Your final will consist of demonstrating your ability to present the knowledge you have acquired about your chosen topic in a written report.  You are expected to compose the report in YOUR OWN WORDS. You many supplement your original composition with quotes or references from other sources, but you must cite those sources within your report by using internal citations using MLA style formatting. It must be clear what is coming from you and what is information that someone else has written.

The MLA style requires you to adhere to the following guidelines:

Double space all pages of the paper
1" margin on top, bottom, left, and right
Use paragraph formatting with text left aligned
Indent the first word of each paragraph 1/2" from the left margin
Place a page number 1/2" from the top margin on the right side of each page
Precede the page number on each page with your last name

My additional requirements are as follows:

• The report must be typed with a font of 11 in Arial or Times New Roman
• You must include a cover page with your report title, your name, the date, and the class name
• You must include a works cited page that provides the details of your internal citations; this should be stapled at the end of your report.
• You must have a minimum of three pages and you may not exceed 5 pages for the body of the report. The body of the report does not include the works cited page or the cover page.
• You must include in your report, the reason why you chose your topic and an explanation of how the knowledge you have obtained will better prepare you to compete or function in the world of work.
• You must submit a report that has ORIGINAL COMPOSITION - in other words- it needs to be your thoughts in your own words. Those thoughts should then be supported by quotes or references from other sources - and again, you must cite those sources.

Your task is to find additional information about the topic you select from the above list. I am expecting you to make a concerted effort to research your topic. Your report must contain relevant and current information that is supplemental to what we have covered in class. Also, while you should include additional resources/quotes- you may not have that be the majority of your report. Lack of original composition will result in receiving a zero for the assignment. This means if the majority of your report is composed of other people's thoughts and quotes (even if you provide the citations for them) then you will receive a zero for the assignment. 

Plagiarism will result in your failing this course. If you copy what I've already written or what someone else has written - be that another professional, fellow student, from the internet, a book, magazine, etc. and you do not provide citations for that within the body of your report, you will receive a zero for the course.

If I determine that two or more of you are sharing work or submitting the same material, each student involved will fail the course.

Again, you must write this report yourself! You must come up with the words, out of your head. Do not copy, summarize, paraphrase or any other like thing from someone else, the internet, a book, magazine, etc.  EVERY TIME you use someone else's words or even summarize or paraphrase someone else's words, you MUST CITE YOUR SOURCE! Failure to do so is plagiarizing and you will fail this course and possibly be expelled from GRCC. Our Dean, Ron Wheadon takes plagiarism very seriously and so do I.

It's much easier to write a report in your own words if you choose a topic that is interesting to you and you can relate to. Use your own personal experiences within your report. Tell me what YOU think, give me examples from YOUR own experience.  This not only makes the report interesting, but it personalizes it and that helps you avoid plagiarism.

For more information on the MLA formatting guidelines - you can check out the following website: www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html