ACWR 106—Fall 2024 Position Paper (30% of course grade) A position paper is a persuasive document meant to convince a narrowly defined audience why one solution or approach to a problem should be considered more workable or appealing. For this assignment, you must select an important problem or issue faced by a technical audience, consider at least two competing solutions, and then proceed to advocate one preferred solution. The problem or issue must be from your own field/department. Your instructor will assist you in choosing your topic. Your position paper must be between 1000 to 1250 words: penalties will apply if it does not meet this word count requirement. You must use research articles to identify the problem and the solutions. In other words, you must cite reputable evidence in presenting the problem and advocating for the proposed solution (against the other). At the very minimum, you must use three peer-reviewed academic research articles, with the understanding that you may need to do additional background research about your topic, audience, problem, and solutions/approaches. Your paper must include a clear process description and at least one relevant figure or table. You must not use direct quotations because scientific and technical publications rarely do. The rule is that any material drawn from outside sources must be either summarized or paraphrased, as appropriate. All research articles must be cited properly, both in-text and in the references list, following the citation style and style guide most widely used in your field or department. Please note these dates may change. Follow instructions and updates provided in class. Proposal and discussion (Required) Start in class and submit on Oct 25 Fill in the proposal form and after a discussion with the instructor upload to Learn Hub (before 23:59) Draft 10% November 4 Upload Position Paper draft Learn Hub (before 15:00) Peer Review (Required) November 5 Peer review activity (start in class, upload before 23:59) Final 20% November 20 Upload the final version to Learn Hub (before 8:00) Important ● All steps of the process are required. In other words, the proposal and the meeting, the draft for peer review, and the peer review activity cannot be skipped. You may get a “0” for your draft and final scores if you skip any steps. ● Late submissions will not only make you lose points but also cause other serious problems. Your draft and final scores will be penalized if you submit any of the required steps late. ● You will receive detailed comments and feedback to consider as you are revising and re-writing the final draft. You must make the changes as instructed. The expectations in the final paper are more rigorous. ● Your grade will go down if you do not follow the instructions or do not improve your draft as instructed. ● For the final, you may not submit an identical or unchanged draft. Doing so will result in a “0.” Brief ● 1 issue or practical problem from your field of study ● 2 alternative solutions with 1 solution that you support ● 3 research articles ● Small/specific topics work better than large/general ones ● Be practical: You want “a glass of water and not an ocean” Consider ● Your department/field of study ● Topics, issues, and areas you are interested in ● Current projects you are working on ● Any experience you have that might help ● Problem or issue that will be suitable for this paper Additional Guidelines for Position Paper Formatting Line Spacing: Double-space the draft (Use 2. Do not use 1.5 or 1.15). The final paper will be singlespaced (1). Columns: Use single column only. No Abstracts: Abstracts are not required for this position paper or any other ACWR 106 assignments. No Cover Page: Use an ID block and a title instead of a cover page. Typeface: Times New Roman only Citations and References Follow the style manual appropriate for your field, as you established in the relevant assignment. Do not mix and match separate style manuals. Cite as necessary and prepare the “References” as required by the same style manual ID Block The ID block consists of first and last name, student ID number, course and section number, and submission date at the top lefthand side on the first page of document. Do not provide any other information. The ID block appears only on the first page. Name and last name Course and section Submission Date Paper Version Label Use the proper Turkish characters. Do not use all-caps. Correct Incorrect Işın Özdemiroğlu Isin Ozdemiroglu ISIN OZDEMIROGLU IŞIN ÖZDEMİROĞLU Işın ÖZDEMİROĞLU Use number and not hours Correct Incorrect ACWR 106-37 Acwr 106.37 acwr 106 Sect.37 Use the full submission date and do not abbreviate Submission date will be updated for the final Correct Incorrect March 4, 2024 04-03-2024 04/03/2024 03.04.2024 03-04-2024, etc. Position Paper Draft Position Paper Final Title The title must be descriptive, refer to the problem, and hint at the two solutions. Placement: Centered across the page. Case: Use the title case and not all caps. Correct Incorrect Reducing Interference in Ground-to- Using Laser or Microwave in Satellite Communication: Lasers vs. Satellite Microwaves REDUCING INTERFERENCE IN GROUND-TO- SATELLITE COMMUNICATION: LASERS VS. MICROWAVES INTERFERENCE IN SATELLITECOMMUNICATION Thesis The thesis appears at the end of the introduction and expresses the position of the paper. Avoid promises: Do not use "this paper explain/is about..." or "In this paper, I will explain..." etc. Proper thesis. “Due to low cost and wide availability, a laser is a superior solution to microwave for the reduction of the interference for ground-to-satellite telephony” Figure 1: Sample first page demonstrating correctly formatted ID block, title, and line spacing
