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Assignment | Texas Policy Project (Henry): Organize Your Report

GOVT 2306 Texas Government | Prof. Bryan Henry (Summer 2020)

Organizing Your Paper

Your report should have at least 8 paragraphs in the following order:

  1. Define the policy problem: what is it that you're researching? (1 paragraph)
  2. Identify a policy solution (at least 1 paragraph)
  3. Identify another policy solution (at least 1 paragraph)
  4. Evaluate the solutions
  5. More evaluation (at least 2 body paragraphs of this)
  6. Compare the solutions
  7. More comparison (at least 2 body paragraphs of this)
  8. Endorse a policy solution (1 paragraph)

You do not need to write an intro or conclusion, or create transitions between the paragraphs -- this isn't that kind of paper. Do label each section with a heading.

Instead of Quoting...

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*  PARAPHRASE. *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Original Text from Source:

A much larger analogue of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble thought to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But whereas the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane.

How should you add this information to your paper?

"A much larger analogue of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble thought to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But whereas the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane" ("Two Years On").

The Break-down:

  • Too long of a quote for a 4-page paper
  • Doesn't use any original content to introduce the quote or finish up the thought

The Kuiper Belt consists of icy chunks of frozen water, ammonia, and methane believed to be "leftover from the formation of the solar system," much like the rocky field of the asteroid belt ("Two Years On").

The Break-down:

  • Only directly quotes what is needed
  • Original content introduces the quote

Though both the asteroid belt and Kuiper belt are believed to be remnants of the solar system's formation, the Kuiper belt consists mostly of ice rather than rock, including frozen methane and ammonia as well as water ("Two Years On").

The Break-down:

  • The source material is almost completely re-written
  • This would much more easily fit into the organization of my paper.

A bigger version of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble believed to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But while the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane.

The Break-down:

  • No citation is given
  • Even if there were a citation, there are no quotation marks around the words repeated verbatim.
  • A few words have been swapped out for synonyms but this does not actually introduce originality.

Works Cited Citation:

“Two Years On, the Kuiper Belt is in Sight.” The Economist, 16 Sept. 2017, www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2017/09/16/two-years-on-the-kuiper-belt-is-in-sight.