Guidelines For Submitting Essays

-prepared by Dr. Andrew McDonald

It is important that essays are properly formatted for submission. Always check with your instructor for individual professors have preferences on essay formatting. Generally, essays do include the following, so before you submit your essay, use this checklist:

• A title page. This must include at the very least your name, the title of your essay, and the date on which it is being submitted. It is a good idea to include your student number.
• Double spacing of text with ample margins. This makes the essay easier to read, and ensures that there is room for comments in the margins.
• Consecutively numbered pages, using Arabic numerals. Title pages and bibliographies are not numbered. Numbering the pages means that comments can refer to other parts of the essay.
• Fasten your essay with a staple or a paperclip only. Do not use duo-tangs, plastic or metal clips or plastic covers. These just make the essay harder to read and to mark.
• A bibliography, which must be properly formatted. If you are unsure what a bibliography is or how to format a bibliography, then consult M. Northey, Making Sense in the Humanities, pp 121-22.
• Proper Documentation using Footnotes or Endnotes only. If you are unclear how to reference using footnotes or endnotes, use Northey, Making Sense in the Humanities, pp. 117-121. DO NOT USE THE NEW MLA SYSTEM FOR THE HUMANITIES.

It is not mandatory for your essay to be typewritten or word-processed, but please note the comments of Northey, Making Sense in the Humanities, p. 23.

Essays that do not conform to these guidelines may be returned without a mark for appropriate revisions.

Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty

Plagiarism is a very serious offence that will not be tolerated. In order to ensure that you do not commit plagiarism (intentionally or unintentionally) make sure that you understand what it is. You and you alone are responsible for the work that you submit for grading in this course, and every instance of plagiarism will be dealt with by the instructor. Please acquaint yourself with the following excerpt from the CBU Calendar 2004-05. Plagiarism is that form of academic dishonesty in which a student submits or presents the work of another person as his or her own. Scholarship quite properly rests upon examining and referring to the thoughts and writings of others. However, when one uses excerpts or takes over another persons line of thought, argument, arrangement or supporting evidence, the originator of such material must be acknowledged through proper footnotes or other accepted practices.

The University College recognizes two major types of plagiarism: Substantial and Complete. Substantial plagiarism exists when there is no recognition given to the author for phrases, sentences, arguments and the like, incorporated in an essay or report. Complete plagiarism exists when a whole essay or report is copied from author, or composed by another person and is presented as original work. Unless prior approval has been obtained, a similar situation is created when the same essay or report is submitted for credit to more than one instructor.Plagiarism carries potentially severe penalties that are outlined in the Calendar.

Essay Writing & Lecture Notes

I. Essay-writing

Writing a university level essay might seem like a daunting task, but it does not have to be. Effective time management is the key to a successful university career. You will discover many demands on your time at Cape Breton University, and the key to being successful is prioritizing them and organizing tasks. To help with this, you might want to purchase a large calendar that will cover several months and that can be stuck up on your wall or used as a desk blotter (I prefer these to pocket planners because the latter are too small and are easily laid aside or forgotten. Put up a big calendar on your wall where it is always visible!). Mark due dates of all assignments on the calendar. This will give you an idea of not only how many assignments are due, but how close to one another they are due.

Start working on essays and assignments early. Give yourself plenty of time to read relevant texts, to locate materials in the library, and to think about essay topics and problems. Bear in mind that you might have to read a text or parts of it several times in order to get the most out of it; similarly, a text might be out of the library when you need it, or you might have to order an important book on Inter-Library Loan. If you give yourself a little extra time, these problems will not become critical. Left to the last minute, they are sure to be.

Leave yourself time to re-read, revise and edit your work. The worst thing that you can do is to print off your paper, dash to class and hand it in. You should plan to finish your essay at least a day or two, a week is better! before it is due so that you can proofread and edit it. This will allow you to eliminate any remaining errors of spelling or grammar and to make certain that your arguments make sense. Remember that a rushed essay is usually a shoddy essay. An all-nighter cannot make up for careful planning and effective management of your time. There are some useful remarks on the processes of essay writing in Northey, Making Sense in the Humanities, chapter 5.

