Final Project Guidelines

Your final project is a portfolio consisting of revisions of the blueprint for progress that you submitted in Unit 6, the letter to the editor that you wrote in Unit 5, and the presentation that you created in Unit 7. The presentation can take the form of a blog, podcast, brochure, slide show, or one of the other multi-media forms covered in the tech labs or approved by your instructor. You will also write a reflection piece that answers the following questions in paragraph form:

• What did you learn about yourself as a writer? As a thinker?
• What did you learn about the process of writing?
• What skills did you develop that might help you in the future?
• What did you take from the larger conversation with others?
• How did your feedback from peers and your instructor affect the revision of your blueprint, letter to the editor, and presentation?

Remember:

• You are writing a paper that makes an argument. Its goal is to persuade others of the value of your Big Idea.
• You are using outside research to support this argument, but your paper and presentation should focus on your own ideas and use your own analysis of this outside research to make the argument.
• The length requirement of 5-7 pages is just for the essay component of the assignment. That length does not include the title and references page.

Sources: Your research paper must directly refer to at least five sources (in the paper’s text, not just on the references page). At least two should be scholarly books or articles, and at least one of those should come from the Kaplan library. One great way to find academic sources is to look for articles in refereed or peer-reviewed journals, and Academic Search Premier” allows you to limit your search to scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals.

Your final project research paper must include a references page containing all sources referenced in your paper and presentation. The references page is in addition to, not included in, the 5-7 page minimum required for the paper. It also must include a title page. You can view models of these in the Writing Center’s reading,APA Manuscript Style and Sample APA Research Paper.

A final important note: your final paper must be original work written for this class. This means that you must be the author (turning in a paper written by someone else is plagiarism and will not be tolerated) and you must not have turned your final project (or another version of it) in for a grade in another class. If you wish to further develop a paper or idea you had for a prior class, you must first get your instructor’s permission to do so, and you must send your instructor that paper along with the instructor’s name, course number, and quarter it was submitted. With rare exception, this is discouraged. The goal of this course is to improve your writing, and that only happens through practice. If you do not write, you cannot improve your writing.

Further, you turned in a draft version (the Unit 6 Project) before your final version (the Unit 9 Project).

You will not receive credit for turning in the same version more than once (for example, turning the same paper in as both your draft and final project).

Your final project must show significant and substantial revision from the draft, meaning multiple paragraphs must be significantly revised, other paragraphs must have been added or deleted, etc. If you are unclear about what constitutes significant revision” talk to your instructor prior to turning in your final project.

Consult your course Syllabus for grading rubrics for this and other course projects. These rubrics will guide you in how these projects are assessed and graded.

The Final Project will be due at the end of Unit 9.

Submitting your Project

Put all components of your project except for the presentation in a single Word document. The presentation can either be attached as a separate file in the Dropbox , or you can include a link to an external web site in the reflection section of your written document. Save it in a location and with a name that you will remember. When you are ready to submit it, go to the Dropbox, located in the tab above next to DocSharing, and complete the steps below:

• Click the link that says ‘Submit an Assignment’.
• In the ‘Submit to Basket’ menu, select Unit 9: Dropbox.
• In the ‘Comments’ field, make sure to add at least the title of your paper.
• Click the ‘Add Attachments’ button.
• Follow the steps listed to attach your Word document.
• To view your graded work, come back to the Dropbox or go to the Gradebook after your instructor has evaluated it.
• Make sure that you save a copy of your submitted assignment.