Avoiding Plagiarism (YouTube video)
Pick one each of the formats and topics below.
Write at least 5 pages (double-spaced, 12-pt. font).
The conventions of Standard American English should be observed.
Research your topic.
Acceptable research sources include:
The Main Library and the Library's online resources.
Articles from credible newspapers and magazines (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and Atlanta Journal and Constitution).
Unacceptable sources:
Wikipedia
Spark Notes and similar websites
Fox News and MSNBC
I will deduct up to 20 points for using unacceptable sources and/or for failure to cite in text.
Works Cited page, like this:
Bradley, Andrew Cecil. Shakespearean Tragedy; Lectures on Hamlet, Othello. 2nd . London: MacMillan and Co., 1922. Print.
In-text citations:
When citing the play, cite by Act, Scene, and Line number(s), like this:
"Lord what fools these mortals be"(3.2.115).
When citing a book or article, cite by author and page number, like this:
(Bradley 255)
Format: (choose 1)
Cracked.com Article (sample here)
The Cracked article can either inform or persuade. It should be fact based, but can also demonstrate the author's bias.
Format
Introduce your topic, telling your audience ...
the impetus to write the article, or
the importance of the topic, or
the relevance of the topic
Make a list of "things" which have something in common, for example
6 Reasons not to , or
5 things you never knew about , or
4 amazing people who )
Explain, describe, or analyze each "thing" on your list
You may use pictures, graphs, or videos (or video links) for emphasis or illustration.
Include a bibliography and cite your sources in your article.
Encyclopedia Article (sample here)
The Encyclopedia article is informative, not argumentative, and should remain fact based and unbiased.
Format
Introduce your topic
Divide, and, if necessary, sub-divide the relevant information for your topic, for example.
If the article is about the the Battle of Agincourt, you would want to include divisions like "100 Years War," "Henry V's French Campaign," "French vs. English Numbers," "The Battle," and "The Aftermath"
Describe or report under each heading and sub-heading.
Include a bibliography and cite your sources in your article.
Blog Post (sample here)
A blog post can be a personal narrative or a social commentary or a political commentary; really anything you could want to write about can be posted on a blog
Blog posts can be either informative or argumentative. Bloggers are not required to observe the detachment and lack of bias that journalists and scholars are required to adhere to. Therefore, the blog post will almost certainly reveal the author's bias, but one should always keep in mind one's audience and avoid causing unnecessary offense.
Blogs typically include pictures or videos
Include a bibliography and cite your sources in your post.
Explication (sample here)
An explication or "close reading" examines a short passage from the text. (see below under "Explication Passages")
The writer is looking for words or ideas or images in the selection which he finds significant, either because it is repeated within the passage or because it is especially powerful philosophically or emotionally.
Finally, the explication should consider the small passage within the context of the play.
I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when I have cause and smile at no man's jests, eat when I have stomach and wait for no man's leisure, sleep when I am drowsy and tend on no man's business, laugh when I am merry and claw no man in his humour.
I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a
rose in his grace, and it better fits my blood to be
disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any: in this,
though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied
but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle and
enfranchised with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage.
If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking:
in the meantime let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no moe
Of dumps so dull and heavy.
The fraud of men was ever so
Since summer first was leafy.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey, nonny, nonny.
Your Name
ENGL 1102/ your class time, ex. MW 9:30
Date
Paper Title