Final Project Guidelines

IASC 2P60 Web 2.0 Guidelines for Final Project Due Dec 3, 2009

From the coursework throughout the term, pick a subject of your choice. Rather than a general question, devise a specific question that you can thoroughly investigate. The final project has to be a different topic than both your presentation and review.

Fore example: Which online activist networks provide the most effective political tool for Niagara region climate activists?

Via email or office hours, Please clear your topic with the instructor by November 12th.
Final project is due December 3. No late papers will be accepted without medical documentation.

This project can be either
1) A 1500 word essay or
2) A creative project accompanied by a scholarly statement. It allows you to connect the ideas proposed in the class to your own research interests.


IF you write an essay: Structure your argument (optional brief and snappy introduction, thesis paragraph, development of argument in subsequent paragraphs, conclusion, optional new hypothesis that “leads out” of the essay). Avoid simple narration, dictionary definitions, clichés, generalizations, and other writing that just takes up space. Make every sentence count. Aspire for a writing style, but first make sure your grammar and spelling are impeccable and your argument is wonderfully clear.

Length: 1500 words

If you make a project: You still need a thesis and an argument. The difference is that creating a Web project that demonstrates some aspect of your thesis will carry out part of your argument. The project itself should be very simple. Submit full description of the project with the essay.
Your accompanying essay statement will discuss your project in terms of the specific theoretical questions, and explore theoretical ramifications in terms of your project, topics stated as above. It is a scholarly essay and follows the guidelines above.

Length: 750 words.

Plagiarism is a terrible waste of time. You will learn nothing, and results in the failure of the assignment or entire course. Please consult the Brock website to ensure you understand what constitutes plagiarism.

Essay Guidelines

1. Essays should be double-spaced.

2. Essays should begin with an introductory paragraph in which you explain what you intend to do in the rest of the essay: 'In this essay I want to develop a reading of XXX in order to show that ...'; or 'This essay will focus on XXX in order to explore ...'; or 'In what follows we will analyze XXX in order to demonstrate ...' [or a variation on any of these]. It's often better to write your introduction after you have finished the rest of your essay when you know what you have actually done in the essay.

3. Make sure that everything you write contributes towards (and can be seen to contribute towards) your answer to the question. If it doesn't, cut it out. Don't waste your time or your reader's.

4. Essays should be written in properly punctuated, grammatically coherent sentences. If you don't know how to do this, consult a book that will help you.

5. Essays should be written in paragraphs: paragraphs are not arbitrary divisions on the page but related to divisions in the argument. Remember: same point, same paragraph; new point, new paragraph.

6. Each paragraph should make one main point (and each sentence in the paragraph should contribute to that point). Since every point you make needs to be supported by quoted evidence (see point 7), it follows that every paragraph should contain at least one relevant quotation. (This doesn't apply to the introduction and conclusion: in the introduction you don't make points but indicate what points you are going to make in the rest of the essay; in the conclusion, you draw together the points you have made in the rest of the essay.)

7. An essay should answer the question by developing an argument. This is done by presenting and analyzing textual evidence in support of all your important claims. This applies not only to the claims you make about what you are analyzing, but also (in this case) to your claims about the general concerns of Web 2.0. If you claim that the imagination is one of Web 2.0’s central concerns, you need to demonstrate that this is the case by quoting appropriate evidence from one or more writers (or from appropriate secondary sources - i.e., critics). Remember: assertions (claims unsupported by evidence) earn no marks in academic essays.

8. Textual evidence (quotations) should be presented according to the guidelines set out in the Department under which you study your major.

9. All quotations should be introduced in ways that make it clear who or what you are quoting, and why. Formulae such as the following are useful: 'Richardson suggests that childhood is a recent invention: [quotation]'.

10. All quotations should be followed by a reference. This should take the form specified in yours Department’s style guide. All references should be correlated with items in a bibliography or works cited at the end whose layout conforms to the guidelines set out in the Department Handbook.

11. Sometimes the passage that you quote speaks for itself. But often it's worth analyzing the passage that you have quoted, especially if it is long or complex, or if the point you are trying to make with it is not obvious.

12. Essays should discuss texts in the present tense: 'This metaphor implies that ...'.

13. Your essay should end with a concluding paragraph. This should consist of more than a single sentence. It should not normally introduce new material or ideas. Nor should it wax lyrical about how wonderful the author or text is. Instead, it should try to draw together and reflect on the main points that you have demonstrated or discovered in the essay (these points should, of course, add up to an answer to the question). The conclusion should announce that it is a conclusion by beginning with phrases like 'We have seen that...'. Phrases such as 'To conclude' can also be used, but they seem redolent of school essays, not university work.

14. The secret to good writing is re-writing. Most professional writers and literary critics will rewrite something several times in order to eliminate mistakes and improve the argument. You ought to do likewise. Word-processing is a great help here, though it's sometimes better to print out your essay and go through it with a pen, correcting errors, re-writing sentences, shifting paragraphs around, and so on. Such changes can then be made on screen. Then print out again, correct again, and so on. Try to read your own writing with a critical eye. Become your own best critic.


Please clear your topic with the instructor by November 12th.