BIS 490B (LN 11313)

Senior Seminar:

Toni Morrison's Beloved in Cultural Context 

David S. Goldstein, Ph.D.

Spring 2009   

Research Essay Assignment

First posted version is due at 5:30 p.m sharp on Wednesday, April 29Revised posted version is due at 5:30 p.m. sharp on Wednesday, May 13Final posted version is due at 5:30 p.m. sharp on Wednesday, May 27

Here are the details of the research-based essay assignment, in which you are to describe in detail how one of the artifacts you posted to your group's wiki relates to Toni Morrison's Beloved .

FIRST POSTED VERSION OF ESSAY

The posted version of your paper must be as complete and polished as you can make it.  Please do not post a rough draft.

I have posted an example of a very good research paper, and an example of a paper in MLA format, in the Course Documents area of Blackboard.

• The essay must be a Microsoft Word document of 1000 to 1250 words (according to the word count tool in Microsoft Word), not counting the Works Cited page.
• You must cite at least two articles from peer-reviewed, scholarly journals.  (See Leslie Bussert's research guide at http://library.uwb.edu/guides/bis490goldstein/ for assistance.)
• The essay must follow MLA style.
• See "Formatting Details" below for further instructions.
• Please save your document as a Word 2003-compatible file, and use your last name and the word Essay as the file name (e.g., SimpsonEssay).
• Post this essay in your group's Group Pages discussion board in Blackboard no later than 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29.

REVISED POSTED VERSION OF ESSAY

• Each member of your group must post on your group's Group Pages discussion board in Blackboard a revised version of your essay by 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13.  I will provide my own comments and suggestions for revision within one week of the date on which you post this version of your paper.
• Name the file with your last name and the phrase EssayRevised (e.g., SimpsonEssayRevised).

FINAL POSTED VERSION OF ESSAY

• Each member of your group must post on your group's Group Pages discussion board in Blackboard a final version of your essay by 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27.  This is the version of your essay that will be graded.
• Name the file with your last name and the phrase EssayFinal (e.g., SimpsonEssayFinal).

FORMATTING DETAILS (APPLY TO ALL VERSIONS OF THE ESSAY)

I recommend that you ignore these formatting details until after you have written your first complete draft.

• As a formal piece of university writing, your essay should be typed and double-spaced throughout, using a standard font (like Times) in 12-point size, and with margins of one inch all the way around each page.
• In the top, left-hand corner of the first page, place a heading that includes (using one line per item) your name, the course number (BIS 490B), the date, and my name (Prof. David S. Goldstein). (See item #20 in "Tips for Better Prose"; a link appears below.)
• Provide a meaningful but brief title for your paper (not "Essay" but rather a short hint of your paper's main idea) that is centered just one double space beneath the heading on the first page and in plain type (no underlining, bold, italics, or quotation marks). (See item #22 in "Tips for Better Prose.")
• The body of your essay, beginning with an indented paragraph, should start exactly one double space beneath the title. In other words, there should be one blank line between the bottom of your heading and the title, and then one blank line between the title and the first line of your essay's body.
• Just before you post your paper, do a final word count (in the Tools pull-down menu of Microsoft Word) to make sure you are within the stated word count requirements. (If you are not, then please edit appropriately.)
• Please do not use a cover page, footnotes, or endnotes. Instead, use in-text citations in MLA format.
• Provide, in the same document, a complete and properly formatted Works Cited page.
• If you wish to quote, do so only after reading Becky Reed's document, "Using Direct Quotation" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Quotation.html>. If you paraphrase or quote one of the authors about whom you are writing, you can provide just a page number if it is obvious whom you are citing (such as when you refer to an author in the text of your sentence). Be sure you cite correctly according to MLA format.
• Before you submit your paper, but after getting close to a postable version, do some careful editing and proofreading. (I recommend that you wait until you get your ideas organized and on paper before worrying about the less-important mechanics of prose.)
• Because all teachers have their own idiosyncratic preferences for writing, you should review what mine are by referring to "Tips for Better Prose" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Prose.html >. Reading this document is a required part of the assignment.
• After you post the paper that you revised based on your peers' feedback, I will read it.  If I think your paper is at least a middle draft, then when I return your paper to you, I will indicate patterns of problems that I noticed in your paper, using a list of codes such as "T1," "T2," and so forth, which refer to the numbered items of the "Tips for Better Prose" document. Of course, it would be better for you and for me if you pay close attention to the document so you can avoid some of the mechanical errors that I commonly find in student (and even professional) writing, rather than have them pointed out to you afterward. I recommend printing that document, and, after you finish writing your paper, check the items off one by one to make sure your paper is as mechanically sound as you can make it. Although the mechanics of writing are less important to me than the ideas expressed, the mechanics inevitably improve the effectiveness of your communication of ideas, which, after all, is your ultimate goal with each piece of writing that you do.

