For the assigned essays this semester, you will select a single document  or specified group of documents from the documents provided within each Unit's Essay Assignment page. After reading your selected document(s) please submit a written essay that:

1. Addresses the stated writing prompt(s) associated with the specific essay assignment and selected documents.

2. Exceeds the stated MINIMUM length requirement for the associated writing prompt(s). 

The Writing Assignments for this course should be written and submitted with the following formatting rules:

1. The essays should be Double-Spaced and written in Times New Roman font with a point size of 12.

2. The top, bottom, left, and right margins should all be the standard 1" in size.

3. The single-spaced header on the first page should include your Name and Document # from which your analysis is drawn. There is no need for a header on any subsequent page. There is also no need for a Title. Please be aware that if you should decide to include in your submission a Title that this will NOT be counted towards your minimum length requirement.

4. You will be penalized for any submission that does not meet the stated minimum length requirement.

5. Because of the short length of these assignments, please avoid directly quoting the document unless it is absolutely essential to your argument. Instead, briefly paraphrase the passage(s) and focus instead upon providing your analysis and supporting your argumentation.

6. There is no need to provide a citation for the single document you are analyzing. However, if you have used outside sources beyond the document provided, please include citations using the MLA Format. This will include in-text citations and a Works Cited Page. The Works Cited Page should be on a separate page at the conclusion of your essay and will not count towards the minimum length requirement.

If you need any help with the above formatting guidelines or citing your sources, please do not hesitate to email me. A very good online resource for any college-level writing assignment is the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL).The following URL will lead you directly to their pages related to MLA citations: Click Here

Finally, there should be no excuses for attempting to use the ideas and/or words of any of your sources and attempting to pass them off as your own. Plagiarism will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Simply citing your source(s) does not give you permission to copy them word-for-word unless they are being directly quoted and placed in quotation marks. Even attempting to adjust the sentence structure or altering a couple of words in a source will not absolve you of charges of plagiarism. The skill of paraphrasing (or putting a source's words or ideas into your own words) is not a simple one to acquire. The Purdue OWL provides some helpful hints and exercises to work on this: Click Here

Once again, please email me with any questions that you may have and I look forward to reading your original words and ideas this semester.