In addition to the instructions that you have already been provided about your research paper or project, the following information should further help you meet my expectations.  Remember that your name is affixed to the cover page of the paper/project, reflecting your seal of approval.  It is a reflection of your intellectual capacity, work, and character.  (Clearly, you do not want to embarrass yourself, so make sure you are dedicated to quality.)  

Over the past several semesters, I have noticed a slippage in the modal quality of papers submitted.   Some of these papers were grossly deficient and required an inordinate amount of time to grade.  Students must now sign and attach the sheet at the bottom of this list when they turn in their term papers.

GRADING CRITERIA

A:
1) Superior substance.  Research themes well articulated in the introduction.  Sources documented as needed using appropriate citation methods. Paper/project topic chosen with care and ingenuity.  There are no egregious omission of main issues or points both substantive and currency.   

2) Superior level of integration and logic.  The paper flows naturally and has appropriate transition.  The major points in the paper build on each other and the level of analysis is impeccable.  Strong introduction that lays out the direction of the  paper. The paper does not go off on unimportant tangents.  A strong  conclusion that goes beyond restating the obvious.  I must be able to construct an outline based on the finished paper/project.

3) Superior style.   Correct use of grammar and avoidance of passive voice.  Not written as spoken, but by the use of standard academic writing.  No use of  "feel, believe, I, and can't".  NO SPELLING  ERRORS.  Folders or binders, smudged ink, non-standard margins, fonts, or "cutesy graphics", one page  paragraphs, or papers or projects without clearly defined sections will not be accepted.  All papers/projects must have your name.

4.) Research.   Any paper/project that looks like it was put together at 3:00 am will received its just due.  Sources used must be genuine and not there just to pad the bibliography.  Over reliance on one or a few  sources will be construed as poor research.  (The preceding two sentences apply to all of my classes.)  Plagiarism will result in a zero for the paper, at the minimum or failure in the course.  Use the interlibrary loans services.  A bibliography should have a variety of sources, with the majority NOT from the internet.

B: Somewhat lacking in any one of the above, but the other three elements are carried out very well.

C: Severe shortcoming or absence of one of the four elements. (Majority of papers and projects have customarily been in this range.)

D: Severe shortcomings or absence of two of the four elements.

F: Severe shortcomings or absence of three of the four elements, or a plagiarized paper.

ORGANIZATION FOR PAPERS ONLY
(Projects must follow the topic guidelines in the syllabus)

Although there will be exceptions for various reasons, most papers should be organized somewhat like this:

1. Introduction: Framing of the questions and brief presentation of the solutions and approach you will take to resolve the problem (usually two-three paragraphs maximum).  The first paragraph must inform the reader exactly what the entire paper will consist of and, therefore, will contain the thesis statement.
2. Logical, coherent, and integrated discussion of main points covered in 1. above, including proper transition and flow from one paragraphs/section of the paper to the next.  Nothing more and nothing less, please.  The main points from the introduction become the sections of the paper.
4. Implication(s) of your research.  What is the significance of your findings?  This needs to be drawn from the body of the paper and provides analysis about the broader implications of your research.

CITATIONS

It is inevitable that your paper/project will have citations; well researched papers invariably require documentation.  The number of them depends upon the nature of your paper. The primary purpose of citing sources is to give credit to other authors for their material. Thus, you must cite, in a consistent manner, any material that you report in your paper/project that you obtained from another source unless that material is common knowledge among people reasonably familiar with that topic. For example, it is not necessary to cite information about major election results at national levels or the fact that a particular political party maintains dominance over a political system.  These are common knowledge to people in the field.  However, analysis about a particular election done by experts in the field need citation if they are used in your paper.  Original interpretations of election results, obscure data resulting from archival work or statistical analysis require citation (i.e., parenthetical notation, footnotes, or end notes).  If you paraphrase an original idea, you must give the author credit, however a direct quote requires you to place the verbatim text in parentheses.

Another purpose of citations is to allow the reader to further pursue the topic by reading related research. In addition, footnotes help to establish the credibility of your work by pointing to other authorities in the field. Thus, your sources must be absolutely accurate.  I will read footnotes and examine citations.  Suspicious (fabricated or plagiarized) sources will be investigated.
One of the most widely used source for writing research papers is Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers.  Failure to provide footnotes where necessary constitutes plagiarism because you thereby transmit specific knowledge as though it is your creation.  Academic piracy is a cardinal sin and will result in failure.  (See attached note on plagiarism at the end of this handout.)

