As the capstone assignment for the semester, you will write a roughly 10 page, double-spaced, 12-pt type (counting pages of text, not cover pages or reference pages) paper making a policy argument related to your “big question” topic. This paper should draw on historical evidence including, but not limited to, evidence from the “big question” papers you read during the term. Broad examples of the kinds of topics I have in mind include the following:
“To sustain economic growth, the US should….”
“US economic policy should reduce its emphasis on growth and shift its focus to…..”
“To reverse growing inequality, the US should…”
“Economic inequality should not be a policy concern because….”
“New robotic technology threatens the living standards of workers, so we should….”
“Excessive government regulation harms economic growth, so we should….”
I. There are three deadlines and grades related to this assignment:
1. You will turn in a “proposal,” worth 10 points, by Fri., March 6. This proposal will:
o Provide one paragraph describing the specific topic of your research paper.
o Provide complete citations for at least six sources you plan to use in your paper. You must use at least one reading from your “big question” group. In addition, at least two of your six sources must be new – not on any of the biq question reading lists, and not on the list of readings assigned to everyone as part of the main lecture material. See below for information regarding citation format.
o Include a brief description of the contents of each source (three to four sentences).
o Provide an outline of the planned structure of your paper.
2. You will turn in a rough draft, worth 10 points, by Fri., April 3. This draft will be graded on accuracy of the economic content; quality, coherence, and clarity of the writing; use of proper grammar, punctuation, quotation and internal citation form; and completeness and proper format of references. This will be returned to you with comments and suggestions for revision by Mon., April 13.
3. You will turn in your final paper, worth 25 points, incorporating the suggested revisions, by Mon., Apr. 27.
When you submit your paper, you should include details in the “comments” box discussing how you revised your paper in response to comments on the rough draft.
II. Sources:
Each paper must include citations from at least 6 sources published sources. You should be cautious in your use of material found solely on the internet as a source for your paper. Specifically, you should try to determine (1) whether an item you find on the internet is also available in some other published form or (2) whether the on-line “publisher” is an identifiable and reliable source. For example, on-line versions of articles from journals are acceptable. Government web sites (such as the Census web site or the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site) are also acceptable. You can not cite as a source the websites or lecture notes of other classes, whether those classes are offered here at the U or elsewhere. (See me if you have questions about a particular source.)
Searching an on-line academic data base like “Econlit,” “Scopus,” or “America: History and Life” will help you find journal articles. Historical Statistics of the United States (available through the library’s “Research Databases” link, under “H”) is a good source for relevant quantitative evidence. If you want to work with raw data, I can assist you in identifying sources (but talk to me about this SOON – it takes some time to learn how to process a data set).
A. Proper Citation of Sources – Avoiding plagiarism
One of the purposes of the writing assignments in this class is to help you learn about and practice the proper citation of sources. Plagiarism, the misrepresentation of someone else’s writing as your own, is a very serious breach of proper academic conduct. It is also, unfortunately, very common.
“‘Plagiarism’ means the intentional unacknowledged use or incorporation of any other person’s work in, or as a basis for, one’s own work offered for academic consideration or credit or for public presentation. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, representing as one’s own, without attribution, any other individual’s words, phrasing, ideas, sequence of ideas, information or any other mode or content of expression.” (Section I.B.2.c)
“[S]anctions [for plagiarism or other academic misconduct] may include requiring the student to rewrite a paper(s) or retake an exam(s), a grade reduction, a failing grade for the exercise, or a failing grade for the course…” (Section V.B.3)
“…[T]he faculty member should report the misconduct to the dean or chair of the student’s home department or college…” (Section V.B.4)
In brief, you should cite a source for any material in your paper that is not common knowledge and that you have learned through the course of your research, EVEN IF THAT MATERIAL IS NOT DIRECTLY QUOTED. In addition, material that is directly quoted must be clearly identified (with quotation marks and page numbers or other similarly specific cite that will allow the reader to find the original material).
There is no one preferred format for citation and references in Economics journals. To avoid confusion, though, we will follow the following format.
B. Proper Citation of Sources – How to Cite
1. Sources should be cited in the text of your paper, not in footnotes.
(a) To refer to a paper on your topic, without referring in detail to specific points made in the paper, you should list the author’s name and the date of publication:
Variation in human height has been used as an indicator of change in living standards (Steckel 1995).
or
Steckel (1995) summarized the literature on height as an indicator of living standards.
(b) For material that is paraphrased and refers to some detailed point made in a paper, you should include the author’s name, the date, and a page number (or range of pages) in your in-text citation:
While average height in the US exceeded average height in the UK in 1800, this difference had disappeared by 1950 (Steckel 1995, p. 1919).
or
Average height in Britain had reached equality with average height in the US by 1950, according to Steckel (1995, p. 1919).
