Select a topic that has something to do with plants.  Yes, anything that has to do with plants will do, you have all kinds of latitude on the subject.  The paper should be:

□    double-spaced (do not use enters after every line, use the double-space feature)

□    12 pt. font

□    Times New Roman font

□    1-inch margins on all sides

□    Written in 3^rd person

□    Use at least three references (internet, books, whatever), except do not use Wikipedia (many things are good in Wikipedia, but anyone can contribute). 

□    Use MLA format (cite references properly)

□    A cover sheet without headers or footers (with title, your name, UI 344-(section #) Plants and Humanity, assignment number, the name of the person who reviewed your paper (see below), date turned in and word count).  I know that MLA does not have cover sheets, but it also gives discretion to the instructor.  Since you have a cover sheet, I do NOT want you to have the information at the top of the paper, in a header, etc. as MLA prescribes.  This helps me greatly when it comes to sending a paper to another student to critique.

 

□    *Your paper should be no less than 400 words and no more than 500 (excluding cover sheet and Works Cited).  If you are over or under the word count by a little, your grade will be dinged a little.  If you give me the wrong word count, you will be dinged more.

The grade will be based on:

□    Content

□    Grammatical and structural correctness (at least 3 references properly cited using MLA)

□    Formatted properly as described above

□    I also look for an introduction and conclusion, and a thesis statement in the right place

You may get up to 5 points back for correcting your paper, based on the suggestions.  It is very likely that some of you will get more than 30 points for this assignment by writing a good paper to begin with.  To get correction points, it has to be returned by the due date. 

Assignment Goals: Improve writing skills; learn to be concise in writing; learn proper citation methods; learn to follow instructions.

Be sure to check the following before submitting your paper

□    A cover sheet with the information requested above, including an accurate word count

□    A “Works Cited” page (last page, separate) correctly cited (MLA format)

□    All references properly cited in the text

 

 13 PowerPoint slides long.  This includes

□     1-Title Slide

□     10-Information Slides (“The End” does not count in this number)

□     At least one Questions Slide

□     1-References Slide (references do not have to be cited within the presentation itself)

□          The Questions slide(s) should have two True-False and two Multiple-choice questions about the presentation.Do not use “all of the above,” as it is the correct answer most of the time One third of your presentation grade will be based on the questions.

□          I want you to use at least one graphic that is pertinent to the presentation.

The questions should be about the most important points in your presentation.  Your presentations will be posted on the class web site and you will be responsible for knowing the answers to the questions at the end of each presentation.  I may use some of the same questions that are on the presentations for the test, or I may modify the questions somewhat on the test.  This seems obvious but, be sure to answer the questions in the presentation.The grades for the presentation will be based on the following:

        Content and Quality of Power Point, ease of following the presentation

        Grammar and structure

   Quality of the questions- Ask well-thought-out questions that do not have obvious answers, like “T/F All people love peanuts.” 

The file size for presentations must not exceed 2 Megabytes.  If you use high-resolution pictures, it can make the file too big.  You can easily reduce the size of a picture with a photo-editor program, before you insert them into your presentation.  I like Picasa, if you want to download a free photo-editing program.  You can also use an online photo editor like Pixlr, which works fine.