Characteristics of Women in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
Order Instructions:
Papers should be double spaced, with 1” margin on the left and 1.5” margin on the right. Please use 12-point Times New Roman. Cite your sources according to MLA. You should have a minimum of FOUR outside scholarly sources (remember your composition classes that have prepared you to write academic papers). Do not use Internet sources unless the exact same source exists in a printed form and merely happens to be on-line in a full text version. Papers will be graded on the originality of argument, use and integration of textual evidence, development of detail, and mechanics of writing.
Word Limit: 4- 5pages
Please let me know if you have any question.
Writing Guidelines
In general, students are judged on the following criteria:
1. Within Guidelines for Written Presentation (12 point Font, Double Spaced, first line Indented).
2. Grammar and Sentence Structure (Paper has been edited by author and is consistent in tense and person).
3. Clear and Concise sentences (Paper is written for a business audience, business CEOs, and/or potential investors).
4. Content of Paper (Paper covers the essential parts of the topic).
5. Introduction (Clearly states the subject, scope of the paper, and the theme).
6. Body of the Paper (Organized to flow effectively from one paragraph to the next, one subject to the next).
7. Summary of the Paper (Concise but articulate summary that covers the main points of the paper or the main conclusions).
8. When appropriate, Tables, Charts, Graphs, or other visual aids are effectively used in paper.
9. Overall effectiveness of the paper on the subject.
10. Your name(s) and group numbers if applicable, must be part of the file name you hand in like so: JohnSmith-ass1.doc OR oppanalysis-group5.doc.
11. Only *.doc, *.docx. *.pdf. or *.txt (plain text files) are accepted for assignments. Do not simply type in your assignment in the submit window on blackboard.
12. When your assignment is opened, you name and assignment number must be on the page, same if a group assignment.
13. For the weekly written assignments, one page of quality writing is expected as minimum, but you may expound further on your topic for the purposes of clarity and effectiveness of communication.
14. If you have trouble writing please visit the writing clinic: http://cwl.oregonstate.edu/twc.html there is an on-line workshop that off campus students can participate in.
15. To get some example of what good business writing looks like try: http://www.economist.com/business/ or http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-business-us.html There are many other examples (BusinessWeek is not one of them).
16. The usage of grammar in essays needs to follow standard English writing conventions. I will allow for a wide range of measures, from the MLA to the Chicago Manual of Style, and the variations in between. A simplistic version would be Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style”, but I will not require its usage – only recommend it. There are numerous online .edu sites that will provide grammar guidelines for free, so take a look around.
17. Cite your sources! You may use MLA or APA standards for this, or even the CMS and similar measures. But if you introduce a fact or figure, please cite where it came from! I often check your facts and figures as I read your papers. I will search Yahoo!, Bing and/or Google to seek out the information, as it often interesting and useful. I would prefer to go straight to your source, rather than track down a particular quote or a specific concept.
18. Avoid needless words or jargon unless you introduce and define them, or unless they are a part of the standard jargon and/or word usage for the class textbook, class lecture material, videos, or generally used vocabulary of the business world. I do not mind unusual vocabularies or styles whatsoever; but I do prefer than unusual terms that are not found in common usage be introduced and defined in your essays. In addition, if it is a foundation of your paper, it should be sourced.
19. The page limit has been doubled on standard assignments (the main opportunity project remains the same for now), and the original limit is only a recommended amount. If you can write that concisely, then that is great. However, if you do need to expound upon your points, then you may do so. Strive for clarify and conciseness, however.
20. Professional writing is important. I am not speaking of dressing up your papers, which is entirely optional – even extraneous – but of clear, concise and effective writing that communicates ideas well, and essentially gets the point across in a useful way.
