The most important assignment for CSE 92 is to write a paper of about 2500 words that summarizes and analyzes the arguments and conclusions of the book that you have chosen.  You should include your own opinions where appropriate, and in addition to what is in the book, you should use other knowledge that you possess.  However, you should avoid speculation and you should stay close to the themes of the book.

The instructor will provide individual help and advice based on your outline and drafts.  The due dates for this paper are as follows:

• Friday May 20: outline
• Friday May 27: first draft
• Week of Monday May 29: individual meetings to discuss your draft
• Monday June 6: final version, due at the final exam.

It is your responsibility to meet these deadlines and to meet them.  Work will be accepted late but a percentage will be subtracted from your score as a consequence.  

Writing your outline.  The outline of your paper should give a clear picture of what you intend the content of your final paper to be.  Of course, a lot may change as you write the paper, but you you should always have a definite overall view of the paper while you are writing it.  Specifically:

• The outline should reveal your main claims and your point of view, in addition to your topics and subtopics.
• Each item in the outline should be a whole sentence that makes a clear assertion, not just a few words mentioning a topic.
• The outline should show the organization of your paper, which should be logical and coherent.
• The outline should make clear what your main conclusions are likely to be.

Your draft should be organized well, written well, and formatted well.  To organize your paper clearly, use sections, subsections, and paragraphs.  Each main section should have a title that is informative about what the section contains.  Use diagrams, charts, and tables if they are useful.  Always provide labels and/or legends for diagrams, charts, and tables.  For footnotes, citations, and all other questions of style, follow Michael Harvey's book. 

Papers should be printed on standard 8.5 inch by 11 inch paper using a laser printer or a high-quality inkjet printer, and stapled together securely.  Papers assembled with paper clips or other insecure bindings will be rejected.  Do not use any plastic or cardboard binders or sleeves.

Help with writing.  The instructor is available to assist you, but you should also use other resources.  In particular you should use the UCSD Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services for help with writing.  According to their web page:

"The Writing Center offers the UCSD community FREE one-to-one conferences on any kind of writing project ... Various workshops are offered, including ... essay writing ... The OASIS writing test assesses your strengths and weaknesses in writing and editing academic papers. ... Individual tutorial services are available to students whose first language is not English."

Any type or amount of plagiarism is a very serious violation.  You may not steal phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or figures from books, published or unpublished papers, web pages, or any other source.  Plagiarism includes so-called "mosaic plagiarism," where you paraphrase the writing of one or more other people by mixing phrases taken from their work with your own phrases and sentences.  For information about detecting plagiarism by software, see http://www.millikin.edu/staley/plagiarism.html

If you quote anything authored by anyone else, you must indicate very clearly that it is a quotation, and you must provide a precise citation immediately before or after the borrowed text or figure.  Quotations should be at most a very minor part of a report:  almost all the writing in your report should be your own work.  To indicate that text is borrowed, use quotation marks and/or indentation, in addition to a citation.