Prepare research paper on "Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize winner in Economics
1. Your paper is a research paper, ten pages or longer (excluding cover page and references), double spaced with 12 point Times New Roman font to be consistent with APA format. Do not add extra spaces between paragraphs or include large tables or figures and think you have written 10 pages. The idea is to develop content and ideas fully. Papers with tables and figures should exceed ten pages.
2. This is a formal paper written in APA style. There are numerous examples of APA to be found, both from the course Lessons and by searching online for APA. Your paper needs a title page, abstract, section headings (including an introduction and a conclusion), and a list of references cited. References cited need to be double spaced (despite what some formatting software decides for you) with the first line left justified and subsequent lines indented 0.5". Journal or book titles need to be italicized. If you are still not sure about APA formatting, follow examples found on www.apastyle.org.
3. A formal paper uses formal language. Do not use "I," "we," "our," or similar language Instead of saying, "I agree with the authors" you could say, "The authors' assertions seem justified" or "The authors have clearly documented their claim."
4. A formal paper does not use contractions like "doesn't" and is written in technical language, not a conversational style. The APA websites provide examples if you are unsure of what this means.
5. A formal paper makes declarative statements and does not pose questions to the reader. Instead of writing, "Does anyone know with certainty the maximum CO2 concentration that will forestall reaching a tipping point?" you could write, "There is uncertainty among climate scientists regarding the maximum concentration of CO2 ...."
6. The paper is intended to be your original writing. As such, there should be few if any direct quotes from your sources. Re-write the key ideas in your own words, citing the source in the text to attribute the thoughts. Occasionally, quoting is necessary to make a specific point but this should happen rarely.
7. Direct copying without attribution is plagiarism. This includes copy/pasting a photo onto your cover page, a table or chart into your paper, or just repeating the words of an author. Turnitin will flag such "similar language" found in publications, websites, and student papers that have passed through Turnitin. The acceptable percent of similar writing for graduate work is ~10%, excluding bibliography. It is critically important for graduate students to be able to glean information from sources and synthesize their own thoughts in their own words.
8. If you intend to use part of a paper you wrote for another course, be sure to glean the key ideas and re-write in new words just as you would for any other source. Be sure to cite your earlier work as an unpublished manuscript; APA has a format to accommodate such works. Authors build on their earlier works so citing oneself is completely appropriate (even if it feels a bit egotistical). Do not re-use blocks of texts from previous writing; the point of the research paper assignment is for you to increase your knowledge, not to recycle a previous paper. (A recycled paper will earn a grade of zero.)
9. Be precise in your writing and remember that this is an economics course. Present appropriate numbers to support your arguments. Do not use unsubstantiated phrases like "carbon taxes would be unaffordable" or "carbon taxes would destroy the American economy." Instead, present data and discuss your results. If, hypothetically, the average household would be expected to see annual electricity rates rise by $2800 under a certain policy, it is appropriate to state, "The average household's annual electric bill would rise by $2800, representing an increase of X% over the average bill in 20XX." You would need to figure out what X% is but this is a clear and powerful statement. Be careful about mixing mean and median values, too. If the median household income is $42,000 and the median electric bill is $1400, it is appropriate to say that the median electric bill represents 3.3 percent of the median household income. The reader can decide if 3.3 percent is high or low. Let the numbers tell the story to the extent possible.
10. When writing numbers, the rule is that any number less than ten or at the beginning of a sentence is written in words. When non-integer values are written (as in the 3.3 percent example above), numbers less than ten can appear as numerals.
11. Your conclusion is not a summary of your paper. The conclusion ties together the ideas presented and expands briefly on them. It may suggest areas for future research, too. For example, a paper on carbon taxes might conclude that the economics literature has pointed out the theoretical benefits of a policy instrument to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions but the practical hurdles of X, Y, and Z would need to be overcome in order for the tax to be cost-effective. These hurdles are problematic for the following reasons: .... Given the hurdles, the recommendation would be as follows: ....
12. When discussing your literature, be sure to use the past tense since the article, book, or website was written in the past. "The article stated" or "the article explained" or "the authors found" are all proper statements in the past tense. Do not say "The article states" or "the author claims."
13. When using an acronym (like GHG), introduce the entire phrase first and place the acronym in parentheses. After this initial usage, it is appropriate to use the acronym alone. An example would be, "There is a concern regarding emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) consisting of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and ..." After this sentence you can use GHG or CO2 without further explanation.