POLI
355
Asian
Governments and Politics
Research
paper Instructions
This
is big and has very important information in it. For that reason, I’ve created a Table of
Contents (linked to sections below) for you to use to find information you’re
looking for. You should read this entire
assignment, however. I guarantee you
will wind up with a better grade if you do.
What is comparative politics and how do
I write a “comparative” paper?
Numbering Endnotes or Footnotes
Nitpicks
and Style Issue (or Helpful hints)
You've got a lot of leeway here. What I want is for
you to do some real comparative politics.
Pick two nations and compare some political, social, or economic change within them. For the given subject you picked, what are
the similarities and differences between the two nations and the causes of
those similarities and differences.
How do I define Asia
geographically: anything from Afghanistan and Pakistan in the West to Japan in
the East to Australia and New Zealand in the South to Mongolia in the
North. If you have questions about this,
let me know. What kind of issues am I
looking for? Anything you find
interesting is fine with me as long as I approve it. Try to limit this to more recent events or
trends, preferably since 1980. Try to
pick as narrow a topic as you can. I can
help you with this. For example, a
comparison of economic policies in
Here’s
an example. Let’s say you handed me this as a paper topic: Religion in Politics
in India and Indonesia. This is a huge
topic. I would tell you to narrow this
down. So you could narrow it down in the
following ways:
·
religious-based
political parties
·
major
political parties attitude toward religion
·
political
mobilization by major religious organizations
·
voting
patterns by various religious groups
·
the
impact of religious issues during the most recent elections
On
the date indicated on the syllabus you should turn in a one-paragraph outline
of your chosen topic. It should include the following:
The
purpose of this is to let me know what you are working on. This way I can help
steer you in the right direction, warn you about troubles you may encounter,
and generally deal with any questions you might have.
For lots of detail on Comparative Politics, read the
short essay on the Comparative Method that is linked to the syllabus and linked
here (Newmann, "The
Comparative Method." It is an assigned reading for the first week.
The basic issue for research in comparative politics is
to pay attention to your methodology. It’s actually very simple, but generally
ignored. How do you compare things? A simple example let’s say you’re comparing
oranges and basketballs. You’ve chosen
to compare them using shape and color. They’re both round and orange. They are exactly the same. Research done. “In conclusion, oranges and basketballs are
absolutely identical, except in the case of the American Basketball
Association, which used red, white, and blue balls. The ABA, however, folded after the 1976
season. Since then, scholars have been
unable to develop meaningful methods to distinguish between basketballs and
oranges.” Okay, maybe we need to think a
bit more deeply about the categories we use to compare them. That’s the key. In doing comparative research, you’re
searching for ways to highlight similarities and differences, so you need to
find categories for comparison that
highlight the important similarities and differences. These are essentially questions you are
asking. For oranges and basketballs,
better categories of comparison (or better questions to ask) might be their
size and, most importantly, their purpose.
So you’re asking two questions: What are similarities or differences in
the size of oranges and basketballs?
You’re asking: what are the similarities and differences in the purposes
of oranges and basketballs? Oranges are small; basketballs are larger. More importantly, oranges are fruits for
eating and basketballs are for playing a sport.
Their purpose is the difference.
This is a silly example, but it makes the point: finding good categories
for comparison matters.
Let’s say your topic was Malaysian and Indonesia trade
relations with Singapore. You need to
find good categories of comparison so this doesn’t become just a bunch of
statistics. As you do your research you’ll
gain knowledge about the trade relationships and you’ll find the important
elements of their trade. In this case, a
good set of categories for comparison would be: multilateral and bilateral
trade relations. Malaysia, Indonesia,
and Singapore are all parts of ASEAN.
ASEAN is deeply involved in developing greater trade among its members
and reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
One category for comparison would be multilateral trade relations. The question is how do Malaysia and Indonesia
operate within ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum? In ASEAN and APEC debates is Malaysia allied
with or arguing with Singapore? In ASEAN
and APEC debates is Indonesia allied with or arguing with Singapore? The second category would be bilateral trade
relations. This is a comparison of
Malaysian trade relations with Singapore and Indonesian trade relations with
Singapore. But this might be a bit big
and fuzzy, so you may want to define that category a bit better: Have there
been any trade controversies between Malaysia and Singapore or between
Indonesia and Singapore? Are they trying to eliminate tariffs? Are there
products that they maintain trade barriers on?
