How to do it: Based on the online news articles you post on Packback questions throughout the semester (i.e., only the questions you post, not the comments of others), there’s a good chance you’ll see a topic come up, or some articles that you find particularly interesting, a subset of your collection. Something you want to discuss and expand on.
Your final paper should be approximately 4 pages (double spaced) of at least 1000 words of paper/analysis/commentary focusing on your topic and using news articles you gathered from your backpack question submissions throughout the semester to support your ideas/ideas/conclusions. Your final essay is worth 100 points (10% of your grade).
Important: We don’t answer questions like "Do you think XX would be a good topic for my paper?" If it’s accepted by The Backpack Problem, great. Once you have a fair number of articles (at least 3-4), it’s easy to develop a topic based on what you get from the articles.
Format: Provide a template in the menu below.
Submit: Below is the submit menu. Only PDF or WORD documents can be submitted. You have unlimited submissions. Only the last submission will be graded!
Scoring criteria: Scoring criteria are provided in the menu below.
This is not a research paper! It should only cite news articles that were included in your previously submitted backpack question (e.g. "The New York Times article discussed in my submitted Backpack No. 3 illustrates my point…." ). See the template below for more information.
Write in your own words: do not use articles, websites, other students’ words, etc….. Plagiarism is a violation of the honor Code and will be reported. You will get a zero for your homework.
All assignments are uploaded to safe assignment. It automatically compares the text to other assignments and public texts (newspapers, magazines, websites, etc.).
In the menu below, we provide an FAQ, templates, and scoring criteria.