The paper
Word limit: 1200~1500 words
Topic
Apply the concepts and ideas that we have discussed in this class to a personal experience. For example, it can be anything that you might have experienced yourself or something that you might have read in a book or seen in a movie or on a TV show. You can also base your paper on something you have already written about for any of the assignments in this class.
Style
You should write this paper pretending that the person reading it has not been part of this class. That is, you will need to clearly explain any concepts and ideas that you use from this class.
Citing sources
The general rule is that if you are presenting an idea that you did not come up with, you need to identify the source, and if you are actually using someone else's words you need to use quotation marks in addition to identifying the source.
Failure to identify sources properly will result in an automatic "0" for the paper and possibly for the class.
Model
Suppose that I want to write a paper about a movie where linguistic variation plays some role. A paper about this would require the following:
- Relevant background information about the movie.
- Detailed description of the linguistic phenomena featured in the film.
- If possible, add links to relevant parts of the movie.
- Discussion of the relevant ideas and concepts that you are using. Include references (with page numbers) to the books by Lippi-Green, and Milroy and Milroy, and to any other material that you have consulted.
- Explicit analysis of the movie facts using relevant ideas and concepts.
- A conclusion.