General Requirements:
• Length: about 2,000 words, or 6-7 pages (double-spaced, 12-point font, 1” margins).
• If you receive less than 80% on it, then you MUST hand in a revision by Wednesday, 12/3 to
improve your grade.
• If you receive 80% or higher, then a revision is optional.
• Late submissions will be deducted 5% from the grade for each day that it is late.
• You will have a chance in your tutorials to discuss how to come up with ideas for the essay,
organize your findings, structure your essay, cite sources, and write clearly.
What are the TAs and the professor looking for in the essay?
Your essay should have:
• a clearly stated, focused thesis developed from one of the topics listed on the next page • an organized structure appropriate for the thesis, with logical transitions from section to
section
• uses of concrete evidence that supports your thesis
• proper citations from primary and secondary sources to support your argument
• a balance between your own ideas and those cited from other sources
• good sentence and paragraph structure, grammar, word choice, punctuation and citation style
with minimal spelling errors
Your essay must touch on two of the three major regions of East Asia that we now refer to as China, Korea and Japan. Because of the essay is relatively short, you should limit yourself to just one or two time periods for each region that you discuss.
What sources can I use?
• To write this paper, you should only use 1) the textbook, 2) primary and secondary readings posted on Blackboard, and 3) lecture notes.
• You must provide citations whenever you: 1) quote directly from one of these texts, 2) paraphrase one of these texts, or 3) refer to a specific passage or scene in these texts. You will learn the proper ways to cite these sources in your tutorial.
• Remember: all the language in your essay should either be completely your own or clearly and properly cited as being from the textbook, source readings, or lecture notes.
What topics can I write about?
Each of the three topics below is relatively broad; they are designed to give you some flexibility to pursue issues that most interest you within each topic.
The topics are followed by some suggestions to help you brainstorm and get started. These are just a few examples, so you are encouraged to add to and/or adapt these suggestions as you see fit. Based on the material you choose to write about, you should think about how you want to organize your essay in a way that is most appropriate for your thesis.
Page 1 of 2
EAS 103H1F (2014) Essay Guidelines and Topics
I. In 1444, a scholar-official under King Sejong in Joseon Korea wrote a memorial in which he says:
As we share with China at present the same writing and the same institutions, we are startled to learn of the invention of the Korean script. Only such peoples as the Mongolians, Tanguts, Jurchens, Japanese, and Tibetans have their own writings. But this is a matter that involves the barbarians and is unworthy of our concern. It has been said that the barbarians are transformed only by means of adopting Chinese ways; we have never heard of Chinese ways being transformed by the barbarians.” (de Bary, Sources, 575-6)
Based on both primary and secondary sources we have read in this class, write an essay that responds to this statement in some way.
Suggestions: You can choose to focus on one of several related issues, such as 1) writing systems, 2) cultural identity, or 3) “barbarians.”
~~~~~~~
II. We have so far read several primary texts that cover some particular aspect of human experience, whether it is about enlightenment, love, or the chaos and brutality of war. Choose two or three of these primary texts, and discuss how they organize, record, and make sense of such human experiences.
Suggestions: Some examples of texts you can choose to focus on include the writing of Zhuangzi; poetry from the Tang; The Tale of Genji; “An Account to Go with the ‘Song of Lasting Pain’”; Tales of the Heike, and The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong (from week 9).
~~~~~~~
III. A scholar-official in Tang China wrote a memorial in which he says:
The Buddha was originally a tribesman from outlying regions. His language is incomprehensible to those who inhabit the heartland, and his clothes were of a strange fashion. He did not speak the exemplary words of the early kings, and he did not wear the exemplary garb of the early kings. He did not understand the sense of right that exists between a ruler and his officers, nor the feelings between father and son. (Owen, Anthology, 598)
Based on both primary and secondary sources we have read in this class, write an essay that responds to this statement in some way.
Suggestions: You can choose from texts directly related to Buddhism, texts that deal with the effect of Buddhism in everyday life, or texts related to another issue, such as the art of persuasion.)
~~~~~~~
Remember: we are not looking for any particular thesis as the right answer. We are looking for the presence of a clearly stated argument, relevant evidence to support the points of this argument, and well-organized writing.Citation Guide for EAS103: Chicago documentation style
There are many citation styles, depending on the type of paper you will write. For our course’s
essay, you are required to use Chicago style documentation, described below.1 This means you will need footnotes and a bibliography.
