Paper Guidelines

Moses Lake Land and Irrigation Company land, 1911 (University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, CUR883)

Please follow the following guidelines when writing papers for this class:

• Your papers should have a thesis or argument, supported throughout the paper by the effective use of evidence.

• Your papers should have an introduction, where you define your thesis, and a logical organization that flows from the thesis.

• All papers must be typed double space with standard margins and fonts.

• All ideas and evidence that are not your own should be footnoted.  I prefer the Chicago Manual of Style format for citations.  The following website offers a good summary of this citation format http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChicago.html   

• Use of ideas or material that is not your own constitutes plagiarism and will result in a grade of 0.0 for the assignment and the course.

• Check your papers for grammatical mistakes, typos, and spelling.  The effectiveness and clarity of your writing will be a significant factor in the grades you get for papers. 

• Avoid the passive voice.

• Quotes should be used sparingly and ideally only from primary sources.  Avoid long "block" quotes.

• Good resources for writing papers include William Strunk and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style, Patricia T. O'Conner’s Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, and Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.

• It is the student’s responsibility to keep an electronic copy of all papers submitted to me.

• I do not accept papers via e-mail. 

• Late papers will be penalized .5 per day late (including weekends).  If you have a legitimate problem completing a paper on time I tend to be much more sympathetic if you let me know before the paper is due. 

• Once papers and exams are handed back to you, if you are unhappy with your grade come and see me during my office hours.  Please write up the reasons you disagree with my assessment of your work before you come to talk with me.