The paper then has sections where you answer the questions, you use the
categories of comparison to form the organization of your paper. Then your
paper might have this type of organization:
·
Introduction
·
Indonesia
in Multilateral Forums
·
Malaysia
in Multilateral Forums
·
Indonesian-Singapore
Trade Issues
·
Malaysia-Singapore
Trade Issues
·
Conclusions
Here’s another topic: Rural
vs Urban Voting Patterns in Thailand and Japan.
You want to see if there have been changes in those voting patterns
since the late 1980s/early 1990s. As you
research the topic you’ll begin to see some good categories of comparison, such
as:
·
Results
of rural and urban voting since the late 1980s (Are there any identifiable
patterns of urban and rural voting in Japan and Thailand?)
·
Party
identification of rural and urban voters (Do urban and rural voters identify
with a single party or a set of parties?)
·
Key
issues for rural vs. urban voters (Are there specific issues that rural voters
prioritize or that urban voters prioritize?)
So let’s say you pick the
first two categories. You’ll wind up
with a paper that has the following organization.
·
Introduction
·
Voting
Patterns of Rural and Urban Voters in Parliamentary Elections since 1990 (he
category of comparison or the question asked)
o
The
Traditional Rural Vote vs. the Urban Middle Class
o
Japan:
Traditional dominance of rural voters (The answer for the Japan case)
·
Party
Identification
o
Thailand:
Red Shirt vs. Yellow Shirt (the answer for the Thailand case)
o
Japan:
LDP vs. a Two-Party System (The answer for the Japan case)
·
Conclusions
Of course, ask me for help on
this if you have questions. That’s why I’m here.
Up until the rough draft deadline
indicated on the syllabus I will look at anything you’d like me to look at
regarding the paper. Anything from
outlines, bibliographic sources, or even completed drafts can be turned in for
comment up until that date. I will go
over what you have, mark it up, and if you like give you a hypothetical
grade. You can then make revisions based
on my comments.
Ask
me! If you have a question on where to
find sources or if you need a specific source and you can’t find it, ask
me. This is what I do for a living. I have everything!
1.
How to start looking for sources. Start with books in the library.
Use a keyword search in the library catalogue.
There is an advanced search function there that will allow you to put in
several key words. For example, if
you’re researching internet censorship in Malaysia and Singapore, you might use
key words that combine “Malaysia” with “internet”; “social media”;
“censorship”; “technology” and then use the same set of combinations for
“Singapore” or “Asia” or “Southeast Asia” to get edited volumes that may have a
chapter on Singapore or Malaysia. Use different key word combinations.
2.
Use the Library: Really!!!!
Here’s what I mean: Library
3.
Use the same search terms in http://scholar.google.com. It will
get you scholarly work, think tanks reports and journals rather than the
Wikipedia entry. Many journals are available
through the VCU system and you can search through the VCU library, but you may
also try Google Scholar (There it is again. Freaky). Use this instead of a regular search on any
search engine.
4.
Don’t start your research with a general google search. That will get you a thousand sources, but the
quality of the sources is really in question: everything from a Wikipedia page
that might have inaccuracies to a middle school paper on the issue that a
teacher required students to post on line to a piece of political propaganda
which deliberately gives you false information as way of bashing someone’s
political enemies. It wastes your
time. A search like this may be useful
just to give a broad background on a subject. It may help you find the right
keywords to use in the scholarly resources.
Try it yourself. Do a general
google search using a set of keywords then compare that to a scholar.google.com
search with the same key words. The
first is not so useful, the second gives you about ¾ of the info you need for
your paper in under one second.
6.
Many
journals are available through the VCU system and you can search through the
VCU library, but you may also try Google Scholar (There it is again.
