These instructions are designed to provide detailed information on the individual written assignments and the procedures incorporated in the project. The assignment descriptions provide you with a clear indication of the criteria I will use in grading the written assignments for the project. The breakdown of weight for individual assignments will give you a clear indication of the relative importance of each project activity to your final project grade. Read this entire document carefully.

Note: This is an upper level class. It is expected that you are familiar with expository writing, basic research skills and university writing requirements, including plagiarism guidelines. If you are not, please refer to the list of online writing resources at the end of this document. You can always ask me about specific, concrete problems relating to the writing assignments! I will be glad to advise you!

This essay should serve the purpose of connecting the ideas in your article to your own observations and/or the concepts introduced in the first phase of class and thereby show a connection between the author's ideas and your own perceptions and knowledge. All generalizations based on personal observation or reflection should be explained and supported where necessary. The reflective essay should present ideas which will naturally lead to peer discussion. It should make explicit reference to concepts and principles that we have studied in Phase 1 wherever applicable.

Within the framework of this assignment, you must prepare a list of 2-3 questions for the group discussion of the articles. Your questions may focus on individual points in any of the articles, discrepancies or points of agreement within them, or points of connection to our studies in Phase 1. These should be posted in the appropriate discussion area of the classroom.
 

During the first weeks of the project, you will be asked to contribute two additional web-based resources (either from the UMUC databases or the internet) to the peer webliography. Your resources will be graded on their authority, currency, and their relevance to the discussions.

You will also be responsible for co-leading the initial round of discussion on the group members' questions and for showing discussion leadership in the continuing discussion of topics developing after the initial round of questions.

The greatest single important aspect of this assignment is that of originality. Besides the usual requirements for expository writing and research work, with which you are expected to be familiar, this paper must express some original idea or perspective in connection with the readings and/or discussions from the project. It must be well-reasoned and supported, as well as showing the usual formal expository skills of unity, coherence and development.

Since all research resources (i.e., selection of readings) will be available to all of us in the classroom, a formal bibliography will not be necessary. However, all quotes and paraphrases must be identified through use of proper punctuation and parenthetical reference to author!

If you read the above description carefully, you can see that this paper should somehow show connection to any or all of the following:

• the project articles (including peer webliography)

• some aspect of the articles or the special topic area that you have noticed as a result of your reading and/or discussion

• some aspect of the discussion that you would like to formally develop (you may quote fellow students, for example, and reflect upon their responses in relation to the textbook or articles...)

In keeping with the objective of the assignment, you may use any of the following materials in the preparation of your short paper:  the project articles; information or quotes from your discussions; the peer webliography; material from our archived discussions in Phase 1; our textbook.

The main requirements, as you can see, are that your paper fall within the area of your selected special topic area, that it directly connect to work you've done in the project, that it present some original idea about what you have read or discussed, and that is rely solely on research materials that have been presented in this class or in the project. 
 

The final exam will ask you to review discussion and/or presentations from the project or Phase 1 of the course, to identify 2 or 3 significant ideas, observations or conclusions from either articles or student discussion and to explore these in light of selected elements of Intercultural Communication introduced during Phase 1 of the class.
 

For the purposes of grading, the project assignments will be divided into two areas. The first area includes the reflective essay, discussion questions, web research resources and performance in discussion leadership.  (Project Assignment 1, parts 1-2) The second includes the short paper. (Project Assignment 2)  Both areas will be weighted equally. Project assignments will be subject to grade reduction in the case of late submissions (one full grade per day).

All written assignments will be graded on the assignment-specific criteria noted in this document, as well as on the generally accepted formal qualities of university writing. The discussion questions will be evaluated on the basis of their clarity, originality and their potential for motivating discussion.
 

Phase 2 participation is reliant on peer interaction and co-leadership. In Phase 2 you will be graded on your responsiveness to the questions and thoughts presented by your peers, as well as your timeliness in responding to peer input.

50% of the participation grade in this course will be accorded the project.
 

The Reflective Essays will be posted to the project groups. They may be cut & pasted or attached, as your group decides, and will serve as a basis for your discussions.

The Short Paper will be posted in the Paper Presentation conference that I will create in the second to last week of class.

I will pick up all project writing assignments from the classroom, read them and then return them to you in your portfolios at the end of the project. In order for this to be possible, you must go into your folder, click the link for the project assignments and enter a simple message in the textbox, thus "faking" a submission to that area. I can't return comments to the folder unless it thinks you've submitted something there. We've requested that this function be modified so that you don't have to do this... but, for now, we have to trick the folder.

The Final Exam will be submitted to the assignment folder separately. Evaluations will be returned to the portfolio.

Misunderstanding the conventions of citation has become a huge problem in connection with web resources, which are popularly perceived as having no copyright protection.  However, this isn't true. 

Any time any of us present ideas which are not our own, whether this material is directly quoted, paraphrased or even summarized, we must make clear reference to this source. This is true in discussion threads, as well as in formal assignments. 

Most student plagiarism is the result of misunderstanding.  However, as university students, understanding plagiarism on and off the web is your responsibility. If you do not understand the exact definitions or guidelines concerning plagiarism, acquaint yourselves with these at the following URLs.

If you have not taken the Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory's online plagiarism tutorial, please do! If you can get through this online tutorial with a certificate, you stand good chances of never inadvertently plagiarizing:-)

Other resources on plagiarism and writing:

Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory

UMUC Online Guide to Writing and Research

UMUC Research Skills Tutorial

Purdue University Writing Lab
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index2.html

Guide to Grammar and Style
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing

The Writer's Complex
http://www.esc.edu/writer