The Writing Assignments for this course should be written and submitted with the following formatting rules:
1. The essays should be Double-Spaced and written in Times New Roman font with a point size of 12.
2. The top, bottom, left, and right margins should all be the standard 1″ in size.
3. The single-spaced header on the first page should include your Name and Document # from which your analysis is drawn. There is no need for a header on any subsequent page. There is also no need for a Title. Please be aware that if you should decide to include in your submission a Title that this will not be counted towards your minimum length requirement.
4. You will be penalized for any submission that does not meet the stated minimum length requirement.
5. Because of the short length of these assignments, please avoid directly quoting the document unless it is absolutely essential to your argument. Instead, briefly paraphrase the passage(s) and focus instead upon providing your analysis and supporting your argumentation.
6. There is no need to provide a citation for the single document you are analyzing. However, if you have used outside sources beyond the document provided, please include citations using the MLA Format. This will include in-text citations and a Works Cited Page. The Works Cited Page should be on a separate page at the conclusion of your essay and will not count towards the minimum length requirement.Finally, there should be no excuses for attempting to use the ideas and/or words of any of your sources and attempting to pass them off as your own. Plagiarism will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Simply citing your source(s) does not give you permission to copy them word-for-word unless they are being directly quoted and placed in quotation marks. Even attempting to adjust the sentence structure or altering a couple of words in a source will not absolve you of charges of plagiarism. The skill of paraphrasing (or putting a source’s words or ideas into your own words) is not a simple one to acquire. The Purdue OWL provides some helpful hints and exercises to work on this:
The trick with paraphrasing is avoiding the words and phrases of your source(s) as much as possible. Think about what you read and how it makes sense to you and the argument(s) you are trying to make. Next, without the help of the open book or visible website, write the information down in your paper. It will probably not sound as good or be as polished as the original source, but hopefully it will actually be your own thoughts about the chosen topic. The purpose of these Unit Essays is for you to think deeper about a topic of your choosing and provide me with your own thoughts on the matter. Outside research is certainly acceptable..