If all of your useful sources are reported in footnotes, it is unnecessary to include a bibliography. However, if you utilized sources that were useful to you in adding to your knowledge of the subject, but they are not footnoted, include a bibliography which includes them as well as your footnoted sources. Do not include works in your bibliography that you did not find useful (i.e., do not pad your bibliography).  Furthermore, do not rely excessively or exclusively on a few sources, unless it is a narrowly defined project (i.e., GOVT 100 only).
 

Egregious Plagiarism= a purposive attempt to steal others' work and deceive the professor to maximize your grade.
 

Plagiarism Defined (Adapted and modified from Duke University Writing Program)

Academic communities, demand that writers be credited for their work and their writing. Not to do so is to plagiarize, to intentionally or unintentionally appropriate the ideas, language, key terms, or work of another without sufficient acknowledgment that such material is not one's own. As the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing defines this transgression:

           Scholarly authors generously acknowledge their debts to predecessors by carefully giving credit
           to each source. Whenever you draw on another's work, you must specify what you borrowed
           whether facts, opinions, or quotations and where you borrowed it from. Using another person's
           ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source constitutes plagiarism.
           Derived from the Latin word plagiarius ("kidnapper"), plagiarism refers to a form of
           intellectual theft that has been defined as "the false assumptions of authorship: the wrongful act of
           taking the product of another person's mind, and presenting it as one's own (Alexander Lindey,
           Plagiarism and Originality [New York: Harper, 1952]2). In short, to plagiarize is to give the
           impression that you wrote or thought something that you in fact borrowed from someone, and to
           do so is a violation of professional ethics. (Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Style Manual and Guide to
           Scholarly Publishing. 2nd ed, New York: MLA, 1998: 151)

Plagiarism encompasses a range of errors and violations. Though the charge of plagiarism can be leveled against writers who incorrectly cite or neglect to cite quoted material, it most often tempts students who find themselves in the dire straits of having to complete a written assignment without previously having undertaken the laborious and time-consuming process of research, reading, note taking, interpretation, and analysis. Wholesale copying from sources is an easy way to "fill up the page" and to turn something-anything-in on time.

On occasion, students accused of plagiarism have claimed that their plagiarism has occurred without their knowledge or intent.  Since ignorance of convention and academic rules is not a reasonable defense, it is best to become thoroughly acquainted both with the various ways in which plagiarism is construed, and with the conventions of source attribution and proper documentation.

Plagiarism involving systematic mis-attribution of sources, use of others' ideas and work, paraphrasing of other's ideas by strategically changing a few words or phrases, will qualify you for a failure on the project or paper.
If the final work you submit all of it is not all yours, it does not matter how you came by it. If you use another persons' work to further your own understanding of a subject, you must give that person credit.

You will fail the course if you:

        1.  Copy from published sources (including the internet and news magazines)  without adequate documentation.
        2.  Purchase a pre-written paper (either by mail or electronically).
        3.  Let someone else write a paper for you (including fraternity and sorority files).
        4.  Pay someone else to write a paper for you.
        5.  Submit as your own someone else's unpublished work, either with or without permission.
 
 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

O  Your paper/project must be typed and double-spaced using standard font (12 point), standard margins (1 inch all around), and left justification only (do not use full justification).  ALL PAGES MUST BE NUMBERED.

O Paper is laser printed with no smudges.

O Each paragraph must contain at least three sentences related to the paragraph's thesis sentence.  Each paragraph must fit into the appropriate section.  Remember that each section of the paper flows naturally from the points discussed in your introduction.

O Passive voice less than three per page: important

O A paper/project must have a cover page with the title of the paper, your name, date, and class only.  No cutesey graphics, binders, or other distracting cover pages.

O Paper has sections with subtitles.

O Tables, graphs, and figures can convey much data easier and more clearly than words. Use them where appropriate and        provide a title and number for each one.

O Spell checked and grammar checked.  Do not rely solely on spell check.  

O  Paper read out aloud and reviewed by someone in the class to detect grammatical errors including logic problems and organizational flaws.  Incorporate all necessary changes before you print out your final draft.

O Appropriate bibliography attached with generally accepted style.  No dictionaries, encyclopedias, and general reference books cited.  No text books from class, Daily Star, Press and Sun, Albany Times-Union, US News and World Report, or Newsweek allowed. 

 If your paper DOES NOT ADHERE TO THE ABOVE, DO NOT TURN IT IN.

My paper adheres to the conditions set forth in this check list and I understand that the professor will not read or mark any papers which fail to comply with the spirit of academically acceptable work.  

Signed: __________________________________    Date: ________________________