Paper Guidelines
Title and name on a separate Cover Page, bibliography (not annotated) on last page
The paper must be all your original writing, no AI assisted writing or copying and pasting from sources.
You must use 4 sources published 1990 to present, peer reviewed, and at least 15 pages in length.
Each paragraph of the paper will end with a footnote at the end of it citing the sources where the ideas come from. You should not footnote every sentence of the paragraph separately. Your first footnote must include full bibliographic information, subsequent footnotes must use a condensed style with author, article title, and page number. See below for details.
Never use the first person (I/me/my). Subjective opinions are frowned upon in historical writing, state what you can argue based on the historical evidence: replace “I think” with “according to Walker…” or some similar phrasing.
Do not use contractions. Example: If I had written, “Don’t use contractions” it would have a different feel: less formal and less impact.
Paper must be at least 1500 words in length and must begin “This paper will argue…”
Paraphrasing/Plagiarism Warning:
Do not use AI to write any section of your paper. Also, do not attempt to paraphrase from the abstract or the first paragraphs of an article that give a general overview. Doing this is an easy way to be cited for plagiarism. Paraphrasing is restating a section of at least 1.5 pages of text several sentences entirely written by you. Do not attempt to take a sentence from the text and change a few words. For example, here is a quote and an example of attempting to rewrite which would be cited for plagiarism.
“The present essay discusses a small number of separate cases to show how the rhetoric of divination played out in early China, together with some observations on the elision of divinatory practice from the literary tradition.”[1]
“Kern discusses a few instances to demonstrate how the language of prophecy operated in early China, along with some reflections on the exclusion of prophecy customs from the written tradition.”
After you use cite an article like Kern’s the first time you use an abbreviated style:
Kern, “8 Early Chinese Divination and Its Rhetoric,” 255.
Quotations:
Any quote that is longer than 3 lines must be indented, single spaced, and have the font reduced to 10-point size. Every quote and source must be footnoted using the Chicago Manual of Style. No more than TWO 3-4 line block quotes can be used in the entire paper. If you use two block quotes, you have maxed out the number of quotes you use. If you use shorter quotes of 1-2 lines you may use a total of 4 of them.
A block quote must be single spaced, 10 point font, indented, not in quotation marks, and a citation at the end with the specific page listed.
A shorter quote is in quotation marks and a citation at the end with the specific page listed.
USE SOURCES PROVIDED IN FILES/IMAGES
Paragraphs may not exceed ¾ of 1 page as formatted above. A paragraph is an organizational tool for your ideas. Basically, each paragraph should explore one complex idea. On the other hand, they cannot be too short either. If a paragraph has less than 4 sentences, then it is going to break up the flow of your paper.
Generalizations
One warning about generalizations: they are to be avoided. Stay focused on the specific sources you have selected and do not attempt to give an overview of the entire subject. Sentences such as this should obviously be avoided: “China is an ancient civilization that is now one of the most populous nations on earth.” The reason is that your paper will not be covering history generally. It will only really be building upon a few pages from the assigned reading. This frees you up from worrying about how to frame it in the big picture. Remember: depth over breadth.
Grading Rubric
Your paper must be coherent and fulfil the “Paper Guidelines” detailed above. Coherence means it develops a specific argument from the first sentence to the last. Non-specific arguments are global statements that are unprovable, such as “Throughout human history…” or “India is.…” Historical writing requires precision. The best way to ensure your paper is specific is to begin with this as your first sentence: “This paper will argue…”
5 Points: Thesis and Concluding Paragraphs
2.5 points rests on each of these two paragraphs. They must provide a roadmap to the paper. Spend time really polishing the grammar here, double check your spelling, etc. Think of them as the curb-appeal of a house you are trying to sell, everything needs to be in good shape!
6 Points: The body of the Paper
1.2 Point for each section where you discuss 4 articles (if you discuss 5 articles two will share 1.2 points). Articles will usually be discussed in more than 1 paragraph, so these count less than the thesis and conclusion.
1.2 Point for the discussion of the textbook
2 Point: Proofreading
All the paragraphs must be largely free of grammatical and typographical errors. If the proofreading errors are abundant, they can begin to impact the ability of the reader to follow your ideas. As such, a poorly written paper will also lose points for this in the Thesis/Conclusion/Body sections.
2 Point: Citations
It is expected that every paragraph will have a footnote at the end of it and if it contains a quotation, it will have another footnote somewhere in the middle. These should be formatted according to the Chicago/Turabian style manual as was explained in recitation.