Writing History
"10 commandments of Good Historical Writing," Gerald W. Schlabach, 2000: http://personal.stthomas.edu/gwschlabach/courses/10commnd.htm
Formal papers will be evaluated using the following criteria (rubric):
5 = Writing sample demonstrates superb composition skills including a clear and thought-provoking main idea, an appropriate sense of audience, effective organization, interesting and convincing supporting materials, effective word choice and sentence skills, and perfect or near-perfect mechanics including spelling and punctuation. The writing superbly accomplishes the objectives of the assignment and shows original thinking.
4 = Writing sample contains strong composition skills including a clear, insightful main idea, although there may be minor deficiencies in development or word choice. Style may not be consistently clear and effective. Shows careful and acceptable use of mechanics. Accomplishes the goals of the assignment effectively overall.
3 = Writing sample demonstrates satisfactory composition skills. There is adequate development and organization, although the development of ideas may be trite, assumptions may be unsupported in more than one area, the main idea may not be original, or the word choice and sentence structure may not be clear and effective. Accomplishes the basic goals of the assignment.
2 = Composition skills are flawed in either the clarity of the main idea, the development, or the organization. Word-choice, sentence structure, and mechanics may seriously affect clarity. Minimally accomplishes the majority of the goals of the assignment.
1 = Composition skills are seriously flawed in two or more areas. Word-choice, sentence structure, and mechanics are excessively flawed. Accomplishes few of the goals of the assignment.
Plagiarism
Scholarly authors generously acknowledge their debts to predecessors by carefully giving credit to each source. Whenever you draw on another’s work, you must specify what you borrowed whether facts, opinions, or quotations and where you borrowed it from. Using another person’s ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source constitutes plagiarism. Derived from the Latin plagiarius ("kidnapper"), plagiarism refers to a form of intellectual theft. . .In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you wrote or thought something that you in fact borrowed from someone, and to do so is a violation of professional ethics. (Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 2nd. ed, New York: MLA, 1998: 151).
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