For footnotes:
In Chicago style, superscript numbers in the text of the paper refer readers to notes with corresponding numbers at the foot (bottom) of the page (footnotes). If you are unable to insert footnotes, you can put them at the end of your paper (endnotes).
**For Chicago, citations do NOT go in the body of the essay in brackets.**
We will be using abbreviated footnotes. This means your footnote citation should contain: the author’s last name, the work’s shortened title in italics, and the page number.
In abbreviated footnotes, you can use just one or two main words for the title in the footnote. (In the bibliography you should include the full information.)
For the sourcebook, a footnote will look like this: 1. de Bary, Sources, 289.
(footnote number. Author last name, Short title, page number.)
If you use the same text again for your next citation, you should use “ibid” which means the same information as above. Ibid always has a period after it. à Ibid.
For example, if your second footnote is for the same text and same page it will look like this:
2. Ibid.
If you use the same text for your next citation with a different page number, it would look like this (pay close attention to the period and comma):
2. Ibid., 292.
1 The guidelines presented here are consistent with advice given in The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. (2010). For more information on using Chicago style citations, and for examples of citing other kinds of sources (films, internet etc), see http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch10_s1-0001.html

Citation Guide for EAS103: Chicago documentation style
For bibliography:
A bibliography appears at the end of the paper and gives complete publication information for all the works cited in the notes.2 Your bibliographical citation would look like this:
de Bary, William Theodore. Sources of East Asian Tradition, Volume 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
(last name, first name. Full title in italics, Publication location: Publishing company, year.)
Citing non-textbook readings:
You should be sure in your writing to introduce the title of a specific source if you are referring to one of the primary sources. Such titles should be in quotation marks, not italics (used for book titles).
For example:
As Zhuangzi states in “The Secret of Caring for Life,” “Your life has a limit but knowledge has none.”3
Some things to remember for quotations and citations:
• Your bibliography should be organized alphabetically by author last name.
• If you skip words from your quote, you should replace them with three periods. For example: “If you do not climb a … mountain, you will not know … heaven.” Sometimes you need four periods (….) if you skip the last part of a sentence but then continue from the start of the next sentence.
• All words that are not your own should be in quotes and followed by a footnote. All ideas that are not your own but you have rephrased do not need quotes, but do still need a footnote.
If you use someone else’s words—whether they are from the textbook, the internet or a classmate—you must cite them.
• You should always use double quotation marks (“ ”) in your paper. The only time you use single quotation marks (‘ ’) is if there was already a quote in the text you are quoting. Then the quote inside goes to single quotation marks. For example: “And then she said ‘proper citations are important’ at the end of the handout.”
• Quotes longer than 4 lines long should be indented on the right by 2.5 cm and do not use quotation marks.
2 This information is adapted from “Research and Documentation Online, 5th ed.” bcs.bedfordstmartins.com
3 de Bary, Sources, 65.

Citation Guide for EAS103: Chicago documentation style Sample Bibliography
de Bary, William Theodore. Sources of East Asian Tradition, Volume 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
Ebrey, Patricia, and Anne Walthall. Pre-Modern East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, Volume I: To 1800. 3rd ed. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2013.
Haboush, JaHyun Kim, ed. The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996.
McBride, Richard D. “A Miraculous Tale of Buddhist Practice During the Unified Silla.” In Religions of Korea in Practice, edited by Robert E. Buswell, 65-75. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.
Owen, Stephen, ed. An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Shirane, Haruo, ed. Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007
Sample Footnote citations
1. de Bary, Sources, 289.
2. Ebrey, Pre-modern, 322.
3. McBride, “Miraculous Tale,” 67. 4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 72.
6. Owen, Anthology, 289.
7. Haboush, Memoirs, 134.
à#4 means it is the same source AND same page as #3.
à#5 means it is the same source BUT a different page than #3 & 4.HOW NOT TO PLAGIARIZE
From the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters: It shall be an offence for a student knowingly:
(d) to represent as one’s own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any academic
examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work, i.e. to commit plagiarism. Wherever in the Code an offence is described as depending on “knowing”, the offence shall likewise be deemed to have been committed if the person ought reasonably to have known.
You’ve already heard the warnings about plagiarism. Obviously it’s against the rules to buy essays or copy from your friends’ homework, and it’s also plagiarism to borrow passages from books or articles or websites without identifying them. You know that the purpose of any paper is to show your own thinking, not create a patchwork of borrowed ideas. But you may still be wondering how you’re supposed to give proper references to all the reading you’ve done and all the ideas you’ve encountered.
