How to Write an Extra-Credit Analytical Paper for Russian 0090

Prepared by: David J. Birnbaum (djbpitt+tales@pitt.edu)
Last modified: 2002-08-25
Location: http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/paper_guidelines.html

Contents

  1. What to Write About
  2. Strict Requirements and Deadlines
  3. Technical Requirements
  4. Plagiarism
  5. Checklist: How Your Paper Will Be Evaluated

1. What to Write About

The extra-credit analytical paper for Russian 0090 should be an original work of approximately ten (double-spaced) pages consisting of the close and careful application of a particular theoretical method to one or more Russian fairy tales from the Afanas'ev collection that were not assigned for this course. The essence of your paper is your own analysis of the tale(s) you select, and although you must refer to secondary theoretical sources, your paper should not consist substantially of a compilation of facts or of other people's opinions. Suitable topics include Freudian (Bettelheimian), feminist, or structuralist (Proppian) analyses of tales, but you may also choose to apply theoretical models that were not emphasized as intensively in this course (Jungian analysis, Cashdan's "self theory," or something completely different). The tale(s) you analyze must be taken from the Afanas'ev collection used in this course and must not have been included as an assignment in the syllabus. You may write about one or more than one tale, but should you elect to write about multiple tales, you should do so because the combination is justified intellectually, and not merely to stretch out the length of your paper.

Your paper should open with an introduction that describes the issues or thesis you plan to discuss, and it should end with a conclusion summarizing how the paper has met the goals set out in the introduction. The middle of the paper should consist of analysis and argumentation that supports the conclusion you reach. In most cases the goal of your paper will be the analysis of a particular tale or set of tales, although in other cases you might build your paper around a theoretical hypothesis that you test against a large number of tales (e.g., "do Russian fairy tales show the same 'silencing of women' as Bottigheimer found in the Grimm collection?" or "although Russian 'bad wife' tales do not generally conform to Propp's structural model, do these tales observe their own structural regularlities that are different from but nonetheless similar to the ones Propp identified in the corpus he analyzed?").

2. Strict Requirements and Deadlines

2.1. List of Requirements

Papers that fail to meet all of the strict requirements and deadlines discussed in this section will not be accepted. It is impossible to be fair to the large number of students in this course if we make exceptions in some cases but not others. Accordingly, there really are no exceptions to the following requirements and deadlines; if you want to provide some leeway in case you run into unforeseen problems, such as computer crashes, set yourself an earlier "private" deadline.

  1. You must have discussed your paper in person (not by email or on the telephone) with one of the instructors by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, November 4, and you must complete an Extra-Credit Consultation Form (a checklist that confirms that the instructor his informed you of requirements and resources) together with the instructor at this meeting. If you hand in an extra-credit assignment without having discussed it with one of the instructors and completed the necessary form by this deadline, no extra credit will be awarded. In past semesters some students had to stand in line for over two hours because they waited until the last day for their consultations. We'll stay on November 4 until we've seen everyone who shows up by 5:00, but if you don't want to wait in line, see one of us before then. If your schedule is tight because of other commitments, make your appointment early; if you wait until the last couple of days, can't make it to our regular office hours, and our schedules have been filled by other students, we may not be able to see you at all and we can't fairly extend the deadline. You may meet with us to discuss extra credit work as early in the semester as you would like.
  2. Papers must be submitted by 1:00 p.m on Wednesday, December 4 (the last day of lecture). To avoid missing a deadline because of problems beyond your control, please complete and print your paper before the last minute. You may hand in papers as early in the semester as you would like either in person or by leaving them in an instructor's mailbox in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, 1417 CL. If you run into lecture at 1:01 on December 4 and try hand us a paper, we can't accept it. Really. If you can't get to lecture by 1:00 because you have another class, hand in your paper earlier in the day, or on an earlier day.
  3. All extra-credit assignments must be submitted by the deadline both on paper and electronically. The electronic submission must be in the form of a Microsoft Word for Window document that is sent by email to djbpitt+tales.ec@pitt.edu (note: this is a special address reserved just for extra-credit submissions).
  4. All papers must begin with a cover sheet formulated as described at http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/cover_sheet.html. Papers that are missing this cover sheet will not be accepted.
  5. All papers must use sources and must include a properly-formatted bibliography, as described at http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/plagiarism.html (section 4). You cannot write an effective analytical paper without using sources, and papers that do not include a bibliography will not be accepted.
  6. In addition to including a bibliography, all papers must refer to sources where they are used within the body of the paper, and references to printed sources must include page numbers. Failure to identify sources within the body of the paper is plagiarism (plagiarism is not just deliberately trying to pass off someone else's work as your own; it is also failing to identify sources, however innocently, if the result is that a person reading your paper might reasonably mistake someone else's ideas for your own). Papers with references to printed sources that do not include page numbers will not be accepted.