Freaky). Use this instead of a regular search on any search engine. It
will get you scholarly work, think tanks reports and journals rather than the
Wikipedia entry. One way to use google.scholar is to use key words for
the president, the issue, and then the name of one of the journals listed
below. After doing that, then a search
under the president and the issue might get you some other sources, but they
are likely not as good. So, for example,
search under “India, Trade, Asian Survey” and you get a boatload of articles
from Asian Survey and other journals as well.
A full list
of journals is below.
7.
Citation Tracing: Don’t forget one of the best ways
to find good sources. Say you found a great article on exactly the issue you’re
researching. That article will have
footnotes, endnotes, parenthetical references, and a bibliography. Find those articles and books. Use them.
They are almost guaranteed to be useful because the author of the great
article you just read must have found them useful.
8. Journals: Some of the best journals on
Asia include the following. The VCU
libraries have almost all of these in text or available on line). The best are indicated with an asterisk
·
******Asian
Survey (Best in the world; start here)
·
ASEAN Economic Bulletin
·
Asian Affairs
·
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies
·
China: An International Journal
·
China Economic Journal
·
*The China Quarterly
·
The China Journal
·
*Chinese Journal of International Relations
(Chinese perspectives)
·
Contemporary Japan
·
*Contemporary Southeast Asia
·
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
·
Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies
·
European Journal of East Asian Studies
·
The Journal of Asian Studies
·
India Journal of Asian Affairs
·
India Review
·
Indian Journal of Political Science
·
Indonesia
·
*International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
·
*Issues and Studies (China and Taiwan)
·
Journal of Asian History
·
The Journal of Asian Studies
·
Journal of Chinese Political Science
·
Journal of Contemporary China
·
Journal of Current Chinese
Affairs
·
Journal of East Asian Studies
·
The
Journal of Korean Studies
·
Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia
·
Journal
of Southeast Asian Studies
·
*Japan
Review
·
Modern Asian Studies
·
Modern China
·
*Pacific Affairs
·
Political Economy Journal of India
·
Sino-Japanese Studies
·
Social Science Journal Japan
·
Southeast
Asian Affairs
·
Southeast Review of Asian Studies
·
Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs
Read this. Pay attention to it; Or face everlasting doom! Failure to pay attention to this will likely result in a grade of D.
The
following is not just because I want to annoy you or because I like to have
things done my way. The following is
because this is a class where you will do social science research and the rules
of social science research are different from the rules of English composition
or journalism. Learning how to write for
different audiences and in different styles is part of the university
experience.
You
must use an established format for citations and your bibliography. You need to learn how to reference
information properly, and how to write a bibliography with the correct and
complete information before you leave VCU. This is easy to do, but more important
than you think. Whether you go into academia or business you will be judged on
the quality of your information, and that means people will want to know where
you found your information. They will judge you at first, before they read your
text, on your bibliography and citations. If you do it wrong while at VCU,
you’ll get a deduction from your grade.
If you do this in graduate school or government or the business world,
you will be asked to go home and not come back (as in “you’re fired”).
It
does not matter to me what format you use, as long as you use an established
standard format for the social sciences. You can use footnotes or endnotes or
parenthetical references, but you must learn to do it correctly. Here are web resources that will teach you to
do this:
·
You
can use scholar.google.com another way.
If you found the book or article on this page, you’ll see that
underneath the small paragraph on the source is a link for “cite”. Click on that and it will you give several
already formatted citations. You can do
that even if you didn’t originally find the source on scholar.google.com. Just go to the page and search for it there,
then click the “cite” link. The properly formatted citation can be copied and
pasted directly into you bibliography. Remember, however, that these are
bibliographic formats. Footnotes and
endnotes are slightly different and have different page number rules that are
discussed below. That is very important.
·
Easy
Bib
·
Bibme
·
Purdue OWL (Online Writing Workshop)
·
Chicago Manual of Style Quick
Guide
·
Endnotes (and footnote style). This is an
article that I wrote which has endnotes that you can use as a template. It also includes a bibliography that you can
use as a template. Endnote and footnote
citation style are the same. The only difference is where you place them in the
text. Microsoft word allows you to
choose endnotes or footnotes and to switch one to the other if you like. Ask me if you have questions on how to do
this.
