Academic Written Assignments Policy

Unless otherwise specified, all research papers or essay-orientated written work must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font, size 12 point, and submitted via the LMS. Handwritten assignments will not be accepted unless otherwise specified for in-class work. All assignments are due via the LMS by the listed deadlines. I do not accept papers via e-mail, though if you are experiencing problems submitting via the LMS, I always suggest e-mailing me a copy as a backup (to show it was, in fact, submitted on time). Students should use APA format, which means a title page and references page will be required for all assignments unless otherwise specified. The title page and references page will not count toward any word-count/page-count requirements. Please refer to the OWL Purdue website for additional help with APA style. I expect papers to be proofread, free of grammar/spelling/punctuation errors, formatted appropriately with proper citations and attributions, and to offer new/original insight free of plagiarism or other academic integrity violations that demonstrate your learning and understanding of an issue or concept.

Appropriate Research Source Material

This class may require students to find information and sources for academic papers. College-level research requires college-level sources. Appropriate sources include scholarly and peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly books, and well-respected news magazines and newspapers. Encyclopedia articles are acceptable only for background information and are not to be cited in your paper. Likewise, Wikipedia or random blogs on WordPress, Blogger, Medium, et cetera, are acceptable only for background information and are not to be cited in your paper. The institution’s library offers a large number of appropriate sources. Find indexes to journal, newspaper, and encyclopedia articles at the “Journal Articles” tab listed under the “by title” or “by subject” links. Librarians are available to assist students in selecting and locating appropriate sources. To be clear, though, only peer-reviewed journal articles and scholarly books meet the standard of scholarly when such a standard of source material is required.