Topic continued: The Supreme Court’s decision regarding whether the anti-retaliation provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank) covers only persons who have reported alleged securities violations to the SEC or whether it also includes persons who have made internal complaints without making a complaint to the SEC. The Second and Ninth Circuits held that the anti-retaliation provision applied to both categories of persons while the Fifth Circuit restricted the provision’s coverage to persons who filed complaints with the SEC. The rubric: used includes these assessments of your work, which are stated here just as a reminder of things to consider (not overlook) while writing your paper, not as a guarantee of any particular point total.7 A well-stated thesis – understandable? What is the author (the student) trying to do? 5 pts. Analysis of Topic – 40 pts. Clarity of Paper – 10 pts. Strong Conclusion? (Has the author attempted to prove anything? IF so, given the brevity of the paper, has he/she been successful) – 10 pts. Writing, Spelling, Punctuation – 20 pts. (See the tips on pages 13-15. You will receive fewer points on your paper for grammatical mistakes, especially ones that I specifically advise against on pages 13-15). Sources – Quality and Number (the author should cite at least nine different sources, unless there is an understandable reason – the sources should be of different types, and most should be recent in origin whenever practical and appropriate for the paper) – 15 pts. Legal reasoning is a stylized form of logical thinking. While not as rigorous as a mathematical proof, there are similarities. Typically any significant statement of fact or opinion that is not common knowledge to the average person, especially those advanced as truth, must be documented with a citation. So, it is not just quotations that require citations, but paraphrasing of another person’s work. And it therefore also makes sense that poorly documented papers receive lower grades than they otherwise would receive. Please include citations whenever appropriate. If in doubt, cite! I very much prefer footnotes over other formats. I don’t care which style of citation you use, as long as you are consistent and give sufficient information for finding the source. Unless you already have a strong preference, just use the format used in law journal articles – the Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Some basic examples of how to cite the most common types of sources (e.g., court cases, law journal articles and newspaper articles, books, internet sources, and statutes), which generally do not change in citation format from one edition of the Bluebook to the next, are at https://www.rgnul.ac.in/PDF/f7ff0636-9075-47f2-8e17-a5ba7be7a3cf.pdf For a book, the source citation would be the author, title, date of publication, and page number. For an article, the source citation would include the author, the title, the name of the journal in which the article appears, the volume and page number where the information is found, and the date of publication. For a website, the source citation must include the name of the person or organization that takes responsibility for the information, the title or subject of the information, the precise URL page on which that specific piece of information is found, and the date on which it is accessed. Additional: Again, the most important things is to write a very good paper that is your work. But the above standards may give you some idea of what you should do. Turning It In and Monitoring the Grading The outline and the paper must be submitted electronically via the Internet. IT IS NO DEFENSE TO PLAGIARISM THAT YOU ACCIDENTALLY TURNED IN A DRAFT OR SOME OTHER WORK RATHER THAN THE WORK YOU INTENDED TO SUBMIT. PLEASE CHECK AND DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR SUBMISSION BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER YOU HAVE SUBMITTED IT. Also, if you took ideas or information from a source, it is always better to err on the side of citing that source repeatedly – even multiple times throughout your paper – than just to cite it a few times and make it appear for other parts of the paper (other sentences) that the work is yours when in fact the idea or information is something you got from that source. Also, note that even footnoting a source is insufficient when you are not simply paraphrasing the source’s contents but taking your wording came directly from that article: then you should cite the source AND also put the language in quotation marks. Please submit your term paper using Microsoft Word (either as a .doc file or a .docx file). If you do not have access to Microsoft Word you may submit your file as a PDF. However, Microsoft Word is much preferred. Please only submit the paper as one file. If you have a second file – e.g., a bibliography – please include that material into the one main file (in other words, into the Term Paper file itself).
