Comments on Treatments</HEAD> <BODY> <H2>Comments on treatments</H2> <UL> <LI>Save paper: all on fewest possible pages. And staple multiple pages. <LI>Each treatment is a single paragraph (i.e. no blank line between the separate sentences) <LI>Make sure to use the "treatment form", i.e. the five-sentence format for the treatments, where each sentence has a specific role. <LI>Do citations correctly (download the MLA style sheet), making sure to include full bibliographic information above each writing. <li>Do not assume that your reader has already read the paper for which you are writing a treatment. Think of your treatment as something another student might read in order to determine if they are interested in reading the full paper. <LI>In sentences 1 and 2, focus on the authors' beliefs and ideas, as opposed to providing outlines of what the authors discuss or intend. <blockquote> <em>The Digital Dilemma</em> is a report generated by the National Academy of Sciences which explores the complexities in copyright law that have arisen as a result of information being so easily distributed via the Internet </blockquote> <P>Rather, state what the author <EM>believes</EM>, i.e. the author's main point or thesis. <blockquote> In <em>The Digital Dilemma</em> The National Research Council Committee on Intellectual Property Rights believes that there is an emerging dilemma to provide incentives to create digitally-encoded information in a world in which a single digital copy can be distributed worldwide across the Internet at virtually no cost. </blockquote> <BLOCKQUOTE>Another important point of the authors is that reducing Internet piracy will require policy responses that enable content holders a fair return that only minimally exceeds the low distribution costs that the Internet enables. </BLOCKQUOTE> <LI>In sentence 1 and 2, go for the key points, not just true things or secondary points. For example, the following sentence, though true, does not focus on the main point. <BLOCKQUOTE> In "The Digitial Dilemma: Executive Summary", it is obvious that the Committee on Intellectual Property of the NRC believes that licensing of digital media should be increasingly pursued as a policy option. </blockquote> <BLOCKQUOTE> It is also interesting that although the Committee provides guidelines for formulating the laws and policies regarding this, they warn policy makers to use the "utmost care." </BLOCKQUOTE> <LI>Avoid giving more than one point in sentence 1 and 2: <BLOCKQUOTE>In ... The Committee on Intellectual Property obviously believes that ... as well as ... </BLOCKQUOTE> <li>Distinguish the ideas of the first two sentences. Avoid having these two sentences be two different ways of saying the same thing, or a generic and then a more detailed or specific way of saying the same thing. The example here is essentially making the same point twice: <BLOCKQUOTE>The obvious content of this article is the discussion of Intellectual Property rights and infringement. A significant idea which is conveyed by this article is the need for policy decisions to be made concerning Intellectual Property rights and legitimate usage by the people. </BLOCKQUOTE> <LI>Make sure to support the less obvious idea with sentence 3 by getting at the <em>main argument of support</em> as in the following: <BLOCKQUOTE>Another important point of the authors is that it is important to consider alternatives to <em>copy</em> as a basis for copyright law. They support this by arguing that the US Constitution indicates that the purpose of copyright is to "promote the progress of science and the useful arts" and hence that copyright might need to be redefined when the costs of making and distributing copies approaches zero. </BLOCKQUOTE> <LI>In sentence 4, avoid stating " ... in order for the reader to understand his point." or anything similar. This is because we always assume that the writer is writing in order for the reader to understand; therefore we need not say this. <LI>Vagueness, especially in sentence 4, makes writing leaden and dull, and doesn't provide the reader with useful information. Contrast the following two sentences: <BLOCKQUOTE> The authors provide both conclusions and recommendations on diverse issues. </BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE> The authors interleave conclusions and recommendations throughout the entire chapter on issues as diverse as public access, licensing, archiving, fair use, technical protection tools, and alternative business models. </BLOCKQUOTE> Also, consider using examples to provide more depth: <BLOCKQUOTE> Throughout the chapter, the authors interleave conclusions (e.g. "When commercial enterprises add value to basic data, the resulting products deserve copyright protection insofar as these products otherwise satisfy the legal requirements for copyright.") and recommendations (e.g. "Congress should enact legislation to permit copying of digital information for archival purposes") on issues as diverse as public access, licensing, archiving, fair use, technical protection tools, and alternative business models. </BLOCKQUOTE> <LI>The difference between sentence 3 and sentence 4 is that sentence 3 concerns <EM>what</EM> the author says in support of sentence 2 (as in the example above) whereas sentence 4 describes <EM>how</EM> the author writes the paper in order to meet the paper's goals (as in the example above). <LI>Avoid describing the audience's characteristics: <BLOCKQUOTE>One target audience consists of all people who might have an interest in philosophical issues </BLOCKQUOTE> <p>Also avoid overly broad audiences: <BLOCKQUOTE> One audience is the general public...<br> One audience is anyone interested in this topic.<br> The intended audience for this report are the world's policy makers. </BLOCKQUOTE> <p>Instead, name a specific audience: <BLOCKQUOTE> One audience consists of public policy analysists ...</BLOCKQUOTE> <p>However, do not choose an audience who would not plausibly be reading this paper. E.g., legislators and politicians (who might benefit from some of these readings) don't usually read philosophy treatises or student textbooks. So, make sure that you choose an audience whom the author was actually writing for. <LI>Provide a brief rationale (reason why) for audience in sentence 5. <BLOCKQUOTE>One audience consists of public policy analysts, since the mandate of the National Research Council provided in the "National Academies Statement" includes a role in "advising the federal government."</BLOCKQUOTE> </UL> </BODY> </HTML>