! % ?. Do not attach multiple files with the same name. o Attach your assignment file as follows:

 Click Browse for Local File (on your computer)  Locate file on your personal computer. Once you see the file

listed in the Blackboard window, click the Attach File button.  Click Open

o Click Submit to send the assignment.  Your assignment will be graded according to a Rubric. The Rubric can be found

in the “Writing Assignments” folder on the BB Portal.

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ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND TURNITIN.COM

The Department of Economics takes incidents of plagiarism very seriously and prosecutes them vigorously. Not knowing what constitutes plagiarism is not a defense.

The University policy on academic integrity can be found at: www.academicintegrity.utoronto.ca/ where you will find details about what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it.

The University disclaimer on Turnitin.com follows:

“Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University's use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web site.”

You are free to refuse to submit your work through Turnitin.com. However, if you decide that you do not feel comfortable using the site, you must make arrangement with your instructor no later than two weeks before the assignment’s due date. We will ask you to submit all your rough work, including notes and draft versions of your assignment. You may also be requested to meet with a TA or the instructor to discuss your paper.

PENALTIES

 You will receive a 10 percentage point penalty for submitting an assignment after the deadline, and an additional 10 percentage point penalty assessed every 24 hours. For example:

o An assignment submitted at 5:00:13 PM (thirteen seconds after 5:00 PM) on the due date will receive a 10 percentage point penalty.

o An assignment submitted 25 hours late will receive a 20 percentage point penalty.

 No extensions will be granted under any circumstance (e.g., illness, computer problems, etc.).

 Exceeding the word limit can lead to a marks penalty.

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WRITING TUTORIALS: EARN BONUS MARKS

Prior to each assignment’s submission date, there will be a writing tutorial. (Times and locations for each section will be announced in lecture and on the BB Portal.) In this tutorial, you will participate in exercises structured to give you practice in critical analysis. We truly believe that benefits of attending outweigh the (opportunity) cost. We are fully aware, however, this it difficult to conduct a cost-benefit analysis when the benefit is uncertain (i.e., from your perspective prior to attending the tutorial).2 To address this information asymmetry, you will earn bonus marks (equal to 2% of the total marks available on the corresponding writing assignment) for attending a writing tutorial and submitting the (ungraded) assignment provided in that tutorial. Note that you can only earn bonus marks once for each writing assignment. You do not earn a double bonus by attending both tutorials for each WA (although you are free to do so), but all students can earn the bonus for both writing assignments.

WRITING TIPS

Some essential writing tips3:  Use simple, clear language. Avoid metaphors, flowery speech4 or jargon.  Do not use the passive voice (The box was held by John) when the active voice is

an option (John held the box).  Keep your sentences short.  Make sure your paragraphs are self-contained and coherent: put only one main

idea in each paragraph. Avoid too long (more than 1/3 of a page) or too short (one or two sentences only) paragraphs.

 Make your main point early on, and make sure that everything you write serves to support your main point (even your counter-arguments serve to support your main point).

 Support each argument with evidence, such as a statistic, example or economic reasoning.

 Make clear the economic concepts and reasoning on which your argument is based.

 Be respectful of arguments that differ from yours: you can be critical without dismissing the work of others.

 Consider your audience. Use everyday words, define more technical terms, and avoid jargon.

Another resource is The Economist Style Guide, available at http://www.economist.com/styleguide/introduction.

2 In addition, there is substantial evidence that many animals, humans included, overweight current costs (attending the writing tutorial “today”) relative to future benefits. 3 From Jessie LaMontagne and Andrea Williams. 4 For example: “Since the dawn of time, economists have contemplated . . .”

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GETTING ASSISTANCE

Here are some great resources (in addition to office hours) for getting assistance on the writing assignments.

 See the BB Portal in the Writing Assignments folder for information on WA tutorials, the WA Aid Centre and for online assistance prior to the deadline for each WA.

 Each college has a writing centre. You can book an appointment at http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/writing-centres/arts-and-science. The teaching approach of these centres is described at http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/writing- centres/learning.

 More than 60 Advice files on all aspects of academic writing are available from www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice.

o Note in particular "How Not to Plagiarize" and other advice on documentation format and methods of integrating sources; these are listed in the section at www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources.

 For those students whose first language in not English, the English Language Learning program (ELL) (http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/advising/ell) is an awesome resource. (The next short course is late August; might be something to consider prior to F/W semester; other resources accessible from this site).