·
Parenthetical
References This
is a link to an article I wrote which can be used as a template for citing
using parenthetical references. Note in the citations that the author’s name
and publication date is within the parentheses (and page numbers if available).
You may have to sign in to get the article.
Since I have instructed you
to pay attention to notation and bibliographic style, and have provided you
with a specific place to look for the proper styles, I will take points off of your paper if you do not do this in the correct
manner. This is simple. If you do not do it correctly it means one or
both of the following: 1) you are not taking the assignment seriously or are
too lazy to do the paper correctly; and/or 2) you are doing the paper at the
last minute. Both of these are good reasons why you will not get the grade you
are able to earn.
Warning! What not to do. I realize that in many cases instructors in
ENGL 200 are telling you to include reference material in the text of the
paper. However, this is exactly the wrong way to reference in social
science. What I mean is the
following.
In doing research there are
three basic types of things you must cite: quotes, specific information, and
other people’s ideas. Other people’s
ideas are covered above under plagiarism.
See the section on quotes, but that shouldn’t be a big issue here. This is a small paper and you should avoid
quotes. When I say specific information,
what I refer to is any information which is not general knowledge. For example, you would not need to use a
citation if you state that Henry Kissinger was Richard Nixon’s National
Security Adviser in Nixon’s first term (general knowledge). But you would have to cite the fact that
Kissinger met with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai on July 9, 1971 and any details
of the meeting. Another example: you would not need to cite that Chinese
economic reforms were first announced at the Third Plenum of the 11th
Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, but if you included
information on why Hua Guofeng’s attempt to establish his own Mao-like
authority had failed in part because his economic reform plan was not
farsighted enough and why this failure allowed Deng to push his reform plan
through the Central Committee, you’d need to cite the source (Schram 1984, 417)
or use a footnote[1] or
endnote[1]
If you are referring to specific information that you
found on a specific page in a source (if the source has page numbers, unlike
some web sources), you must include the page
number where you found the information.
Let’s say you found information in a book that is 450 pages long. Citing
the book and not the page number is not very helpful for anyone who thought
that the information was interesting and wanted to learn more about it. You’re forcing that person to scan through
450 pages of text to find the info. Instead, cite the page number and then the
reader can just turn to that page number.
This is the established method of citation. This is true even for
parenthetical references. If you are
citing the main point of an article or book or something as background
information, you don’t need the page number, but if it is specific material it
does need a page number.
You may use endnotes. You may use footnotes, but then
the paper must be a bit longer since some of the page will be taken up by
footnotes. In the social sciences, footnotes and endnotes are numbered
consecutively. The first note is number
1; the second is number 2, etc. Microsoft
Word will do this for you. You can use a
source more than once in your paper.
There are specific citation formats for the first citation and for the
second citation. You can also put more
than one source in a specific note. See
my article for examples for all of this: Endnotes/Footnotes. A short reference follows:
·
Footnotes
and endnotes are numbered consecutively (1, 2, 3, 4…) (Please don’t use the
natural sciences-style that merges the bibliography and citations. This format lists the sources in a
bibliography and numbers them, then cites information in the text by listing
the number of the source used in the bibliography. That format is for natural sciences and I
have never seen it used in any Political Science journal. Since this is Political Science, you should
learn how Political Science works.
This
is the key to writing a good paper so I am providing detailed instruction on
this. Political Science has a specific style of writing, especially when it
comes to introductory paragraphs. It mirrors
the style of government memoranda. In
short, the introductory paragraph should summarize the paper and that includes
giving the reader a summary of you conclusions.
If you don’t do this, even a great paper, becomes a grade of B.
