Style Guide for Assignments (of Professor Kims Courses)

Daehwan Kim Department of Economics, Konkuk University dkim@konkuk.ac.kr 5 November 2012 Failure to follow these guidelines will significantly lower your grade for the assignment. Two principles of academic writing that I consider very important are the following: Be concise, but complete. Only carefully processed information should be included.

All the rest can be more or less derived from the above two principles. Nonetheless, I will try to spell out as much as I can: Please type all your writing, including mathematical symbols, using a word processor. Hand written answer will receive a lower grade. Do not make a title page. Put your name and other info at the top of the first page. Limit the number of pages in your report to the specified maximum. Even if the maximum is not specified, be reasonable. Do not include graphs unless they add any value to your discussion (except when you are asked to add specific graphs.) The same is true for tables of numbers. In general, do not report raw data (again except when you are asked to do that.) Also, do not copy computer-generated outputs without careful selection and formatting. Choose only such information that you determine relevant to your discussion. Also, choose only such information that you understand and feel comfortable discussing. I said that unnecessary graphs and tables should not be included into the report. This means that any graph and table included in the report should be discussed in the text. No answer is considered complete unless accompanied by thoughtful analysisin words, not just in numbers or in graphs. If you are still unsure of the above statements, consider the following: Keep the non-text to text ratio as low as possible. If tables, graphs, equations, and any other objects in the report take x lines, and if you write y lines of text, then your non-text to text ratio is x/y. Even in special circumstances, this ratio should not be greater than 0.5. Any graph output should be carefully formatted. The quality of the graph contributes to the determination of the overall quality of the report. Avoid copying a low quality graph from other sources. The same is true of tables as well.

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Do not copy others text, from Wikipedia/Google/Naver or from other electronic and non-electronic sources. As a general rule, using more than three words in the identical sequence counts as plagiarism.

Do not copy others words, with or without quotation marks. Quotation marks do not give you the right to fill the entire report with someone else thoughts. One concern is that you steal others thought and pretend it is yours. (That is the problem with plagiarism.) The other concern is that your report does not include any original thought.

Needless to say: Do not copy words from another teams report. Use complete sentences only, and use carefully divided paragraphs, with proper indentation or the extra line spacing (but not both). Avoid bullet points, numbered lists, etc.

Regarding the final point, I know I am contradicting myself. Using bullet points can be effective, especially when your audience has the short attention span. In your writing, however, you may assume that your audience does not have such deficiency. In any case, I am attaching another version of this style guide with proper paragraphs, to set a proper example.

Style Guide for Assignments of Professor Kims Courses [Edited Version]

Daehwan Kim Department of Economics, Konkuk University dkim@konkuk.ac.kr 5 November 2012 Failure to follow these guidelines will significantly lower your grade for the assignment. So read on carefully. Two principles of academic writing that I consider very important are the following: (i) Be concise, but complete. (ii) Only carefully processed information should be included. All the rest can be more or less derived from the above two principles. Nonetheless, I will spell out as much as I can. First of all, type all your writing, including mathematical symbols, using a word processor. Hand written answer will receive a lower grade. Also, do not make a title page. Put your name and other info at the top of the first page. And limit the number of pages in your report to the specified maximum. Even if the maximum is not specified, be reasonable. Do not include graphs unless they add any value to your discussion, except when you are asked to add specific graphs. The same is true for tables of numbers. In general, do not report raw data (again except when you are asked to do that.) Also, do not copy computer-generated outputs without careful selection and

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formatting. Choose only such information that you determine relevant to your discussion. Also, choose only such information that you understand and feel comfortable discussing. I said that unnecessary graphs and tables should not be included into the report. This means that any graph and table included in the report should be discussed in the text. No answer is considered complete unless accompanied by thoughtful analysisin words, not just in numbers or in graphs. If you are still unsure of the above statements, consider the following: Keep the non-text to text ratio as low as possible. If tables, graphs, equations, and any other objects in the report take x lines, and if you write y lines of text, then your non-text to text ratio is x/y. Even in special circumstances, this ratio should not be greater than 0.5. Any graph output should be carefully formatted. The quality of the graph contributes to the overall quality of the report. Avoid copying a low quality graph from other sources. The same is true of tables as well. Do not copy others text, from Wikipedia/Google/Naver or from other electronic and non-electronic sources. As a general rule, using more than three words in the identical sequence counts as plagiarism. Do not copy others words, with or without quotation marks. Quotation marks do not give you the right to fill the entire report with someone else thoughts. One concern is that you steal others thought and pretend it is yours. (That is the problem with plagiarism.) The other concern is that your report does not include any original thought. Needless to say: Do not copy words from another teams report. Finally, use complete sentences only, and use carefully divided paragraphs, with proper indentation or the extra line spacing, but not both. Avoid bullet points, numbered lists, etc.

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