😀 Length requirements: 1500-2000 words
(recommended, not required). Submissions that are substantially short of, or go over, this range will not be penalized on a strict quantitative basis(e.g., 2% per 100 words or some other such formula), but they may lose nominal marks for failing to adhere to the formal/technical requirements in the event that they significantly exceed or fall shy of the requirements.
😀 Research requirements: Students must cite or refer to at least five (5) academic sources
which no more than one (1) can be from the course assigned readings. (Course assigned readings do not have to be used; all academic sources can be from outside of the course.) An academic source can include an article from a peer-reviewed journal, a chapter from a text published by a university or scholarly press, etc. Non-academic sources like newspaper articles or blog entries can also be used but will only count as half (0.5) an academic source, and a maximum of two (2) non-academic sources (i.e., the equivalent of one (1) academic source) may count towards the minimum number of academic sources that must be included in the paper.
If students are unsure as to whether a source can be considered sufficiently academic, they should ask the instructor to confirm its acceptability.
Students must cite each of their sources at least once, either through quotations or paraphrases.
In addition to their assignment, students must also submit copies of their scholarly and non-scholarly sources, in which the passages or excerpts cited in their essay have been highlighted, underlined, circled, or otherwise identified, annotated, or marked up.
Submissions that do not include copies of sources that are annotated or marked up may be considered incomplete, and will be evaluated accordingly.
😀 Formatting requirements: Double-spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman/Arial/Cambria.
😀 Citations should be formatted in APA citation style (either 6th or 7th edition). Students unfamiliar with APA citations are encouraged to review the Purdue Online Writing Lab’s manual or avail themselves of an online citation generating service.
Submissions should include a cover page that includes student name, number, and course information, along with an appropriate title (e.g., “‘They Don’t Make Them Like That Anymore’: Modern Hollywood, Blockbuster Franchises, and the Disposable Film Star”).
Students may use first-person pronouns (e.g., “I,” “my,” etc.) in the course of their work.
INSTRUCTIONS
Format
- (e.g., the hamburger format) and include subtitles or headings.
Essays should not just repeat the annotated bibliography by summarizing the sources, but should instead develop a coherent argument or analysis that draws upon the sources to support the argument or analysis.
Essays should include an introduction and a conclusion, as well as a cover and works cited page.
Turnitin: Students’ submissions will be checked for originality after they have uploaded their assignment, using Turnitin (see the syllabus). students will have automatically uploaded their assignments to Turnitin; they do not have to access the Turnitin site directly. For their assignment to be accepted for grading, students must produce a similarity index score lower than 20%. Submissions with a score of 20% or higher will not be graded until they are resubmitted with a satisfactory score.
Choose one of the following topics or themes on which to write your essay.
a. Is the intellectual property system fair to users? Why or why not? What law or policy reforms might make the system fairer? (Provide one or more examples or focus on one or more forms of intellectual property to support your argument.)
b. Is the intellectual property system fair to creators? Why or why not? What law or policy reforms might make the system fairer? (Provide one or more examples or focus on one or more forms of intellectual property to support your argument.)
c. Is the intellectual property system fair to users and/or creators from marginalized communities? Why or why not? What law or policy reforms might make the systemfairer? (Provide one or more examples or focus on one or more forms of intellectual property to support your argument.)
d. Is the intellectual property system fair to developing nations? Why or why not? What law or policy reforms might make the system fairer? (Provide one or more examples or focus on one or more forms of intellectual property to support your argument.)
e. Has the impact of the internet, social media, and/or digital technologies on the intellectual property system been positive or negative for users? What law or policy reforms are necessary for the system to deal with digital media and culture? (Provide one or more examples or focus on one or more forms of intellectual property to support your argument.)
f. Has the impact of the internet, social media, and/or digital technologies on the intellectual property system been positive or negative for creators? What law or policy reforms are necessary for the system to deal with digital media and culture? (Provide one or more examples or focus on one or more forms of intellectual property to support your argument.)
g. Can the intellectual property system be used in order to address important socioeconomic, cultural, or environmental concerns? Or is intellectual property actually contributing to those concerns, or else making it harder to address them? How so? (Provide one or more examples or focus on one or more forms of intellectual property to support your argument.)
h. Students may pursue their own research agenda and pose their own questions (or modify an existing one), with the prior approval of the instructor.
😀 Essays will be evaluated according to the following criteria (in order of importance):
persuasiveness and rigour in arguing for a particular position or perspective in relation to the chosen theme from the course, as illustrated through references to contemporary examples, issues, and debates about the entertainment industry related to that theme;
relevance, use, and explication of academic sources, that is, how judiciously they choose and faithfully they reconstruct the scholarly literature on the chosen theme from the course, demonstrating that they have undertaken a studied engagement of the course material and/or external scholarship through quotes, paraphrases, etc.;
quality of writing, as reflected both in the attention to proofreading, editing, citations, etc., to limit typographical, grammatical, and other errors, and in the observance of the assignment’s formal and technical requirements, e.g., citation style, spacing and margins, etc.