Your paper will be judged on the following criteria:
1. Is it well organized? Does the argument begin with a clear statement of your position, a logical development of the evidence, and a strong conclusion grounded in that evidence? Is it persuasive?2. Is it aggressively researched? Have you collected and used the best and most reliable empirical evidence? Does your research yield the conclusions you offer?3. Is your paper gracefully written? Is it grammatically correct and carefully proofread? Does the quality of the writing elevate the impact of the substantive argument?
Your paper should have a title that identifies your position. The text should be double-spaced and should use 12-point font. If you cite sources in the text, you may use traditional footnotes/endnotes or parenthetical citations in the text. In either case, however, you should follow standard formats. If you're unfamiliar with these, consult a style directory. There are many of these on-line. Source citation is very easy in Microsoft Word. If you haven't learned how to use that feature of the software, this would be a good opportunity to do so.
Every paper benefits from a final proofreading after you spellcheck. More people's grades are reduced on Colby government papers for sloppiness and failure to carefully proofread than for any other reason. You have total control over the quality and appearance of your paper--if you exercise it.
Every page of you paper should be numbered. In Microsoft Word, it is very easy to number pages automatically using either the Header or Footer command or the Insert Page Numbers command. Learn how to do this, and do it on every paper.
Two good rules on capitalization. One, only capitalize when absolutely necessary; be a minimalist about capitalization. Second, be consistent. If you capitalize a word in one sentence, capitalize it every time you use it the same way. As general rules, the following words are always capitalized: Congress, Supreme Court, Democratic Party, Republican Party, formal names, and names of government agencies (FBI, Department of State, etc. The following should not be capitalized: congressional, federal, president (except when referring to, or as the title of, a particular president, e.g.: President Kennedy was a good president.). In my experience, most people capitalize badly by capitalizing too much.
A common and critical deficiency in papers is the habit of making assertions that are unsupported by evidence or a citation. If you make a statement of fact, you must support or illustrate it. These papers are social science, not dining room conversation. For example, a statement like this cannot stand without support: "The American people want to reduce the size of government." If you make a statement like that, even if you believe it to be conventional wisdom, you must cite the evidence from which that conclusion is drawn. How do you know that the American people feel that way? Cite a study that discerned that or data that indicates it or an opinion poll that found it. But you cannot simply assert it.
You may use footnotes, end-notes, or in-text citation.
In-text citations should be in parentheses at the appropriate place in the text and should include the last name of the author or some identification of the source, if there is no author. Quotes or specific information should also include the page number in the source. For example, if you use a characterization from page 18 of Jane Smith’s article, the citation would look like this: Jane Smith called this “one of the biggest policy disasters of modern American politics.” (Smith, 18)
Then in the bibliography you should include the complete citation to Smith’s article, like this.
Smith, Jane, “Problems in American Policy Making,” American Journal of Political Science, Volume 19, Number 3 (Spring 1993), 1-28.
Footnotes or endnotes should include a full citation the first time a work is cited, then an abbreviated citation for subsequent citing from the same work. A citation from the same source that follows immediately is labeled “Ibid.” When other citations intervene, use the author’s last name and page number. In each case, the citation would be numbered and tied to the same number at the appropriate place in the text. For example:
4. Jane Smith, "Problems in American Policy Making," American Journal of Political Science, Volume 19, Number 3 (Spring 1993), 18.5. Ibid., 22.6. Peter Brown, The Last of the Red Hot Policy Makers: The Life of Harry Jones (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), 271.7. Interview with Prof. John Barker, Center for American Studies, University of Wisconsin, October 24, 1999.8. Smith, 26.
When should I include a citation? This is always a scholarly judgment, but two general rules can guide you.
Rule 1: Whenever you use a quotation or a fact or some data that are not generally known, you should cite your source. You needn't cite a source for a statement like:
"John Smith won 4 elections in a row starting in 1979.""In Montana, the future of the forests is a contentious issue.""The voting age in America is 18."
You should cite a source for statments like these:
"Men are more likely to vote Republican than women.""Britain has the fourth largest economy in Europe.""Tom DeLay has an intense dislike for Nancy Pelosi."
Rule 2: When in doubt, cite. If you're unsure whether a statement requires a citation, better to provide one than not. Don't clutter your paper with unnecessary citations, but too few is worse than too many.
Citing Internet sources. An Internet citation should include 3 elements. First, if you are citing from a document posted on the Internet, like an article or report, you should indicate the author and the title of the document. Second, you should indicate the title of the Web page on which the document is located. Third, you should list the URL (Universal Resource Locator) or Web address of the document. So, for example, a citation might look like this:
Sam Smith, "The Quality of Bill Clinton's Leadership," THE CLINTON HOME PAGE, http:///www.whitehouse.gov/clinton/homepage.
You will not always find document or authors' names on the Web, and these citation conventions are still emerging, so a good rule of thumb is to include information in your citation that helps a reader, not only to relocate the source, but to be able to discern who produced it and what it's called.
Every paper, regardless of its citation format must have a bibliography. The bibliography should include a complete list of all sources cited and all sources actively consulted. Do not pad bibliographies with sources you did not use. It will be obvious if you do. If you studied a source, but did not cite from it, you should include it in your bibliography. The purpose of a bibliography is to indicate your intellectual debts: on whose work did you draw in formulating your own analyses and conclusions?Know the difference between affect and effect. Know the difference between number and amount. The word “data” is plural. So is the word “media.” Pay close attention to subject-verb agreement. Don’t write: “The Congress is a large body. They are also very powerful.” Congress is singular in the first sentence; so should it be in the second.