Description

Paper Assignment

Rough draft due October 21st   

Final draft due November 2nd

Paper Assignment:  Your final paper will be approx. 10 – 15 pages double spaced. (In 12 point font that is approx.. 2500 – 4000 words).  There is no specific page requirement for the rough draft, but the more complete your rough draft, the easier it will be to write a good final paper because I can basically tell you how to write a good paper from a fairly complete rough draft.

There are 3 different paper topics.  You will end up writing on only 1 of these topics.  Each topic has certain aspects that are intentionally (and unintentionally) left vague.  If you think some of these details are important, you are free in your paper to discuss why.  Also your audience for the paper is the instructor of the class so no problem with (correctly) using technical terms (marginal, etc.)

You must have a bibliography and cite at least 4 sources, only 1 of which can be the textbook.  Use the APA style for footnotes and bibliography.  (For more information, see https://apastyle.apa.org/ as discussed in class)  Regardless of which topic you end up working on, your work will be judged by the following standards (In order of importance):

1. Quality of reasoning.   Do you sound like an economist?  Are your arguments using sound economic priciples and reasoning?

2.  Quality of your research.  Have you found any data that could shed light on one or more of these issues?  Have you found authoritatives sources who can support and add insight to your reasoning.

3.  Quality of writing.  Is your grammar and punctuation correct?  Are your ideas being coveyed clearly will appropriate vocabulary and usage?  Have you followed correct APA style? 

4.  Breadth of coverage and following directions.  Have you talked about all the relevant issues?  Did you, to some extent, address all of the changes mentioned. Have you met the length requirements?

Rough draft and Peer review:  On rough drafts, but sure your name appears only at the beginning of the first page or just in the subject line of the email and nowhere in the document. The name will be deleted in the copy sent to the other students for evaluation.  Obviously grades for the rought draft cannot be based on quality.  The whole point of a rough draft is that it is not a final product.  As mentioned early, the biggest reason to take the rough draft submission seriously is so you can get spedific feedback on your final paper.  With that in mind, students who submit short, very incomplete rough drafts will not receive full credit for their rough draft submission.

Peer review:  You will get another students rough draft sometime October 21st.  Your evaluation of that rough draft will be due October 26th.  For grades on the peer review, there is the issue of the quality of the rough draft you are evaluating.  Specifically, some people will be given a rough draft that is quite complete with lots of material to critique, while others may be given something much shorter.  For those of you in the latter position, I would say that your grade on the peer review will be more heavily based on the suggestions you give about additional work, rather than the analysis of what is there.  For people in the former situation, the weights will be reversed.  If you submit your rough draft after 10/2, you can still receive credit and a critique for you rough draft, but will lose the points associated with the peer review assignment.

Because of the peer review of the rough drafts, I cannot have more than ½ of you doing the same topic.  So I’m asking you to do the following.  In the email with this assignment, or with this assignment on Canvas, is an Excel file that asks you to rank your preferences for each topic, with 1 being the options you would most prefer, 3 being the least, and 2 in the middle.  It would also be acceptable to have two tie for first so your rankings would be 1, 1, 3. However, don’t rank 1, 3, 3.   Fill out this form and email me a copy.  I need that by Friday 10/2 at 7am. I will email you which topic you have been assigned by class that day .  If I don’t receive anything from you by Friday morning, I will assign you the least popular topic.  So there is no grade penalty for not turning in this ranking.  If more than ½ the class choose the same topic as their 1st choice, the people with the highest total score on the first 3 HW’s will be given preference.  Also, if after doing some preliminary work, you decide you want to change topics, that will be allowed as long as less than ½ the class have the topic you want to change to or you find a person to exchange topics with.  If you submit your rough draft after 10/2, you can still receive credit for you rough draft, but will lose the points associated with the peer review assignment.