The writing assignment is a mini literature review.
Here is the grading rubric for the writing assignments:
Thesis:
– Student has a thesis statement about what is ‘true’ based on the two assigned papers. (2 points)
Discussion of Research papers:
– There is analysis of both assigned papers (2 points)
– The discussion of the papers is meaningful to the advancement of the thesis (2 point)
– There is discussion about how the historical data in the papers is informative and why (1 point)
– There is discussion about whether the evidence presented in the papers is convincing to an economics audience (1 point)
Writing style:
– There are no grammatical errors, incomplete sentences, or misspellings (1 point)
– The paper flows from one topic to the next and is logical (1 point)
This exercise is designed to help you critically analyze research papers in economic history. You will use these critical analysis skills in writing your literature review. Each writing assignment must be 5 pages (double-spaced, 12-inch font, one-inch margins).
In this course, you will use your economic training to examine the economics of the Industrial Revolution, emphasizing Great Britain. The course will cover various topics including demography, institutions, technological innovation, finance, and international trade.
This course has three goals.
First, I want you to improve your writing and communication skills. They yield high rewards in the labor market.
– Demonstrate rhetorically effective, discipline-specific writing and communication for appropriate academic, professional, and public audiences.
– Demonstrate, at an advanced level of competence, the use of discipline-specific research methods, genres, modes of development, and formal conventions.
– Demonstrate advanced information literacy skills by locating, evaluating, and integrating information gathered from multiple sources into discipline-specific writing.
Second, I want you to learn how economists use theory and data to answer ‘real-world’ questions, like how to economies develop and evolve?
Third, I want you to learn about economic history. Britain was the leader of industrialization and is one of the largest economies today. It is useful to understand what happened there. It is also taken as the benchmark for changes that occurred elsewhere like the United States and Asian economies.
Is summary, you should take this course if:
- You are interested in evaluating economic arguments with quantitative tools, like graphs plotting differential trends and tables summarizing differences in means or regression coefficients.
- You have some interest in history, especially European or global history.
A Few Words about Generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT)
(drawn from Chris Beneke, Bentley University)
Writing is integral to thinking. It is also hard. Natural language processing (NLP) applications like ChatGPT or Sudowrite are useful tools for helping us improve our writing and stimulate our thinking. However, they should never serve as a substitute for either. And, in this course, they cannot.
You will need to adhere to the following guidelines in our class.
Appropriate use of AI when submitting writing assignments
- You are free to use spell check, grammar check, and synonym identification tools (e.g., Grammarly, and MS Word)
- You are free to use app recommendations when it comes to rephrasing sentences or reorganizing paragraphs you have drafted yourself
- You are free to use app recommendations when it comes to tweaking outlines you have drafted yourself
Inappropriate use of AI when submitting writing assignments
- You may not use entire sentences or paragraphs suggested by an app without providing quotation marks and a citation, just as you would to any other source. Citations should take this form: OpenAI, chatGPT. Response to prompt: “Explain what is meant by the term ‘Triple Bottom Line’” (February 15, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/).
- You may not have an app write a draft (either rough or final) of an assignment for you
Evidence of inappropriate AI use will be grounds for submission of an Academic Integrity investigation. Sanctions will range from a zero for the assignment to an F for the course.
Rubric:
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The thesis is clear
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2 pts
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The thesis is well defended
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4 pts
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maintains a focus on the thesis
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2 pts
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Sufficient research been done
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12 pts
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literature discussed is meaningful to the advancement of the paper’s thesis
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6 pts
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Meaningful connections being made between the presented papers
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6 pts
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There is meaningful and effective critical analysis of the papers
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6 pts
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The writing is clear
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2 pts
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The paper flows from one topic to the next and is logical
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4 pts
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Page Minimum/Maximum
Minus one point for every page short of or above 15 pages
Minus one point for exaggerated margins |
5 pts
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Bibliography
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1 pts
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