PLSI 467 Research Paper Guidelines

The paper: In a short paper of five to seven pages you’ll have just enough room to do the assignment. This means that your essays should be focused. Resist the common tendency to include too much. Be sure your paper contains

- an introduction

- a clear thesis, stated early

- responses to all of the questions in the assignment

- evidence of critical and careful thinking

- a conclusion that resolves your discussion and recaps your main points

Five references: Please think about the topic, do some reading, and develop your own stance on the question. As you make your case in the paper, support your argument with outside material. Your paper must contain at least five cites from scholarly works (peer-reviewed journals or books). If you have any questions about this, contact me. Some sources that do not meet this requirement are:

- newspapers and magazines

- popular books that are not academic in nature

- simply citing a URL from the internet

A good place to begin a search of peer-reviewed journal articles on your topic is JSTOR, an internet data base available on campus through the library web pages.

Citation style: Proper citation is an absolute must. Either APA or MLA parenthetical style is acceptable. Consult a writing manual for these guidelines. I cannot stress enough the importance of accurate and appropriate use of cited references. Before you write your paper, review the statement on plagiarism in the course syllabus. Again, if you have any questions, talk to me. You can fail the paper by not citing your references appropriately.

The Center for the Enhancement of Teaching on campus provides a useful resource for writing papers, including links to APA and MLA writing style manuals. Go to

http://www.cet.sfsu.edu/academicintegrity/index.htm

Links to the style manuals are in the bottom right corner labeled, Writing Tools, General Writing Support.

Writing style: You will be graded on the quality of writing as well as the substance. This includes grammar, punctuation, sentence and paragraph structure, spelling, etc. In addition, please

- use a title page (and please title your paper)

- do not use binders; simply staple the upper left corner

- put your name on the title page only

- include a "works cited" or "references" page

- keep your papers within the required range, and use normal-sized fonts and margins

- use either double-space or space-and-a-half line spacing for the text of the paper

Due date: The papers are due November 25^th at the beginning of class. Late papers will be marked down one increment for each day they are late (e.g., a B paper handed in one day late will be graded a B-).

If you have questions about your topic, contact me. Good luck. I look forward to reading your papers and hearing your thoughts on these topics.