Instructions for assignment 3 (deadline 17 May)
General instructions
Write a 1000-word essay (plus or minus 10%) on a topic of your own choice related to your academic discipline.
Use at least three academic articles. If you’re not sure whether the articles you’ve chosen are academic articles, have a look here https://www.midmich.edu/student-resources/lls/library/find-articles/academic-articles (Links to an external site.) or here bowvalleycollege.libguides.com/c.php?g=10229&p=52137 (Links to an external site.) or ask your seminar teacher.
Hand in your assignment on Canvas (there will be a link under <Graded Assignments>)
Submissions by e-mail will not be accepted.
Late submissions will not be graded and you will have to wait until the resit date (to be announced).
Document requirements
Include your name & student number in the document
Submit your assignment as a word or odt documents (no PDFs please)
Make your title bold and centred
Indent new paragraphs (i.e. every paragraph except the first)
Do not add white lines (or extra spaces) between the paragraphs
Use line-spacing 1.5
Use font size 12 pt.
Use a standard font type, like Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri.
If your document does not meet these requirements, you can be asked to resubmit before your essay will be graded.
Text requirements
Your essay should present what you can tell about a specific topic or question on the basis of the three articles, i.e. it should be similar to a literature review in which you compare different views on or solutions to a particular problem. Specifically, it should not be your own solution or proposal for a problem or your personal opinion about the topic.
Your text should have 5 paragraphs of roughly the same length, structured as follows:An introduction of one paragraph, with a thesis statement in the final sentence.
Three body paragraphs, each starting with an appropriate topic sentence. Think about the connection between the three body paragraphs; they can, for instance, present three separate arguments or pieces of evidence, or three different approaches to a particular problem.
A conclusion of one paragraph.
Use Harvard or IEEE as referencing style. Pay close attention to the following three aspects:refer to the articles in the right format and right place in the text itself;
include the full publication details in the bibliography of all articles mentioned in the text;
be consistent in referencing throughout the text.For Harvard, see http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htmLinks to an external site.
For IEEE, see http://pitt.libguides.com/citationhelp/ieee
Grading
Your assignment will be graded on the following aspects:Assignment requirements: If your text does not meet the assignment requirements outlined above, this can lead to a fail.
Academic style: the text needs to have an appropriate discipline-specific academic style, which shows through the use of quite formal language, an objective perspective, and the use of academic idiom.
Use of sources: sources should be incorporated adequately in the text, according to the referencing style for your discipline, and should be listed accurately in your list of references. Note: the article that you summarize should be in this list of references.
Linguistic accuracy: your text should contain as few errors as possible with respect to grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, and spelling. The mistakes that do occur should not affect comprehensibility.
Text structure: your text needs to be coherent overall, with (i) a relevant title which covers the content of the text; (ii) an introduction of one paragraph providing the relevant context information; (iii) a thesis statement at the end of the introduction which indicates what the text is going to do; (iv) well-structured body paragraphs; and (v) a conclusion of one paragraph which rounds off the text and synthesizes the material from the body of the text.
Clarity of formulation: your text should express your ideas in a clear way. Your sentences should be ordered logically, the connection between different ideas should be clear, and transitions between sentences should be effective.
Example