A
good introductory paragraph should include the following:
In other words, the introduction should provide your reader with a "road map" that explains exactly what you will say during the paper. This is not as difficult as it sounds. Basically, what you need to do is write the outline you have for your paper in sentences in the first few paragraphs of the paper. Your opening paragraph (or couple of opening paragraphs) should also give the reader some reason to be interested in your topic and in your argument. Tell the reader why this subject is important. Here is an example of an opening paragraph:
This essay examines the
levels of media freedoms in
You
will then have a paper with subheadings such as this:
·
Introduction
·
Media freedom
under Suharto in
·
Media freedom
under Mahathir in
·
Media and the
Democratic Transition in
·
Media and the
Post-Mahathir Governments
·
Conclusions:
Media Freedom in Indonesian Democracy and Malaysian Soft Authoritarianism
As you make the points that
support your argument, you'll probably be aware of the places in which your
argument is controversial or in which a reasonable person might disagree with
you. Preempt those controversies in your text. Point out what those opposing
arguments might be, and why you think your point of view is more accurate or
reasonable.
1.
Try
not to use quotes. I want your writing,
not anyone else’s. If there is a great
quote from a direct participant in the event, or an official document, a
phrase, or word, that you think really adds to the paper then a quote may be
appropriate here or there. But if you
have a paragraph-length quote in an eight page paper, that would be bad. I’d be sad and after you see your grade,
you’ll be sad too.
2.
Important:
Don’t quote general information that you found in a scholarly article and don’t
quote the conclusions of other scholars.
Paraphrase the information or the idea in your own words and then cite
the source.
3.
Do
not give me a sentence in your paper that quotes that information directly from
the source. For example, don’t quote
like this: “The United States included 20,000 troops.” It is basic factual
information and does not need to be quoted, but it does need to be cited. Even if it is an analyst’s opinion, it does
not need to be quoted. Just paraphrase
it in your words and cite the source.
4.
Reserve
quotes for direct participants: candidates and their staffers, or a voter. The exact words matter in these cases. In general though, go easy on quotes.
5.
Too
many quotes means that you’re just cutting and pasting, not writing. A
research paper is not a series of quotes rearranged the way you like. It doesn’t teach you anything and your
grade will suffer horribly, terribly, and painfully.
6.
So,
for example, if noted terrorist scholar Reed Richards says in his book that
“Al-Qaeda probably only consists of 10,000 people worldwide.” Do not give me a sentence in your paper that
reads: Reed Richards says that “Al-Qaeda probably only consists of 10,000
people worldwide.” Give me something
that says: One scholar estimates that al-Qaeda only has 10,000 active members
globally (Add the citation here which cites Richards’ book and the page number
in it where the information is found). The full bibliographic information will
be in the bibliography at the end of the paper.
Or if Ben Grimm concludes in his book that: “Al-Qaeda’s growth depends
on economic reform in the Middle East.
Elimination of poverty is not the biggest problem. Rather it is the
ability of the middle class to gain social and economic mobility.” Don’t quote that, but say: “Economic reforms
designed to allow the middle class to grow and prosper will be the key to
battling al-Qaeda in the future (Add the endnote, footnote, or parenthetical
reference here which cites Grimm’s book and the page number in it where the
information is found).
7.
In
a larger paper, but not in this one, sometimes quotes are useful. A good quote is this: According to Osama
bin-Laden, “for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands
of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its
riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its
neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through
which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples” (Add the endnote here which
cites Bin-Laden’s fatwa and the page number in it where the information is
found or the internet URL). This is an
excerpt from the 1998 fatwa of OBL.
Bin-Laden is a participant, a historical figure. His exact words are important.
8.
In
any case: Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever cut and paste anything from a
source into your document unless you place it in quotes and cite the source of
the quote. And generally in a paper that
is under a few dozen papers, there is never a need to quote anything that is
not an official source. Why quote
anything unless the exact works are crucial?
So quoting a President or Foreign Minister or a witness to an event is
useful, but quoting a scholar or journalist is not.
First, never, ever, ever, ever, ever,
ever cut and paste anything from a source into your document unless you place
it in quotes and cite the source of the quote. And generally in a paper that is
under a few dozen papers, there is never a need to quote anything that is not
an official source. Why quote anything
unless the exact works are crucial. So
quoting a President or Foreign Minister or a witness to an event is useful, but
quoting a scholar or journalist is not.
