Time's Harvest, Fall 1997

Essays for AGS 336

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Last updated: 8/27/97

Topics for essays will be distributed in advance of the readings on which the essays are to be based. There will generally be five topics to choose from. Essays are to be 3 to 5 pages double spaced (4 to 6 hand-written), and will be graded according to the following criteria:

1. Content. 40%. At the top of your essay, BEFORE the title, you should indicate which essay this is, and which of the topics (just the topic number is OK) you are addressing. Does your essay answer the questions in the topic? Does your essay show evidence of having read the assignments and applied them to the topic? Have you formulated a consistent point of view towards the topic? It is fine to present several different points of view, but if you change your point of view while you are writing your essay, and you do not realize that this is happening, then your essay will not have a consistent point of view.
   
   Your essay should include detail as well as general points. That makes your point of view convincing. Detail can include:
   * Quotations. (However, an essay that is mainly quotations suggests that you have not thought enough about the topic to have your own point of view.)
   * Specific examples of the potential effects of your general points.
   * Your own opinions and experience, or the experience of other people, for example from current events.
   
   Detail will also make the connection between the general points in the topic and the reader. What are the consequences of your point of view. Why should anyone care? Examples and other detail will convince the reader of the importance of your topic, and will convince me that you understand your topic. If you have not shown me why your essay matters, I will often write, "So What?" at the bottom.
   
   NOTE: You should also show BEFORE the title your name and the essay number. A cover sheet or cover is not necessary.
2. Form. 40%. Title, Intro., Body, Conclusion
   1. Does your Title describe the contents of the essay? "Catchy" titles earn brownie points.
   2. Do you have an identifiable Introduction that describes to a general reader what to expect, serving as a "road map"? By "general reader" I mean someone else besides the instructor. For example, writing that "This essay will answer Question 1" is NOT addressed to a general reader. A general reader might be interested in your topic, but would not be interested that you are completing a specific assignment. A good idea is to pretend that you are writing a magazine or newspaper article.
   3. Does your essay have a Body that is well organized and proceeds from topic to topic without wandering aimlessly around? In complicated cases, it should even keep track for the reader, where in the overall structure we happen to be. Is the body consistent with the Introduction? Do you support general statements with specific examples and/or information? Your main ideas should be broken into separate paragraphs, and any large or sudden transitions should be smoothed over for the reader.
   4. Do you have an identifiable Conclusion that accurately summarizes your essay, as a whole? Does your Conclusion show that you have dealt with the question and give an impression of drawing the essay to a close? Generally, new information or ideas should be in the Body, not the Conclusion, and putting them in the Conclusion indicates that you have not finished thinking out your answer. An exception to this general rule is that you can place the topic in a larger context or demonstrate its larger importance, if this can be done with a single short question or statement.
      
      Many beginning students will write an essay by emptying out what information on the topic is in their heads, and stopping when they have run out of things to write about. This method will not work well for the Time's Harvest essays; they need to be thought out ahead of time, and the writing planned.
      
      Some instructors have described this form as, "First you tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, then you tell 'em, and then you tell 'em what you just told 'em." Another attempt is, "The Introduction says what your point is, the Body proves it, and the Conclusion answers the question 'So what?'".
3. Mechanics. 20%. This refers to punctuation, spelling, and grammar. The remarks below are not a complete guide to good mechanics, but do point out some of the most common problems.
   1. Punctuation. A complete sentence has as a minimum a subject and a verb, (or an action and actor), expresses a complete thought, and has no missing references. For example, "John ran" and "John ran to the store" are both complete sentences, but "John ran to" is not (missing reference - where is John running?).
      
      The punctuation marks ",;:." indicate progressively higher levels of separation between sentence elements, and are used as follows:
      
      ",". Separates parts of a sentence that would be incomplete by themselves, in order to make the logical structure of the sentence clear. The comma is used, for example, to set off an explanatory phrase, or to separate items in a list.
      
      ";". Indicates a higher level of separation than the comma. For example, if the items in a list have internal commas, then ";" may is used to separate the items. Further, a semicolon is used to separate items in a parallel construction: "A's are good; E's, bad." It can also be used to connect two complete sentences, if the second is subordinate to the first: "The grades in this course were high; I got an A."
      
      ":". This is only used to join complete sentences or to signify the beginning of a list.
      
      ".". Ends a sentence. Whatever follows must be a complete sentence since it is not joined to the preceding sentence.
      
      The apostrophe (') indicates possession; it is only rarely used to make a word plural. Normally, a word is made plural by the simple addition of an "s".
   2. Spelling. Some common mistakes: (a) not using the right one of the "three two's" (to, too, two), and (b) there is no "e" at the end of "develop" (this one seems to be common in Michigan, for some reason!). If an abbreviation is specific to your job, or is not common, it should be explained the first time it is used (similarly, a technical term or jargon word should be explained at the first use). In general, use a dictionary to check your spelling.
   3. Grammar. The most common problem is a verb (the action) that does not agree with the subject (the actor). For example, "it means", not "it mean" ("it" refers to one thing, "mean" to two or more, while "means" is the singular form). Other common problems are changing tense (past, present, future) or person (I, you, them) within a sentence or connected sequence of sentences; and breaking off a phrase into a separate sentence that does not have both a subject and verb. This last practice CAN be acceptable if the intention is to emphasize the second phrase or to emphasize that there are several examples of a major point. A common example goes, "This author (or instructor?) goes on. And on. And on." Generally, you should not break the rules in such a creative manner, unless the rest of your essay shows that you know how to use them. Help for problems with grammar can be gotten by buying Keys to American English by Richard Raspa et al, published by Harcourt-Brace. The University Bookstore carries this; any bookstore should be willing to order it for you.
   (I will not require a specific format for references or footnotes. References can be put "in line" in the normal body, and do not need to be collected at the bottom of the page. A suitable reference is "As Toffler writes in The Third Wave ...". To be more specific, include the page or chapter number in a similar manner.)

PLAGIARISM:

In academic work, plagiarism is treated as a serious breaking of the rules. Plagiarism basically means passing off someone else's work as your own. It does not matter whether this is done on purpose or by accident, by commission or omission, from one source or from many sources; it is still plagiarism, and it is still serious. The most obvious form of plagiarism is "copying" - using another author's words, without a hint that they are not yours. Changing one or two words in a sentence still results in plagiarism. On the other hand, using quotation marks and a reference to the source is OK, since you are not passing off the work as yours. Such references can even add to an impression that you have read the assignments! References to opinions can also be used to strengthen your arguments, since a reference makes clear that someone else feels the same way that you do.

Work that contains plagiarism will be returned without being graded. In order to receive credit for the assignment, another topic must be chosen, and the essay completely rewritten. The assignment will also be counted as late, which will limit the grade that it can receive. Note that at the end of the course, there may not be enough time to rewrite an essay, or even to notify you, before grades are due. Therefore, plagiarism near the end of the semester can have a particularly serious effect on your grade.

If you have any doubt about what plagiarism is, make sure to ask the instructor. To be safe, make sure that you give credit to any authors you borrow from.