Mr. LevinPOLS 3200

Spring2012Intro to LawPolitics

Guidelinesfor Papers: POLS3200

Organization

1. Formulateathesis that responds to thequestion(s)in the essayprompt. This thesis needs to stateanon-trivial argument and must besupported byreasons andevidence, not simplyassertions ofbelief. A thesis does not simplypromiseto exploreorexaminea topic, but states a clearposition. A good test is whetheryourthesis includestheword “because”(or anequivalent) andgives reasons forthe conclusion thatyouultimately reach.Thethesis should beincluded in eitherthefirst orsecond paragraph.An academic papershould not read likeamysterynovel.

2. Everyparagraph inyourpapershouldadvanceyourthesis. Each paragraph should includeastatement explaininghow theidea explored in that paragraph supports the largerthesis, orat aminimum, describingtheideayou aredevelopingin that paragraph within the context established inyourthesis. This need not bemechanical,but it does provideauseful test ofwhethertheparagraph is advancingthethesis.

3. Yourintroduction should containyourthesis and outlinesomeoftheideas and evidenceyouwill useto supportyourthesis. Themiddleofthepapershould contain thoseideas and evidence.Your conclusion shouldrestateyourthesis, review the reasons and evidence foryourthesis, and explore anyrelevant implications ofyourlarger argument. As manywritinginstructors havesaid beforeme, “Tell mewhatyou’regoing to tell me, tell me, and then tell mewhatyou told me.”

4. You must edit and proofreadyourwork. Read throughyourpapercarefullyto discover and correct straywords,misspellings, confusingsentences, poorgrammar,and faulty punctuation. ThemoreworkIhaveto do in correctingyourwork, theloweryourgrade. Thepurposeofrequiring you to submit ahardcopyversion of anearlierdraft is to help you develop thehabit ofeditingand proofreading yourwork on hard copy,whereyouare farmorelikelyto discover errors and omissions. This is askill which willserveyou well inyourother classesandinyourprofessional life.

Format

Papers must betyped, approximatelyfivepages, double-spaced, with oneinch margin all around. Do NOTexceedsixpages. Useblack ink and atwelvepoint (tencharacters per inch)orlarger font; Times New Roman orCG Times arepreferred. Violators will be forced to purchasenew reading glasses fortheinstructor. Do NOT use a cover page or submit your paper in a binder.

ProperStyle

1. Styleis essential andyoursentences should bewritten with an eyetowards clarity. Simplewritingis powerful writing. Avoid floweryprose and limityouruseof adjectives. Thesaurus abusers andcreativewriters will be required to enteratwelve-step program. Usedirectconstruction and avoid subjunctive clauses, which detract fromreadabilityand often result in sentence fragments. A bigmistakeis madebyusingpassivevoice.It is never important (orinteresting)to beginasentencebystating“It is important (or interesting)to note…”Oneuseful tip fordevelopingabetterstyleis to getinto thehabit of readingyourown work aloud so thatyou can listen formeaningandassess each sentence’s natural flow.

2. Avoid longquotes. Chooseonlythoseportions ofapassagethat aremost relevant to yourpoint. A paperthat is largelyconstituted oflongquotations speaks to thestudent’s lack ofown voice and perspective, aswell as adegreeoflaziness.

Block quote anyquotation longerthan two full lines in aseparate paragraph that is indented and single-spaced. Donot placequotation

marksat eitherend ofablock quote, but do include citation in parentheses

at the end (Levin 2012).

3. Use possessivesand plurals properly."It is"is properly abbreviated"it's,"whereas "its"indicates thethird persongenderneutral possessive. Otherwise, anapostropheindicates apossessive, not aplural.

4. Usewords properly.Avoid slangandcontractions (e.g., don’t =do not). Useprecise languagewheneverpossible. “Since”does not mean “because.”“Impact”is not averb unless describingahammerstriking.Ifsomethingaffects somethingelse,it has an effect.

5. Punctuation belongingto aquotebelongs insideofthequotation marks(in the United States). You do not need acommabefore allquotations, although it maybe appropriatein particular instances (seeastylemanual). Theuseof ellipses(...)to begin or endaquoteisdiscouraged.Ifyou areusingparentheticalcitation, end thequote, insert theparentheticalcitation, and finish with aperiod.Ifyouareusingfootnotes, usetheperiod,end quotations marks, then footnote. Punctuation inside quotes is a British, not American, practice; anyone placing punctuation outside of quotations marks must provide a passport from a British Commonwealth country.

Sources and Citation

1. You are encouraged to use outside sources. However, you should only use proper academic sources. Internet only sources are prohibited.This includes not just Wikipedia, but any other internet only source. The University maintains several very expensive and quite useful subscriptions to large article databases (these include JSTOR and ESBSCO) which are reachable through the Marriott Library catalog. Use these resources. They are of much higher quality than what will

2. You areresponsible forprovidingproperattribution wheneveryou usethework or thoughts ofothers. Therearetwo forms of attribution. Whenyou paraphrase another person’sgeneral position but do not usetheirlanguage,you must citetheworkyouare drawingtheseideas from, butyou need not provideapagenumber, i.e. (Levin 2012). Whenyou useanother’swords,your citation must includeapagenumber, i.e. (Levin

2012, 178).All quotes must include the source and page number.

3.Learn propercitation form, it will serveyou well in this and future courses. Most instructors preferparenthetical citation, and thusI recommend APAcitation (explained most fullyin thePublication Manual of theAmerican Psychological Association). For this class,you mayuse anyofthestandardcitation forms such as MLA (The MLA HandbookforWriters of Research Papers), Chicago (TheChicagoManual of Style)or Turabian(KateTurabian,A Manual forWriters ofResearch Papers, Theses, and Dissertations).You can find short styleguides onlinethat will covermost common forms ofmaterial and the full versions in theMarriottLibrary’s Referencesection, at the Universitybookstore, orat such onlinestores at Amazon. It is worthyourwhileto purchaseastyleguide and useit consistently.

4. When citingassigned readings from thetext,you maysimplycitethe authorofthe reading(not theeditorofthetext) and, ifquoting,thepagenumber, i.e. (Hart, 118).

Submission

You must submityourpaperthrough Canvas as well as submittinghard copy. Papers must besubmitted to Canvas bymidnight on theduedate. Papers must have an edited hardcopyversion of an earlierdraft stapled to their back. Yourhardcopyis dueby

5 pm on thedatedue. Myofficeis OSH 210Dandyou can submityourpaper to the box labeled “Levin Papers” in OSH 210 ifyou do not submityourhard copyin class(as isstrongly encouraged).