For the purposes of this paper, there is no reason to quote anyone. The
paper is too short for quotes.
This
is really not a fine line. Did you write
the sentence or not? Did you come up with the idea or not? When in doubt, it’s relatively simple: never
include something in your paper that you did not write unless it is quotes and
then it also must be cited. Anything
that is not your idea must be cited. Plagiarism is a violation of the VCU Honor
Code and I will not hesitate to charge someone with a violation if I catch
plagiarism. If you have questions about
what is plagiarism, ask me or see VCU’s Writing
Integrity Workshop.
But
just because someone else has already written an idea that you agree with 100%
doesn't mean you can't discuss it in your paper. Just point out whose idea it
is; paraphrase it in your own words, cite the source of the idea, and expand
upon it. Generally, that is how Political Science works. 90% of all Political
Science articles and books do the following (I give you another example that is
not topically relevant to the class):
There
are various explanations for the
The article would then outline the theories of Barton, Rogers, and Romanoff, analyze each one, and then develop the fourth theory. There is no problem as long as Barton, Rogers, and Romanoff get credited with developing their theories, and the fourth theory is yours. If the fourth theory belongs to a fourth author (Banner? Stark? Hill?), the author should be credited and your article will show why his theory is superior to the other three. The point here is that you may find sources which have different opinions on an issue.
If paraphrasing an idea: make sure to change the verb you use so it is different from the verb used in the source. Make sure you change everything but the proper nouns. So let’s say, you’ve read this in your source: “The President phoned the Prime Minister immediately after he received the news.” That may be the point you want to make in your paper, but you shouldn’t quote that and can’t copy it (or you’d be plagiarizing). The only words you really can use here would be “President” and “Prime Minister.” These are the proper nouns. So put it into your own words. How about: “Once the President had been informed, he contacted the Prime Minister.” And then cite the source of the information. That would not be a quote problem or a suspicion of plagiarism
And never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever cut and paste anything from
a source into your document unless you place it in quotes and cite the source
of the quote. (He said it again! And in
italics! Must mean something!) (And it’s in bold, and italics, and red; maybe I
should pay attention to this.)
1.
Margins and Font Papers should be doubled-spaced with one-inch margins, and reasonable
sized font (11 point). Shorter pages with wide margins and large print size
font will be penalized.
2.
Subject and Verb Make sure you have a subject and verb in every sentence. (You would be
surprised how many important journals and books allow non-sentence sentences).
This is non-fiction, not fiction. So you need to observe the basic rules of
grammar. A long sentence is not necessarily a better sentence -- each sentence
should express only one thought. Don't be afraid to break up a long sentence
into two or three shorter ones. It will usually flow better that way.
3.
Official Titles
Provide someone’s title in the text the first time you mention them if they are
an elected official (Tim Kaine, Governor of Virginia) or an appointed official
(Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Paul
Nitze). Thereafter, you can refer to
them as Kaine or Nitze. So for the first mention, you’d say: “National Security
Adviser Henry Kissinger told his assistant to.…” From that point on, you can simply say
“Kissinger told his assistant to…” When you mention a senator or
representative, say: Senator John Warner (R-VA) to introduce and after than you
can just say Warner or Senator Warner.
4.
Keep a Copy
Make a copy of the paper for yourself before you hand it in to me. There are
two reasons for this. If you have a copy, you don't have to worry about me
losing a copy. I have never lost anyone's paper, but just in case you should
always make sure that you have a copy of your paper with you, in any class, not
just this one.
5.
Back up WHEN
YOU TYPE YOUR PAPER ON A COMPUTER MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP DISK WITH THE
PAPER ON IT. AS YOU TYPE THE PAPER SAVE THE FILE TO THE BACKUP DISK EVERY TEN
MINUTES OR SO. Don’t just leave it on your hard drive and hope it will be
safe. A super safe way to deal with this
is to use your own, already built-in cloud system. Email the drafts of your paper to yourself
and then you know it will be safe on the VCU system and you can access it from
anywhere on the planet. Also, remember that if you type on the university
computers be careful. Putting your paper on the hard drive in the computer lab
is risky – they sweep the hard drives of files at night. Keep a backup copy for
yourself. I have several backup copies of anything I write. You don't ever want
to lose work because you didn't back it up.
