Physics J784 Paper Details
Spring 2009
Due Date: 5:00 pm April 1, 2009.
You will choose or be assigned a term-paper topic early in the course. Your paper must not be late. For each day that
your paper is late, you will lose one grade increment (I consider it to be late if it is turned in after 5pm on the due date).
I will not read your paper until you have turned it in for a grade, so please don't ask me to look at your rough
draft. I will, however, discuss your topic with you to help you understand it. I encourage you to
start on your paper early so you have plenty of time to discuss it with me if you run into difficulties. Look over the list of
topics in the course and choose something related.
Your paper should be 900 to 1100 words long (approximately 3 double-spaced, typewritten pages).
However, these should be three excellent pages. I strongly urge you to write a five-page paper initially,
let it sit for a week or so, then edit it down to a three-page paper. The final product should be something
of which you are proud. It should be really concise and well-organized. More than a small amount of
"filler" will significantly affect your grade. Remember, if a five-page paper has two pages of filler, these
should be eliminated in editing, so your three page paper would have no filler at all!
Also, you will receive a bonus of one increment if you attach a photograph of you with the object (or effect)
of your
discussion. YOU must be in the photograph. If the object or effect is readily visible in the photograph, the
reader will be impressed even further. My intention is to encourage you to investigate something tangible.
Your paper must be typed, using a reasonable font, point size, and margins. Your paper should focus on one
object/effect/idea from the world around you and identify the different physical concepts that
are important. You should describe what these physical concepts are and how they
contribute to the observed behavior. However, if the topic that is so broad that you can only
describe a tiny piece of it, then narrow the topic to a manageable size.
You should be able to cover the main idea in enough detail to make the reader feel like
you actually understand "how it works" overall. The grade you receive will reflect how well your paper
conveys an overall understanding, including a fair amount of specificity. Don't
be vague or mushy. In the physical world, there really are correct and incorrect statements. Vague
statements that can be misinterpreted in a way that makes them incorrect are not helpful. Please check
your grammar and spelling and proofread your papers. Bad writing will reduce your grade.
You are encouraged to use references, written or otherwise, but create the paper on your own. You may
not work with anyone else on your paper. You may, however, get technical information
from a knowledgeable person as long as you do the thinking about
that information and you write the paper. Visit the library and the internet. Attach a simple sheet listing all of your
references to the back of your paper. I am not asking for a paper full of footnotes, but write it yourself.
Do not plagerize!
I will be grading your papers. Do not assume that I know everything
about the topic that you have chosen and don't assume that I am to fill in missing ideas. In other
words: don't target the paper to me or what you may think I know. It is reasonable, however, for you to
use the kinds of explanations and analogies used in class. You must pursue each physical issue
carefully and in sufficient detail that a person knowledgeable in basic physics will understand how that
issue relates to the topic. You must also ensure that the reader has a good overall
picture of the object. In short, structure the paper carefully so that it provides a good overall picture and
many specific details that fit clearly into that overall picture. Your paper should be readable and
informative to a student who is doing well in this class.
Physics J784 is a physics course and your paper will be judged
according to how effective it is at explaining the physics and physical concepts that are involved.
In particular, the A range papers will be those that get right to work discussing physical
concepts. B range papers will be those that discuss some physical
concepts, but either bog down while discussing only a few, have significant mistakes
in them, or waste too much space on non-physics issues such as history, users' manuals, description, etc.
C range papers will be those that fail almost completely to discuss physical
concepts and instead dwell on history, users' manuals, description, or instructions. If
your paper doesn't contain much that you learned in this course (or its equivalent), you probably haven't
written a physics paper.
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Last Modified 01/12/09