2.2. Rationale for Requirements

The initial consultation is required because without it students sometimes wind up writing on what turn out to be unacceptable topics, and consultations ensure that the students and instructors have agreed on the topic before the paper is written. If you decide to change your topic significantly after your consultation, you are welcome to do so, but you must meet with your instructor again to discuss the new topic and have it approved. We conduct initial consultations in person because what takes five minutes in person may take half an hour by email, and with over three hundred students in this course we would not be able to respond to email from everyone in a timely fashion. (Once your topic has been approved, you are welcome to send follow-up questions by email.)

We are extremely strict about deadlines because it is not fair to other students for us to extend deadlines in some cases and not others, and we cannot reasonably know whether "my computer crashed" represents the truth or an attempt to gain extra time. We cannot accept papers that are five minutes late because then we would have to accept those that are ten minutes late, and then those that are fifteen minutes late, etc. There has to be a deadline, and in this course it is made explicit in advance. Nonetheless, every semester a few students fail to leave themselves time to recover from last-minute problems. Please don't be among them.

We require paper and electronic submission for two reasons. The paper submission guarantees that we receive a legible copy of the paper by the deadline (electronic submissions occasionally arrive in an unreadable state). The electronic submission enables us to check for academic integrity violations, and it also enables us to post your paper on the course web site as part of an archive of student work, much of which has been truly excellent. (If you do not want your paper posted, you may indicate this on the consultation form).

The last three requirements listed above are intended to guard against plagiarism, which is often inadvertent, but which nonetheless affected almost a third of the papers submitted in the Spring 2001 semester.

3. Technical Requirements

All papers need to meet the following technical requirements:

  1. Papers should fall roughly within the length guidelines, which are ten pages (double-spaced) for analytical papers. A page in either direction is not a problem, but papers that are significantly shorter or longer than the suggested length usually have something wrong with them. If you're having trouble managing the length, please discuss the problem with your instructors before the due date. There is no grade penalty specifically for submitting long or short papers, since the length should ultimately be governed by what you need to say, rather than by a random number, but a paper that is short and that could have benefited from being longer will be marked down for incompleteness, and one that is long because it is padded will be marked down for poor style.
  2. Spelling, grammar, and style must be substantially correct. This means that you should have checked your spelling, grammar, and style before handing in your paper, and you should feel confident that they reflect careful writing and proofreading.
  3. All papers must be typed or printed from a computer (i.e., not handwritten) and double-spaced on one side of the page only using (approximately) 10-12 point type and (approximately) one-inch margins all around. In other words, all papers should be legible and should look like normal papers.
  4. All papers must be fastened with a single staple in the upper left corner.
  5. All papers must have a running header on every page, giving the student's name and the page number.

You are not required to pick up your paper, but it is a good idea to do so, since you may find our comments about the effectiveness of your writing helpful when you prepare papers for other courses in the future. You may collect your paper in person at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures (1417 CL) after the deadline for submitting grades; alternatively, if you supply a large envelope with sufficient postage, we will mail your paper to you. You are also welcome to meet with us to discuss any aspect of your paper after you have retrieved it.

4. Plagiarism

In Spring 2001 approximately one third of the papers submitted for Russian 0090 contained instances of plagiarism. Most of these were clearly inadvertent, and resulted from ignorance, inexperience, or carelessness, rather than from any intentional or conscious impropriety. Inadvertent plagiarism is nonetheless plagiarism, and we have introduced the following steps to help prevent it:

  1. A separate guide to avoiding plagiarism is available at http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/plagiarism.html. Even if it would never occur to you to commit plagiarism, the types of citation problems that constitute plagiarism are not always self-evident, and it is important to read this document to avoid inadvertent plagiarism. Inadvertent plagiarism is nonetheless plagiarism.
  2. All papers must begin with a cover sheet formulated as described at http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/cover_sheet.html. This cover sheet includes a signed statement that you have read the plagiarism guidelines described above.

We cannot overemphasize that inadvertent plagiarism is nonetheless plagiarism, and the availability of the guidelines at http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/plagiarism.html means that "I didn't know this was plagiarism" or "my Basic Writing teacher told me this wasn't plagiarism" is not an effective explanation. Avoiding plagiarism isn't difficult and it shouldn't be a cause of anxiety; just read the guidelines, follow them, and ask your instructors (before the eleventh hour) should you have any questions.