6.
No Wikipedia
Do not use Wikipedia or any other web-based encyclopedia. It is unreliable and you should have stopped
using encyclopedias for research in elementary school.
7.
Reliability of the Internet Be careful about internet sources. Make sure the source is reliable. Remember that anyone can post anything on the
internet. There aren’t necessarily any
editors or fact checkers. For example,
there is a website that links me to the Kennedy assassination; I was two years
old. Ask me if you have questions about this (internet sources, not if I was
involved in the Kennedy assassination; I wasn’t).
8.
The use of “I”: Try
to avoid using “I” in non-fiction.
Instead of “I will discuss three problems…” say “This essay addresses
three problems…”
9.
The use of a
semicolon: Semicolons connect two complete sentences that are related to each
other. For example: “I went to the pizzeria
to get a pie; it was closed so I had Chinese food instead.” You could also write them as two separate
sentences if you wanted. The following
would be an incorrect use of a semicolon: “I had six very tasty pizzas last
week; except for that crappy one from the big chain store.” That should be a comma, not a semicolon. The test is this: If the two sentences you are connecting with
a semicolon could stand alone as complete sentences then use a semicolon. So it becomes obvious: “Except for that crappy
one from the big chain store” is not a sentence.
10. The use of “however”: This trips everyone up. It’s a bit similar to semicolons. “I went to the pizzeria; however, when I got
there, it was closed.” Notice the
semicolon, not the comma. That’s because
“When I got there, it was closed” could be a complete sentence by itself. Also, this sentence is like the use of a
semicolon. You are connecting two
complete sentences. In this case, you’re
connecting two sentences that are related, but related in a very specific
way. The second sentence is adding the
“however” to show a different expectation than the first sentence implies. The first sentence implies you were going to
eat pizza. The second sentence says you
didn’t. On the other hand, look at this
example: “I went to the pizzeria. Upon
arriving, however, I found out it was closed.”
The “however” is surrounded by commas.
That’s because “upon arriving” is not a sentence by itself. Here’s another aspect of this. “I went to the pizzeria, the one with the
best pizza in the world.” There is a
comma there because “the one with the best pizza in the world” is not a
sentence by itself. These are the non-fiction rules. In fiction, you can do
anything you want.
11. Some useful rules:
1.
Numbers under 100
should be written as out. So you would
not have this sentence. “President Bush
met with 3 advisers.” It would be
“President Bush met with three advisers.”
2.
When you have an
acronym, such as NSDD-75 or UN. First
write out the name in full: National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 75, or
United Nations (UN). After that first use of the term, use the acronym.
Papers are due at the beginning of class on the date
indicated in the syllabus. After about 10 minutes of class has passed, your
paper is one day late. I will mark late
papers down ONE GRADE for each day late. That means that an almost perfect paper -- one that I would give 98
points to -- becomes an 88 if one day late, 78 if two days late, etc,... all
the way down to 8 points if nine days late, and zero points if ten days
late.
Talk to me if you are having some
medical, family personal problems. If there is a serious need to get an
extension on the paper, I will give you an extension. I do realize that
there are more important things in life than this class and this
assignment. So if you run into a problem, talk to me. Computer problems
do not count as a problem that warrants an extension. If you are writing
your paper at the last minute and you have a problem, the moral of the story is
that you should not have been writing your paper at the last minute. If
you have some kind of computer problem, and you are not writing your paper at
the last minute, let me know. Maybe I can help.
[1] Stuart Schram. “Economics in Command? Ideology and Policy since the Third Plenum, 1979-1984.” The China Quarterly 99 (September 1984): 417.
[1] Stuart Schram. “Economics in Command? Ideology and Policy since the Third Plenum, 1979-1984.” The China Quarterly 99 (September 1984): 417.