Assess the arguments and evidence in the supplementary readings

Students will prepare a brief (2-3 page) summary of the principal arguments and assess the arguments and evidence in the supplementary readings that the instructor distributes electronically in the course. Each Journal is should be submitted by 11:59PM on the day that the supplementary reading is listed on the Course Schedule. [These items are preceded by “Reading” on that Schedule. Note students can take this opportunity up to four times in the semester.]?Besides briefly summarizing the findings of the article, each Journal submission should contain (1) identifying information about the author, i.e. “Professor of Economics at Michigan State University and director of the Center for Sustainable Economics”; (2) assess the strength of the article’s evidence and logic; and (3) conclude on the pertinence of the article to the study of Frederick Douglass’s life and times. .

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.