A brief but sadly necessary warning to deliberate plagiarists: In addition to checking sources ourselves, we submit papers to a plagiarism service that checks them against a database of papers submitted by students at universities all over the country (including the University of Pittsburgh), as well as against other references. If you submit a paper that has been submitted (even in part) previously, whether in this course or elsewhere, we'll probably find it. And if you submit a paper that uses resources, whether from print publications or the Internet, that are not attributed properly, we'll probably find them, too. If you buy a paper from a "custom" service, there's a good chance that they sold substantially the same paper to someone else; after all, they're in the cheating business, and have no reason not to cheat you. Students in this course have failed to graduate because of deliberate plagiarism on extra-credit papers, and in cases involving extreme academic integrity violations, the Dean may dismiss a student from the University without possibility of readmission. If you're really smart enough to get away with plagiarism, you're probably also smart enough to write your own paper, get a good grade, and avoid the risk.

5. Checklist: How Your Paper Will Be Evaluated

Substance, Sources, and Style

  1. Is your paper organized around your own analysis of the materials you have studied? Papers that consist primarily of a compilation of facts and opinions from outside sources, without meaningful original analysis, usually receive very low grades.
  2. Does your paper have an introduction and a conclusion that frame the analysis that constitutes its core?
  3. Is your argumentation effective? In particular:
  4. Does your paper conform roughly to the length guidelines? If not, is there a good reason for the deviation?
  5. Does your paper make effective use of outside sources? While the focus of your paper should be your own analysis, it is very difficult to write an effective paper that does not rely on outside sources for facts, background, or context that is not self-evident. If you do not know how to conduct research on your own, ask your instructors for guidance.
  6. Have you used appropriate sources? Papers must use at least some sources that have been published on paper (books, articles, etc.), and must not rely entirely on electronic resources. See http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/internet_sources.html for an explanation of why Internet sources are often unreliable.
  7. Are your outside sources all listed correctly in a bibliography at the end of the paper, as described in http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/plagiarism.html? Papers that do not contain a bibliography will not be accepted. The use of sources that are mentioned in the text but not listed properly in a bibliography will incur at least a one-point penalty for each such use (with greater penalties if your instructors are not able to identify the sources easily based on the information you do provide). Omitting one of the required pieces of bibliographic information described on the page listed above will incur a one-point penalty for each such omission. The use of sources that are not acknowledged properly in the body of the paper constitutes plagiarism (see below).
  8. Do your references to printed sources within the body of your paper contain page numbers? Papers that omit page numbers where they are needed will not be accepted.
  9. Have you avoided inadvertent plagiarism? Plagiarism is treated very seriously by both your instructors and the Dean's office, and the existence of the guide to avoiding plagiarism (http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/plagiarism.html) means that plagiarism will not be presumed to be inadvertent. Even if you would never knowingly commit plagiarism, take the time to read this document and avoid inadvertent academic integrity violations both in this course and in general.
  10. Is the style appropriate? Have you addressed your topic from a scholarly perspective, avoiding slang, irrelevant context (e.g., "In this course we learned ..."), excessive use of first-person statements, and other features that might make your writing sound more like a letter to a friend than an academic paper. Don't use artificially complicated academic jargon either, though; a good middle ground is to write clearly and directly, imagining an audience that is intellectually interested in your reasoned analysis, but not necessarily in your casual thoughts or feelings. Think of what you are writing as analysis, rather than response or reaction.

Technical Matters

  1. Does your paper contain the obligatory cover page described at http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-1/cover_sheet.html? Papers that do not contain this cover page will not be accepted.
  2. Is your paper printed on a computer printer or typed? Papers that are substantially handwritten will not be accepted. Papers with small amounts of handwriting will be marked down depending on the extent. (If your subject matter requires handwriting for some reason, discuss this with your instructor in advance.)
  3. Does your paper meet the guidelines for spacing and margins described above? Papers with grossly deviant spacing or margins will incur a one-point penalty. (We won't pull out a ruler, but your spacing and margins should look normal.)
  4. Have you printed your paper on only one side of the page? Papers that are printed on both sides of the page will incur a one-point penalty.
  5. Have you stapled your paper correctly? Papers that are not fastened with a single staple in the upper left corner will incur a one-point penalty.
  6. Have you included a properly-formatted running header? Papers that do not have a running header containing the student's name and the page number on every page will incur a one-point penalty.
  7. Have you proofread your paper for spelling and grammar? Anyone can let an occasional error slip through, but papers with significant spelling and grammatical errors will incur at least a one-point penalty (with greater penalties in more severe cases).

The reason for these picky details is that your instructors read a very large number of papers. We have a responsibility to read them carefully and provide thoughtful and conscientious feedback and you have a responsibility to ensure their legibility. These technical requirements impose a small burden on each individual student, but they make it considerably easier for your instructors to read your papers.