Prof.
Ter Ellingson 50
Music
GUIDELINES FOR TERM PAPERS
All students registered for this course must complete a term paper by the due date and time specified in the syllabus. Paper topics must be discussed with the professor by midterm (5th week of classes).
Papers must have a main topic that includes an issue or problem to be investigated, using data from published sources and/or field research. All sources used must be listed at the end of the paper in a Bibliography or References Cited section; and all data from these sources must be cited as it is used at various places in the paper. All data used in the paper must be adequately cited, including sources used to formulate the issue or problem as well as sources of descriptive data, and including paraphrased material as well as material quoted directly. Failure to cite material from other sources constitutes plagiarism, and will result in automatically failing the course.
Papers must be written in English and computer printed on clean white 8 ˝ x 11 paper, double-spaced, with margins wide enough to write comments (minimum 1” top and bottom; 1.25” left and right). Use standard proportional fonts (Times New Roman, etc.), 11-12 point, and left-aligned rather than justified formatting for easy legibility. All pages must have page numbers, since without them, it may be impossible to comment clearly on the paper’s organization. To avoid damage or loss in handling, papers must be stapled, not paper-clipped or mounted in a special binder. To ensure proper credit for your work, each paper must have a title, the course number, the name of the course, the quarter and year, and the student’s name and student number at the beginning, either at the top of page 1 or on a separate title page.
Papers lacking in any of these aspects may be returned to the student for correction. Please check carefully before turning in paper; if corrections have to be made after the quarter has ended, final grading will have to fit into next quarter’s work calendar, which may result in long delays!
Term papers are a foundation of university life, and no
syllabus can give more than a brief introduction to what is expected for a
professional-quality paper. If you have never done so, you should check one of
the standard guides for writers of term papers, such as Kate L. Turabian's
book, A Manual for Writers of Term
Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Chicago :
University of Chicago Press, 1987). Also, if you haven’t had much practice
working on your writing style in college, an excellent source of help is The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White (Boston : Allyn and Bacon, 2000).
A term paper is an independent writing project in an advanced, upper-level course that supplements or takes the place of the one-size-fits-all exam in a lower-level, more basic course. Like the exam, it allows you to show how well you have understood the lecture material, readings, and theoretical, philosophical, and methodological issues covered in the course. Unlike the exam, it takes you beyond a generic “test” of these matters into an individual creative application of them to a new area of inquiry, explored in greater depth than the exam allows.
Term papers vary in nature according to their discipline. In
academic disciplines such as
ethnomusicology, anthropology, international studies, history, political
science, comparative religion, comparative literature, comparative history of
ideas, and many others in the humanities and the social sciences, term papers
are research papers involving some
combination of library/archival research,
exploring documentary sources relevant to the course and the student’s
discipline, and/or field research
involving face-to-face interactions with members of a given community, but
still interpreted in terms of issues raised in written sources relevant to the
course and the student’s discipline. Both library and field research papers
ultimately succeed or fail based not only on well-planned and clearly-presented
research and writing, but also on their authors’ commitment to respect for, and
dialogue with, three discursive communities:
1) other members of the class, engaged
in different ways with its subjects, themes and issues;
2) the student’s own major disciplinary
community, with its special concerns and discourses; and
3) the community of human subjects whose
lives and ideas are the focus of the paper.
In some artistic disciplines, term paper-like written essays or other class projects may be based on personal experience and self-expression rather than on research and dialogue with others. Those who wish to produce such expressions should consider taking courses in the appropriate artistic, rather than academic, disciplines, where their expressive projects can receive appropriate guidance and evaluation. Of course, students may take the academic course for an introduction to the subject matter, writing an academic research paper as part of the process, and then later incorporate material from the course into an artistic or expressive project, if desired.
For further information and guidelines, see the following
section of Information for Students in Jackson School of International Studies
courses.
INFORMATION
FOR STUDENTS*
Plagiarism is defined as the use of creations, ideas or
words of publicly available work without formally acknowledging the author or
source through appropriate use of quotation marks, references, and the like.
Plagiarizing is presenting someone else's work as one's own original work or
thought. This constitutes plagiarism whether
it is intentional or unintentional. The
An incomplete is given only when the student has been in attendance and has done satisfactory work until within two weeks of the end of the quarter and has furnished proof satisfactory to the instructor that the work cannot be completed because of illness or other circumstances beyond the student's control. (Source: UW General Catalog 2000-2002, p. 25.)
A student who believes he or she has been improperly graded
must first discuss the matter with the instructor. If the student is not satisfied with the
instructor's explanation, the student may submit a written appeal to the
director of the
If you have any concerns about a
If you have any concerns about a teaching assistant, please see the teaching assistant about these concerns as soon as possible. If you are not comfortable talking with the teaching assistant or not satisfied with the response that you receive, you may contact the instructor in charge of the course. If you are still not satisfied with the response that you receive, you may contact the chair of the program offering the course (names available from the Office of Student Services, Thomson Hall 111), or the Graduate School at 200 Gerberding Hall (543-5900).
For your reference, these procedures are posted on a
The
The
Sexual harassment is defined as the use of one's authority or power, either explicitly or implicitly, to coerce another into unwanted sexual relations or to punish another for his or her refusal, or as the creation by a member of the University community of an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or educational environment through verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
If you believe that you are being harassed, seek help-the
earlier the better. You may speak with
your instructor, your teaching assistant, the better. You may speak with your instructor, your
teaching assistant, the director of student services (111 Thomson), or the
director of the
The Office of Scholarly Integrity is housed in the
* Adapted from material prepared by the UW Department of History and used with permission.