The point of documenting sources in academic papers is not just to avoid unpleasant visits to the Dean’s office, but to demonstrate that you know what is going on in your field of study. Get credit for having done your reading! Precise documentation is also a courtesy to your readers because it lets them look at the material you’ve found. That’s especially important for Internet sources.
The different systems for formatting references are admittedly a nuisance. See the advice file “Standard Documentation Formats” for an overview. But the real challenge is establishing the relationship of your thinking to the reading you’ve done. Here are some common questions and basic answers.
1. Can’t I avoid problems just by listing every source in the reference list?
No, you need to integrate your acknowledgements into your own writing. Give the reference as soon as you’ve mentioned the idea you’re using, not just at the end of the paragraph. It’s often a good idea to name the authors (“X states” and “Y argues against X”) and then indicate your own stand (“A more inclusive perspective, however, . . . ”). The examples on the next page demonstrate various wordings for doing this. Have a look at journal articles in your discipline to see how experts refer to their sources.
2. If I put the ideas into my own words, do I still have to clog up my pages with all those names and numbers?
Sorry—yes, you do. In academic papers, you need to keep mentioning authors and pages and dates to show how your ideas are related to those of the experts. It’s sensible to use your own words because that saves space and lets you connect ideas smoothly. But whether you quote a passage directly in quotation marks, paraphrase it closely, or just summarize it rapidly, you need to identify the source then and there. (That applies to Internet sources too: you still need author and date as well as title and URL. The file “Standard Documentation Formats” gives examples for a range of types.)
3. But I didn’t know anything about the subject until I started this paper. Do I have to give an acknowledgement for every point I make?
You’re safer to over-reference than to skimp. But you can cut down the clutter by recognizing that some ideas are “common knowledge” in the field—that is, taken for granted by people knowledgeable about the topic. Facts easily found in standard reference books are considered common knowledge: the date of the Armistice for World War I, for example, or the present population of Canada. You don’t need to name a specific source for them, even if you learned them only when doing your research. They’re easily verified and not likely to be controversial. In some disciplines, information covered in class lectures doesn’t need acknowledgement. Some interpretive ideas may also be so well accepted that you don’t need to name a specific source: that Picasso is a distinguished modernist painter, for instance, or that smoking is harmful to health. Check with your professor or TA if you’re in doubt whether a specific point is considered common knowledge in your field.
4. How can I tell what’s my own idea and what has come from somebody else?
Careful record-keeping helps. Always write down the author, title and publication information (including the specific identifying information for online publications) so you can attach names and dates to specific ideas. Taking good notes is also essential. Don’t paste passages from online sources into your draft: that’s asking for trouble. As you read any text—online or hard-copy—summarize useful points for yourself, whether electronically or in handwriting. If you record a distinctive phrase or sentence you might want to quote, put quotation marks around it in your notes to remind yourself that you’re copying the author’s exact words. And make a deliberate effort as you read to notice connections among ideas, especially contrasts and disagreements, and to jot down questions or thoughts of your own. If you find as you write that you’re following one or two of your sources too closely, deliberately look back in your notes for other sources that take different views; then write about the differences and why they exist. (See the advice file “Taking Notes from Research Reading” for more tips.)
5. So what exactly do I have to document?
With experience reading academic prose, you’ll soon get used to the ways writers in your field refer to their sources. Here are the main times you should give acknowledgements, with examples showing different ways of working them into your own prose. (You’ll notice many different documentation systems in the following examples; see the handout file “Standard Documentation Formats” for guidance and examples.)
a. Quotations, paraphrases, or summaries:
If you use the author’s exact words, enclose them in quotation marks, or indent passages of more than four lines. But it’s seldom worthwhile to use long quotations. In literary studies, quote a few words at a time and comment on them. In other disciplines, quote only when the original words are especially memorable; scientific writing rarely used quotations. In most cases, use your own words to summarize the idea you want to discuss, emphasizing the points relevant to your argument. Be sure to document these paraphrases or summaries even when you are not using the exact original words. Mentioning the author’s name indicates where the borrowing starts and stops and gains you some reflected glory for responding to the experts.
e.g. As Morris puts it in The Human Zoo (1983), “we can always be sure that today’s daring innovation will be tomorrow’s respectability” (p. 189). [APA system]
e.g. Northrop Frye discusses comedy in terms of the spring spirit, which he sees as representing renewal and integration (Anatomy 163). The ending of The Tempest fits this pattern.
