CMNS 323 Term Paper

CMNS 323 Term Paper

Final Term Paper

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• Points25

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Final Paper (25%)

Length: approximately 10 pages (double-spaced, 1-inch margins, standard font, not including title page, etc.)

Papers shorter than 10 pages of prose will be penalized accordingly

By the final weeks of the course (sometime around week 11), your research should be complete and you should be focusing on editing and revising your paper. Think carefully about the overall structure and argumentative strategy of your paper. More is not necessarily better. In fact, as you’re moving toward completion, you should be thinking about how you can focus more and cut down some of the prose in your paper in order maximize the rhetorical impact of the argument you are trying to make.
Points of Focus:
Additional issues to consider when preparing your final drafts include:

• Introduction:All essays should have an introduction which serves three functions: first, describe your topic as clearly and precisely as possible; second, offer a concise thesis statement and third, provide a brief ‘roadmap’ of the major components of your essay as a guide for your reader.
• Development of structure: All essays should have a developmental logic: in other words, there should be a continuity or logical relationship between paragraphs and major sections.
• Paragraphs:Each paragraph should be coherently organized around a single theme or idea, rather than an arbitrary collection of disconnected sentences. Paragraph length may vary widely ranging from 4-5 sentences to over a page.
• Visual Aids:visual components and exhibits can be an invaluable part of persuasion and are often overlooked in student writing. They are an extremely economical way to convey meaning to your reader and support your arguments. Students may wish to consider creating visual aids such as diagrams, infographics, or including pictures of relevant supporting material. But don’t let visuals distract from or overshadow your prose.
• Editing:A thorough proofreading of your essay in which you check not only for spelling and grammatical mistakes but also coherence and clarity of expression is essential. Preparing a good essay requires multiple drafts in which you polish your writing and ideas with a series of careful edits. Getting help from a classmate or even someone outside the course is really useful at this stage. Have someone read your paper aloud while you read along or have your computer read your essay to you. You’d me amazed how many improvements you’ll find that way.
• Title page:All longer essays should have a title clearly displayed at the top of the first page with your name and student number. Use standard APA, MLA or Chicago format.
• Bibliography:All sources used in the essay should be properly cited in the text and included in a properly formatted bibliography. You may use any of the accepted academic styles such as APA, MLA or Chicago. For more information on these styles, see http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/writing and select ‘writing guides’.
• Plagiarism:The website listed above also contains information on Simon Fraser University’s policies on plagiarism. Plagiarism is a severe offense and it will be dealt with strictly. It is your responsibility to inform yourself as to what constitutes plagiarism. If you have any questions about this, please discuss it with myself or your TA before handing in your paper. Please keep all of your ‘rough’ work in the rare event that questions are raised about the authenticity of your paper.
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Submission: Please do not submit papers through email. Always upload them to Canvas and hand in hard copy.

Rubric

Final Paper Rubric used by Sibo

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