Physics 36 / Music 36 Duke University Spring 2008 Handout 11
Unless we have agreed on another option in advance, I'll expect your term papers, like the shorter listening reports, to be submitted in the form of MS Word document files, either as attachments to e-mail messages or handed in on CDROMs. The receipt of each such file will be acknowledged immediately via e-mail, so you'll know that it reached me in good shape.
Don't surprise me with your topic when you hand the draft in.
If you decide to change your topic after submitting the one page statement about it [due before spring break], be sure to let me know IN WRITING. E-mailing me a brief note is fine. If you just tell me it may not get noted in the file I use when preparing for reading your term papers.
I read each paper at least twice. The first time I produce notes to myself: about things to look for during the second reading, things to check on before the second reading, related things I'd like to tell you about but need to refresh my memory on first. During the second reading I generate the actual comments and assign grades. Be sure to . . .
Number the pages of your paper.
I need to have page numbers to refer to in the comments. If you don't number them, I'll have to.
Allow time to proofread your paper before handing it in!
I try to grade the content of your papers, not the form, but I cannot deny that frequent typographical errors, misspelled words, et c., are distracting and create a bad impression.
Provide full bibliographical references for all your sources, and don't even come close to plagiarization.
I'm very flexible as to the precise form--footnotes and bibliography, endnotes, in-line references, et c.--but I do expect that one form be used consistently and that the information be there. If you use long quotations make them obvious by indentation--don't make me play "find the other end of this quotation." I don't count the number of foot notes, but I expect a straightforward, accurate indication of what is yours and what is from a source.
Consider including a critical bibliography.
Feel free to include in the bibliography sources you examined but didn't use, and add a sentence or two as to the utility, strengths, and weaknesses of each source. This kind of information can be very useful to me and to subsequent students. If a source may be tricky to locate, a clue will be greatly appreciated.
Feel free to exploit the Internet, but . . .
I expect you to exercise critical judgment about all the material you cite. The fact that someone made an editorial judgment and the financial committment to publish a statement in a book doesn't guarantee its validity. In the case of reference material published electronically on the Internet, of course, even more caution is in order, because neither editorial nor financial hurdles even apply.
If you are citing a relatively brief Internet source, consider including a copy as an appendix to your paper. In any event, supply a complete electronic reference in each case, such as:
http://www.phy.duke.edu/
If you include a lot of Internet references in your paper, it will be a great convenience to me if you provide them in a form that I can just click on as I read your paper. If you have the resources and the inclination, a hypertext term paper accessible through a web site, with active links to the Internet sources, will be fine, rather than a MS Word document.
Return any materials borrowed from me with your paper when you turn it in.
I may need to refer to them while reading your paper or someone else's.
Return your library source materials to the libraries on or before the day you hand in the paper.
It may take the library staff some time to get things reshelved this time of year and I may need access to those materials while reading papers.
Don't hesitate to include any special materials that can't be readily and inexpensively reproduced--I'll be glad to return them. Just provide me with a self-addressed envelope of an appropriate size, with enough postage to get them on their way.
In the absence of instructions to the contrary, I'll send your grades to you -- with an attached copy of your MS Word file that includes my changes and comments -- via the same e-mail address I've been using for you during the semester. If that isn't the best one for the purpose, give or e-mail me the one you'd prefer me to use. Also let me know if you'd like the grades in one (small) e-mail, and the (large) attachment to a spearate message.
Please be patient.
I will spread out the reading of the papers over the full time available to me--i.e. until 24-48 hours after the time scheduled for the final exams of courses meeting at our day and hour. No grades will be final and no papers or comments will be available until that whole process is complete.
Just in case you're reading this again near the end of the semester and have forgotten (as people occasionally have): there is no final examination in this course.
