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ENGLISH 101. ACADEMIC WRITING |
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Discussion for Lesson 6
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Lessons Module 1 Module 2 3:
Euthyphro 11:
Research Project 19:
Outlines Module 5 25:
About the Exam
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Difficulty of this Lesson Student T. I found the lesson on citation a bit overwhelming. Dr. G. Nobody needs to memorize the citation formats in Hacker's book. (I certainly haven't memorized them.) Think of the book as a reference manual that you use to look up citation formats whenever you are writing an academic paper. You will always have the book available to use, even on the final exam in English 101, so your challenge is to learn how to use the book to find whatever you're looking for. This means that you need to become familiar with the book's layout. You also need to know the terminology that Hacker is using: for example, how does a "magazine" (Hacker 32b20) differ from a "journal" (Hacker 32b21). We will practice citation over the rest of the course, in exercises and writing assignments, so that everybody who does the work will have a good understanding before the course ends. What Is Plagiarism? Student Z. What if one writes down word for word someone else's work and forgets to cite it but does not claim it is their own work? For instance, I write an article and I mention that it came from the research I found ect., ect., ect., but I forget to site and quote any sources. I'm not claiming that the work is actually mine, am I? Not that anyone wouldn't cite other people's work, but I am sure it happens. Dr. G. Whether we cite and how we cite depends on the context. Let's take a sentence like this: Astromers now claim that the galaxies they observe are moving away from one another at ever-increasing speeds. This sentence does not follow MLA citation form.
My sentence isn't really plagiarism because I'm not passing off somebody else's words or ideas as if they were my own. However, I could turn my sentence into plagiarism by writing, in an academic setting: Galaxies in our universe are moving away from one another at ever-increasing speeds. (This omits the previous words "Astronomers claim.") Why is this plagiarism? I did not discover this information on my own, and it is not common knowledge. Accordingly I must cite my sources--preferably the publications of the astronomers who were interviewed in the TV show that I saw. Never "forget" citation when you are writing for an academic audience. If it's not plagiarism, it's not good academic form. Student C. I am a little scared to write any thing for the fact that it could be classified as plagerism. The term seems to be a little loose at times. I was wondering if you wrote something and it was written by some one else, but you did not know that at the time you were writing it, could it still be classified as Plagerism? Dr. G. I don't think there's anything very "loose" about plagiarism, except the way that students spell it! (The word comes a Latin word "plagiarus" meaning kidnapper.) Probably, you are not going to write the Gettysberg address and fail to realize that Lincoln already wrote it. But there is such a thing as incidental or unintended plagiarism, where the writer has picked up an idea somewhere, perhaps long before the time of the writing, and then does not realize that the idea is not an original one. Whole papers don't get written this way, but sentences occasionally do. The writer's intent then is in question. Did he really mean to kidnap a source and pass it off as his? Did he intend to cheat? Aside from gross forms of cheating, the most common form of student plagiarism probably is the case where a student puts source information into his own words but then fails to cite the source. This is a failure to understand the rule that citations must always be used for source summaries and paraphrases, as well as for quotations. But in college research papers, when students know the rules, plagiarism should seldom be an issue. Summaries and Paraphrases Student K. I always thought that as long as you put quotes around the borrowed piece and mentioned the authors name you were fine, no plagiarism. I didn't know there were other forms of acceptable and unacceptable borrowing. The information on summaries and paraphrases was all new to me. I am a little confused on the difference between them. Dr. G. There's not always much distinction between these. You are putting the source into your own words in both cases. But a summary condenses a source, where a paraphrase translates it. For example, I can summarize Plato's "Apology" by saying: "Socrates defends himself at his trial but is found guilty and sentenced to death." However, to paraphrase the "Apology," I would have to go through Plato's text line by line, putting each of Socrates' statements into my own words: "Socrates says that the speeches of the prosecutors were very impressive and complete lies. . ." etc. The paraphrase does not differ much from what a translator does, except that the translator never speaks in his or her own voice but mimics the original: "Gosh, Athenians, were you impressed by those those speeches you just heard--I would have been impressed, if I didn't know the difference between truth and bullshit!" As far as citation rules are concerned, there's no difference between summary and paraphrase; the same rules apply to both. The reason that Hacker mentions them separately (and I follow her book in my lecture) is simply to make clear to students that MLA citation applies in both cases. Student K. OK, if you summarize someone's writing in your own words and give the author's name, then how do readers know that the words are yours and not the author's? Dr. G. How do we know whose words we are reading? We make assumptions based on what we see:
In MLA convention, readers are entitled to these assumptions. When a writer doesn't know the rules, or knows the rules but flouts them, readers feel cheated. The writer hasn't bothered to understand what the readers' assumptions will be, or the writer knows about the readers' assumptions but decides to deceive everybody. Citation Student V. What is in text citation and how does it differ from regular citation? Dr. G. "Citation" is simply the process of acknowledging sources. MLA and Chicago are both conventions or styles of citation. There are hundreds of others. "In-text citation" is the kind of citation that the MLA introduced with its last major overhaul of its rules in the 1980's. The "in-text" (or "in text") label refers to the use of signal phrases and parenthetical references right in the text of the essay itself. This was a big novelty (objectionable to many people), because previously writers had simply used footnotes, so there had been no clutter of reference material in the text. The new system of clutter was referred to as "in text." (Perhaps you can tell that I learned the old way and liked it better!) The Chicago style, maintained by history professionals, does not go along with "in-text" signals and parentheticals. It uses footnotes or end notes instead. So Chicago is a form of citation but not in-text citation. Author names Student S. Do I have to put the Authors full name in front of the quote or can I just use her last name? Dr. G. In most fields of study, including all of the sciences, only the author's last name is used, unless you cite several authors with the same last name, in which case you have to use first names to differentiate them, so readers will understand which Jones goes with which summary or quote. In the seemingly friendlier discipline of English and other arts, its customary to use both first and last names. The exception here is that you drop the first name from signal phrases after you have used it once in your essay. That is, your first signal phrase says: "Judy Jones writes that blah, blah, blah." But the signal phrases for this same author later in your essay would say: "Jones argued that blah, blah, blah." Student X. In citations should the authors be described as more than their names--like the writer Judy Jones or Professor Judy Jones and so on? Dr. G. Avoid using non-descriptive words like "the writer" Jones or "the author" Jones. Readers learn nothing from "tags" like these. However, if you know something about an author and a descriptive tag can strengthen the point that you are making in your paper, then by all means go ahead with "Professor" Jones or "marine biologist" Jones or whatever. You can often find out bits of information on authors in ProQuest and InfoTrak by scanning down to the bottom of the full text. An internet search using Google or some other search engine sometimes can turn up even more useful author information. A well researched paper should include a little research into the writers of the sources. |
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