III. Guidelines for the Paper. Due in both hard-copy and electronic form in class on December 4
A. Basic Reference: The basic reference for all aspects of the paper, especially acknowledging sources, will be either A Student's Guide for Writing College Papers or A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations. Both are by Kate Turabian and published by the University of Chicago Press. Any comparable conventional manual will also be acceptable.
B. Recommended Structure of the 3F03 Final Paper (Length of paper: 8-9 pages). Section 1. Economic questions and policy relevance of your papers as a group (1-2 pages).
THERE IS NO NEED TO LIST THE PAPERS AT THE BEGINNING.
Section 2. First Paper (approximately 2-3 pages)
Economic questions Policy Relevance Data and estimation methods Main Results Policy Implications Internal and External strengths and weaknesses (instructions for Summary above)
Section 3. Second Paper (same topics as for first paper), 2-3 pages
There is no need to repeat if, for example, two papers use the same data source. Just refer to the description in the earlier paper.
Final Section. (1-2 pages) Sum conclusions regarding questions and policy
Compare findings if questions are similar. Which one do you believe more?
Unanswered questions and agenda for future research C. A Few Basic Rules
o Each paper should have a title page and a list of references. Please use the short form for referencing, e.g., (Mulroney 1992 p. 12) and then give the full citation in the List of references. Footnotes and end notes are discouraged.
o The body should contain approximately 10 pages with double spacing, 1" margins and 10 or 12 characters per inch (an 11 or 12 point font).
o Number your pages and make sure all pages are legible. o Points will be deducted for poor spelling and grammar. Use a good spell check and grammar check. o Please avoid a large number of quotations. o A partial list of practices to avoid
4
???? Longparagraphs.(Paragraphsareusedtoindicateachangeintopic.) ???? Contractions(won’t,can’t,etc.) ???? Frequentuseofthefirstperson(Iwilldiscuss,Iwillshow,etc.) ???? Informalor“chatty”styleofwriting
D. Papers for other courses. A paper may be done for this course and another course but only when the two faculty members involved have cleared the topic in advance. In general, more will be expected of a joint paper.
E. Acknowledging Sources. Please be VERY careful to acknowledge all sources which you consulted during the preparation of your paper. You should reference not just published work, but also unpublished papers, including those of other students, and previous papers of your own. Each source should be acknowledged by author and date in the text. THE PAPER WILL BE SUBMITTED TO TURNITIN.COM. This tool provides a very effective report on the extent to which your text matches the text in journal articles, working papers and other student papers. NOT ONLY OUTRIGHT PLAGIARISM WILL BE PENALIZED; POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED FOR FAILURE TO ACKNOWLEDGE DIRECT QUOTES TAKEN FROM OTHER SOURCES.
F. Consulting the Instructor. Please be sure to consult me early on if you are having difficulty with getting going on your paper. It is my job to help you get started, not just to grade the paper. Also see me for help with references at any time.
G. Key Goal for the Paper. Your main job is to demonstrate your understanding of what constitutes strong and weak economic research, that is, to evaluate the quality of the methods rather than your personal agreement (or not) with any given policy position. I want your paper to be a balanced review of evidence by a judge rather than the one-sided summation to the jury by a lawyer. Keep that analogy in mind. Your goal is to write a good (balanced) judicial review and to avoid writing a good (one-sided) advocate’s brief.
H. Writing Help. McMaster students now have free access to an on-line program to help with writing. The user copies and pastes text into the program and receives notification of errors and suggestions for corrections. This
program is called Grammarly (formerly Sentence Works). Registration is at https://ed.grammarly.com/register/signup/features/?edu=true. I encourage you to try this and give me feedback.
The Writing Clinic is in the Centre for Student Development (basement of the University Centre) to help students with writing problems. You can have a one-on-one session with a Writing Clinic Peer by making an appointment. See http://csd.mcmaster.ca/academic/. Note that your assignments will be graded on both economic content and writing style.
