Essays

The second essay should be approximately 1,000 words long. Microsoft Word contains a word count feature under the Tools menu. Please try to stay close to the 1,000 word limit. Your TA will have approximately 90 essays to read. You will not earn points for longer essays, and it could work against you. A short essay is actually more difficult to write than a long essay. A well organized essay will receive more credit than one that rambles.

At the top of the page listing the lectures for the course, there are links to the instructions on how to write the essays. The links look like this:

Instructions for Essay 1 - Due Friday, April 15 at 5:00pm

Instructions for Essay 2 - Due Wednesday, May 18 at 5:00pm

Essays will be due at 5:00 pm on Friday April 15, and 5:00 pm on Wednesday May 18.

To submit your essay, logon to the smartsite.ucdavis.edu page for the course. Click on the link in the left hand column that says "Assignments". On the new screen that opens up, under the words "Assignment Title", click on "Essay 1" or "Essay 2". When the next screen opens, click on "Add Attachments". When the next screen opens, click on "Choose File". Find and select your essay file on your computer and click on "Choose". Wait for your file to upload and appear in the list "Items to attach". Then, click on "Continue". On the next screen that opens, click on "Submit". The next screen will say "Submission Confirmation" and you will be sent an email indicating successful submission. Print or save a copy of the Submission Confirmation screen and the confirmation email you receive.

You should utilize the grammar and spell check features of Microsoft Word to correct as many spelling and grammar problems as possible before submitting your essays. You will find this under the Tools menu of Microsoft Word. If something in your document is underlined in red or green, be sure to check the spelling and grammar suggestions prior to submission. Also proofread your essay yourself to locate correctly spelled but misused words.

If you submit an essay late, which is after 5:00pm on the day of the week it is due, you will lose 10 points for each day the essay is late including weekend days and holidays. For example, if you submit your essay between 5:01pm on the due date and 5:00 pm on the following day, you will lose 10 points for the "day" that it is late.

It is your responsibility to double check the Assignments area of smartsite.ucdavis.edu to be sure that your essay was submitted properly. If you can't get the essay to submit from your home computer, go to one of the campus computer labs and try to do it from there. If you are having trouble with the procedure, it is best to first ask one of the campus computer lab monitors to help you. Then, if you are still having a problem, let your TA know. If you cannot get your essay submitted through smartsite.ucdavis.edu, email your essay to your TA.

If you have a legitimate excuse for not submitting an essay on time, email your TA before the essay is due.

If you do submit an essay late, it is your responsibility to email your TA that you have submitted the essay. If your TA does not know you have submitted your essay, it will not be graded.

TA's will read and grade the essays as quickly as they can. However, each TA will have 90 or so essays to read and grade. Remember that in addition to teaching, the TA's are also taking classes and doing research for their degrees. All TA's will be using the same criteria for grading. To assure that this is the case, all TA's will grade several of the same essays and agree on the grading criteria.

One difficulty in a course like this is that we cannot return your essay to you in the classroom and we are not allowed to put them in hallway drop boxes. If your TA grades the essays electronically, they will be returned to you electronically and the grade will be posted in the Gradebook2 section of smartsite.ucdavis.edu. If your TA prefers to write on the essay itself, the grade will be posted electronically in the Grades section of smartsite.ucdavis.edu, but if you want your essay returned, you will need to contact your TA and arrange a time to pick it up.

Depending on how quickly the TA's can grade the essays, you may not receive your Essay 2 grade before you take the final exam. The essay grades for all sections will be released at the same time. This is because in the past some students have felt students receiving essay grades prior to the final had an advantage over those who did not.

REVIEW: Which of the following is true about the Essay requirement?
a. You will be submitting 2 essays during the quarter. The second essay will be 1,000 words long.
b. Essay due dates are 5:00 pm Friday April 15, and 5:00 pm Wednesday May 18.
c. You will submit you essays as attachments under the Assignments feature of SmartSite.
d. If submitting the attachment doesn't work when you try it in Assignments, you will email your essay to your TA.
e. You will lose 10 points for each day your essay is late, including weekends and holidays.
f. All of the other answers are correct.
Answer f