Needless to say, your work must be entirely original. Using another person's ideas or words without proper attribution, whether intentional or accidental, constitutes plagiarism, and will result in a zero on this assignment. Please re-read "Maintaining Academic Integrity" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Integrity.html>.

To post your paper electronically, carefully follow these instructions exactly:

1. You must have an electronic copy of your paper on the computer that you use to submit the paper electronically. That means the paper needs to be a Microsoft Word document located on your computer's hard drive (if you have Internet access at home or work) or on a floppy disk, flash drive, or Zip disk that can be inserted into a computer on campus. Allow time for that. (If you do not own Microsoft Word, you can purchase a deeply discounted copy through ASUWB at the UWB cashier's office or else use one of the campus computer labs.)  You must save your document as a Microsoft Word document. Even if you use Microsoft Word to write your paper, you have to make sure that you don't save it as a Rich Text Format (.rtf) or other format, but instead make sure it is saved as a a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx ) document. To make sure it is saved as a Word document, choose "Save As" in the pull-down File menu. Where it says, "Save File as Type:" choose "Microsoft Word document."
2. Name your Word file exactly in the format specified for each version of your paper
   1. First posted version: LastnameEssay. For example, if you name were Mary Husky, your filename would be HuskyEssay . Your file name cannot have a space in it.
   2. Revised posted version: LastnameEssayRevised. For example, if you name were Mary Husky, your filename would be HuskyEssayRevised . Your file name cannot have a space in it.
   3. Final posted version: LastnameEssayFinal. For example, if you name were Mary Husky, your filename would be HuskyEssayFinal . Your file name cannot have a space in it.
3. Be sure to allow some time for unforeseen problems. I recommend trying to finish your paper at least a day or two early.

Peer Critiques: I will post in Blackboard the instructions and questionnaires for conducting peer critiques. They will be due to your groupmates in class at 5:45 p.m. sharp on Wednesday, May 6.

Criteria for grading essay versions: Please carefully read "Criteria for Assessing Writing" at < http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/WritingAssess.html> for an explanation of my assessment criteria. In addition to substantive comments on your revised version, I also will designate it as "early draft" (E), "middle draft" (M), or "late draft" (L).  Your final version will be graded according to the research paper rubric provided on the "Criteria for Assessing Writing" page cited earlier in this paragraph.

The research essay assignment is worth 40 percent of your final course grade.

• I do not have time to read rough drafts, but I am very glad to discuss your paper as you work on it. You would be wise to visit me during office hours (see syllabus) to make sure you are on the right track, to see whether your paper makes sense to me, and to get advice about any particular difficulties you might be encountering.
• Re-read this assignment sheet just before posting each submission version of your paper to make sure it meets all of the requirements.
• Visit the Writing Center (see <http://www.uwb/WritingCenter/>) as many times as you can to help you build confidence in your writing process.

This page last updated March 28, 2009.

Back to BIS 490B Gateway