In the event that you have a low (or missed) test grade, you may replace that grade with your grade on a research paper which you write on a topic which we negotiate together.  Papers on topics which you have not discussed with me will not be accepted, graded, or considered.

A research paper must:

1.  Contain 15 pages of text (without pictures, cover page, references, etc) formatted with 1" margins and no larger than 11 point type (preferably Times New Roman).  It should contain:   (1) a title page, (2) a list of references (usually at the end of the paper) along with appropriate footnotes, (3) figures if needed are not to be counted with the text and appear at the end of the paper after references.

2.  Be written using at least 4 to 5 references on the topic of your paper from published articles from scientific magazines written within the last 5 years.  I suggest you look at the link list to Yahoo for astronomical magazines/journals.  You may also find astronomical articles in Astronomy Magazine, Sky & Telescope Magazine, Scientific American Magazine, Science, Nature, Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and other publications

3.  Be submitted to me before you take your final exam in order for it to be considered.
 

Assignment Essaysshould be written using MicroSoft Word, Wordpad, or Notepad.  Please use the standards which you were taught in your English classes at HCCS colleges.  Avoid slang.  Simple, clear descriptions are preferred over complex, hard to follow sentences.  Use complete sentences (with subject, verb, etc...  You get the picture??)

Assignment Essays should START with material in the textbook and lecture notes and be supplimented with additional material from online (Internet) or printed (magazine or journal articles) sources.  For example - if you are asked to write an essay describing the moons of Jupiter and you include only those listed in the textbook, you will have missed half of them since a number have been discovered since the text was last revised.  So check out current sources!!!  Assignment questions, in many cases, have been selected for which there is recent, innovative research now in print.