(c) For material that is quoted, you need to use quotation marks, as well as author’s name, date, and page number:
“Poor medical knowledge and practices of the era claimed many children, but slave losses before age 5 were roughly double those of whites who lived in the United States from 1830 to 1860” (Steckel 1995, p. 1923).
(d) If you are citing material that another author has cited, you should cite it in a way that makes it clear where you found the material. For instance, if you are reading an article by McCloskey, and in that article McCloskey presents a very useful quote from Mokyr, and you want to use that quote, you should cite it as follows:
Mokyr says “[quoted material]” (in McCloskey 2002, p. 157).
Or
“[Quoted material]” (Mokyr, in McCloskey 2002, p. 157).
Again, anything that you discuss that is not common knowledge or that follows closely the language, ideas, or phrasing of another writer requires citation of your source. Anything you copy word-for-word from a source requires quotation marks (in addition to an author, year, and page citation). Long quotes (three lines or more) should be set off in indented blocks.
2. Proper citation in the References section
Sources cited in the body of the paper (and only sources cited in the body of the paper) should then be included in a list of sources at the end of the paper (the “References” section, in alphabetical order, as follows (single spaced entries, with double space between entries):
Books should be listed like this:
Author’s name. Title (underlined). Place of publication: publisher, year.
Example:
O’Connor, Albert. Things that Fall, or Maybe Rise. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987.
A journal or magazine article should follow this form:
Author’s name. “Article title (in quotes).” Journal title (underlined) Journal volume: journal number (Journal date (month or season, year)), pages.
Example:
Binmore, Kenneth; Rubinstein, Ariel and Wolinsky, Asher. “The Nash Bargaining Solution in Economic Modeling.” Rand Journal of Economics 17:2 (Summer 1986), pp. 176-88.
Government sources should typically look like this:
Agency or department. Title (underlined). Place of publication, year.
Example:
U.S. Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial times to 1957. Washington, DC, 1960.
A chapter from a collective volume should be listed like this:
Chapter author. “Chapter title in quotes ,” in editor’s name, ed., Title of Book underlined. Place of publication: Publisher, year, page numbers for chapter.
Example:
Temin, Peter. “Continuing Confusion: Entry Prices in Telecommunications,” in Guinnane, Sundstrom, and Whatley, eds., History Matters: Essays on Economic Growth, Technology, and Demographic Change. California: Stanford University Press, 2004, p. 163-186.
This list, again, should include only the sources that you yourself have used in writing the paper. So, for example (4) above, your list of references at the end should include the McCloskey article (the article you actually read), not the Mokyr article.
3. Proper citation on online sources.
If you are using an on-line version of an article, but that article is published in a standard, hard copy journal, then cite the hard copy version, using the format above. If the piece you are using is only available online, then use the citation format recommended by the source, including the URL. For instance, EH.Net (Links to an external site.), an on online clearinghouse for scholarship on economic history, recommends the following format for citing essays from its online encyclopedia:
Wahl, Jenny. “Slavery in the United States”. EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. August 15, 2001. URL http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/wahl.slavery.us (Links to an external site.).
If no citation format is provided by an online source, then provide the information in a form that closely approximates the forms listed for paper sources, but be sure to provide the complete URL and the date you accessed the information:
Cressia, L. L. Copyright and fair use: Future of fair use. http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/courses/fall97/concl.html. November 1997 (accessed March 27, 2006).
4. Use of Turnitin.com
In order to promote a better understanding of proper citation, and also to better discourage and detect academic dishonesty, the university has acquired a subscription to the Turnitin.com plagiarism-detection service. We will use this service for both your rough draft and your final paper. An “originality report” for each assignment will be generated for your writing. Any text in your paper that exactly matches text in a source searched by Turnitin will be highlighted. As long as the source is correctly cited, this is not a problem (provided that your essay does not consist entirely, or primarily, of long quotes). Also, note that a “clean” Turnitin report does not by itself mean that there are not problems with your paper relating to citation. It is possible that I am familiar with sources that are not in the Turnitin database, so the final judgment on proper citation and plagiarism obviously rests with me.
NOTE: Evidence of plagiarism will result in a 0 for the assignment, and a report regarding the matter will be sent to the office of your department chair and/or dean. It will not be acceptable to claim ignorance about proper methods of citation. If you are uncertain about how to cite a particular source, ask me. In addition, please note that you are responsible for anything turned in under your name. It will not be acceptable to claim that you “sent the wrong file,” the one with all of the copied material in it, by mistake.