DUE BY MIDNIGHT BY EMAIL on NOVEMBER 21, 2017
Please hand in a final draft of your research paper. It must be
- 1,800-2,500 words (If possible, avoid single-space writing. 1.5 spacing is perfect)
- Include at least four outside resources-- how you choose to use these sources is up to you. You don't have to integrate all of them as quotes. They can be footnoted or just in the bibliography. But there must be at least four sources consulted for the paper.
- Citations must follow Chicago Manual of Style
- An introduction that lays out the problem/tension that interests you, and a complex argument
- Writing that is simple and elegant and free of errors.
- PLEASE NOTE: Up until this point, I did not consider grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. In this draft, all of that matters.
Total Labor: ~6-10 hours (but will vary)
I have taken out specific details about the introduction, body, and conclusion, since they do not apply to place papers. If you are not writing a place paper, then revisit the old instructions for Final Paper 1 for guidelines on these three core parts of a paper.
- (5 MINUTES): Read this document all the way through.
- (10 MINUTES) Review your notes from the peer review and/or discussions with me and/or thoughts you've had. Make a short list of specific elements you are going to make sure you check for at the end of your writing process.
- (1 MINUTES) Open a blank document. This doesn’t mean that you have to write everything from scratch. You can copy and paste parts of your paper draft that you think are strong, but you should begin with a blank page.
- Okay, I am not assigning labor times for the next three parts, because your times will vary depending on what you focused on for your draft. You should be logging the time in your labor log. You may want to write how long it takes you to work on the introduction, body, and conclusion separately for future reference— especially those of you who are interested in careers or classes that will require writing. The more you know about your writing practices, the better you can manage your time.
- You should note that introductions and/or openings often take a long time to write, and they are well worth the investment. If you can get your introduction to be just right— specific, focused, and interesting— then you will have a much smoother writing process for the rest of the paper. For papers not on place: Remember, the introduction serves as a map for the paper. Often, I will have a strong sense of what kind of problems the paper will have just by reading the introduction.
I have taken out specific details about the introduction, body, and conclusion, since they do not apply to place papers. If you are not writing a place paper, then revisit the old instructions for Final Paper 1 for guidelines on these three core parts of a paper.
- INTRODUCTION
- BODY
- CONCLUSION
- (30 MINUTES) FOOTNOTE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES
- Go back and make sure EVERY point you have borrowed is properly cited. I should be able to find the book you’ve used, turn to the page, and see the exact quote as you have cited it. I will do this if something sounds off.
- It’s not a quote, but you’ve paraphrased something you learned from a book, an article, or even a peer in class? That should also be cited!
- Double check your citations— footnote and bibliography. Are they following Chicago Manual of Style guidelines? Is your bibliography alphabetized. Is the second line indented?
- Don't forget, bibliographies should include EVERYTHING you consulted for the paper. All the books and article you read, even if you didn't quote from the or cite them in your footnotes, should still be in your bibliography.
- (45-60 MINUTES) EDITING AND REVISIONS. Print your paper, and spend 45 minutes editing and revising. If you cannot print it, then try to change the background color and font while editing. This will make the document less familiar, so you can catch more of your errors.
- Read through the piece and do a basic line edit. Look for blatant errors: fragments, run-ons, misplaced commas, mistakes in punctuation, and correct them.
- If you're not writing a place paper: Focus on your thesis. Are all the words in it specific.
- If you're writing a place, ask yourself: Is this still a research paper? Are my anecdotal portions elegant and well-crafted? It shouldn't read like you're telling a friend a story. It should read like Teju Cole's well-crafted, deliberate, meditative essay.
- Now read the paper backwards from the last sentence to the first sentence. Do any of the sentences sound confusing? Mark them so you can edit them at your computer.
- Go back and read the first sentence of each paragraph. Is it a good map of your paper? Go back and read the topic sentences of the excerpt from my M.A. dissertation that I have given you. Are your topic sentences building and flowing in the same way.
- Do you notice places where your quotes are integrated in sloppy or uninteresting ways. Mark them.
- Focus on your citations. Are your footnotes outside of quotation marks? Is your punctuation inside of the quotation mark?
- What about your title? Is your title interesting? Does it have the necessary keywords that your paper is engaging. Papers without titles or with vague titles are like introductions that lack specificity— they suggest that you don’t quite know what you’re talking about yet.
- (10) FINAL REVISION & EMAIL
- Make sure you've met all the qualifications, which are listed at the top of this document.
- Email it to me!