[MLA system]
b. Specific ideas used as evidence for your argument or interpretation:
First consider whether the ideas you’re mentioning are “common knowledge” according to the definition in point 3 above; if so, you may not need to give a reference. But when you’re relying on ideas that might be disputed by people in your discipline, establish that they’re trustworthy by referring to authoritative sources.
e.g. In September 1914, more than 1300 skirmishes were recorded on the Western Front.8 [traditional endnote/footnote system]
e.g. Other recent researchers (4, 11, 12) confirm the finding that drug treatment has little effect in the treatment of pancreatic pseudocysts. [numbered-note system for biomedical sciences]
c. Distinctive or authoritative ideas, whether you agree with them or not:
The way you introduce the reference can indicate your attitude and lead into your own argument.
e.g. In 1966, Ramsay Cook asserted that Canada was in a period of instability (174). That period is not yet over, judging by the same criteria of electoral changeability, economic uncertainty, and confusion in policy decisions. [MLA system]
e.g. One writer (Von Daniken, 1970) even argues that the Great Pyramid was built for the practical purpose of guiding navigation. [APA system]
Updated 14 July 2010 by Dr. Margaret Procter, University of Toronto Coordinator, Writing Support
This handout is available online at www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize. See also the list of advice files on academic writing at www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice.USING THESIS STATEMENTS
When you are asked to write an essay that creates an argument, your reader will expect a clear statement of your position. Typically, this summary statement comes in the first paragraph of the essay, though there is no rigid rule about position. Here are some characteristics of good thesis statements, with samples of useful and inadequate ones. Note that the better examples substitute specific argumentative points for sweeping general statements; they indicate a theoretical basis and promise substantial support. (See Myths About Thesis Statements [over] for a discussion of times not to organize your writing around thesis statements.)
1. It makes a definite and limited assertion that needs to be explained and supported by further discussion.
trite, irrelevant Shakespeare was the world’s greatest playwright.
intriguing The last scene in Midsummer Night’s Dream adds a political dimension to the comedy ending by incorporating subtle linguistic
and theatrical references to Elizabeth’s position as queen.
2. It shows the emphasis of your argument and indicates its methodology.
3. It shows awareness of difficulties and disagreements.
sweeping, vague suitably complex
Having an official policy on euthanasia just causes problems, as the Dutch example shows.
Dutch laws on euthanasia have been praised for their use of the principle of self-determination. Recent cases, however, show that these laws have not been able to deal adequately with issues involving technological intervention on unconscious patients. Hamarckian theory is needed to enlarge the framework used in creating the Dutch law. It provides one way to examine the key question of how to assign rights.
N.B. See over for a discussion of faulty ideas about thesis statements.
Myths about Thesis Statements
and some better ideas
• Every paper requires one.
Assignments that ask you to write personal responses or to explore a subject don’t want you to prejudge the issues. Essays of literary interpretation often want you to be aware of many effects rather than seeming to box yourself into one view of the text.
• A thesis statement must come at the end of the first paragraph.
This is a natural position for a statement of focus, but it’s not the only one. Some theses can be stated in the opening sentences of an essay; others need a paragraph or two of introduction; others can’t be fully formulated until the end.
• A thesis statement must be one sentence in length.
Clear writing is more important than rules like these. Use two or three sentences if you need them. A complex argument may require a whole tightly-knit paragraph to make its initial statement of position.
• You can’t start writing an essay until you have a perfect thesis statement.
It’s usually a good idea to draft a hypothesis or tentative thesis statement near the start of a big project, but changing and refining a thesis is a main task of thinking your way through your ideas as you write a paper. Some projects need to explore the question in depth without being locked in too early. Think in terms of a possible answer to your question, not a rigid commitment. Then go back and reformulate your introduction once you see how far you get.
• A thesis statement must give three points of support.
It should indicate that the essay will explain and give evidence for its assertion, but points of evidence don’t need to come in any specific number. It’s also important to consider the range of possible perspectives (including their pros and cons), not just to gather support for one view.
Prepared by Dr. Margaret Procter, University of Toronto Coordinator, Writing Support Over 50 other files giving advice on university writing are available at www.writing.utoronto.ca
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