Write with a dictionary and a thesaurus close at hand. If you are unsure of the spelling or meaning of word, take the time to look it up. By the time you get to a later draft you may forget. Do not guess or rely on memory. Spelling and grammar do count when your essay is graded, and an essay that is full of such errors might not receive a passing grade. Finally, whatever you do, do not rely exclusively on your computer program's spellchecker. It is not always reliable. Although spellcheckers can be a useful tool, there is no substitute for a careful proofreading with the Human Mark I Eyeball!

Pay attention to the structure of your paper. Does it have a proper introduction that sets out the topic and the specific issues addressed by the paper? Does it have a proper conclusion that draws together the arguments and issues that you've raised? Is it formatted into proper paragraphs that are neither too long nor too short? These are all things that the marker will be looking for when he reads your essay, so pay close attention to them. If you are not sure about these or other matters, consult Northey, Making Sense in the Humanities, chapter 5.

Write the introduction and conclusion last. Essays do not have to be constructed in the same order that they are read. It's a good idea to skip the introduction and to start writing the body of your essay first. You can then go back and write the introduction and conclusion later. The advantage to this approach is two fold. First, it is often difficult to write a good polished introduction before you've written the paper itself. Dive right in with the body of the essay and come back to the introduction. Second, writing an introduction after the body of the paper will ensure that you accurately reflect the content of your essay in the introduction. Remember that essays have a tendency to take on lives of their own, and if you write the introduction before anything else then it may not necessarily reflect that content of the paper.

Give your essay a title that reflects its content. Make sure that your paper has a title that accurately reflects the content and/or arguments. We are continually astonished at the number of papers that we receive with unimaginative titles like "Essay # 1". Giving your essay a distinctive title can help it to stand out from others.

II. Lecture Notes

The process begins before the lecture does. Go to lectures prepared! This means that you should read relevant chapters in the texts before class rather than after class; textbooks often provide background to lecture material so that if you have read the text beforehand you will enjoy a considerable advantage in lectures. Similarly, make sure that your notebook is well organized. Start your notes for each lecture on a new page, not on the back of an old one. You may even want to divide your page, leaving space for lecture notes and then leaving some extra space for your own comments, thoughts, or questions.

Remember that listening and taking notes in lectures is an active and not a passive process. If you try to write down everything that is said, you will discover that (i) you are not able to keep up with the lecturer, and (ii) you will simply become a sponge ,or at best a stenographer. The key to successful note taking in university is to extract the main points without writing absolutely everything down. This means first of all listening to what is being said (as opposed to mindlessly writing it all down) and then extracting the key points from the material. Lecturers often provide hints at what is important, sometimes by the following means:

• the use of an outline that highlights major points;
• repetition of key points;
• cues, for example, by saying, "Now this is really important"

It's not over when the lecture is over. Take a few minutes after the lecture, either immediately afterward, during lunch, or else in the evening to review your notes. Studies show that reviewing notes, even for a few minutes, within a few hours of taking them is an excellent way to reinforce the material much more effective than cramming before an exam! Organize lecture notes carefully. Keep a separate binder for each course or subject, and organize your notes effectively. Keep them in order so that review is easy.

Your course outline is an important resource. Take care of it, keep it handy, and refer to it often. It contains lists of readings for the course, and due dates for assignments. Use it to organize your study notes and to prepare for the week ahead.

Resources Within The University

If you experience difficulty with essays, assignments, lecture notes or other course related matters, there are many people to whom you can turn for assistance. The number one rule to remember here is simply: Don't be afraid to ask, however simple the question may seem to you!

• The Instructor. Instructors are usually available before and after class and are required to maintain regularly scheduled office hours to answer questions and to provide assistance. Find out when your instructor's office hours are held, and be sure you know where her/his office is.
• Information Desk, University Library (563-1387). If you experience difficulty finding books in the library or are having other library-related problems, the librarian at the Information Desk will be happy to help. Librarians will not do your work for you, but they will certainly point you in the right direction.
• The Reading and Writing Development Centre (563-1325). The aim of the center is to help students improve their writing skills. This aim is accomplished through meetings with students about papers that they are writing, and through self-help materials including brochures and other publications. The service is available free of charge to CBU students and appointments can be made between 9 am and 12 noon and 1:30 and 4:30 pm Monday to Friday. Students are advised to make appointments early since the schedule for meetings typically fills up quickly around the time that essays and assignments are due.