Bryan Lee's List: Diocesan Writing Workshop - 2010

• Mr. Biden insisted, however, that he had done nothing ''malevolent,'' that he had simply misunderstood the need to cite sources carefully. And he asserted that another controversy, concerning recent reports of his using material from others' speeches without attribution, was ''much ado about nothing.''

  • Notice the irony of how he lifted Shakespeare's line at the bottom of the quote? The scandal reflects a generational shift in the importance of attribution, but sadly sets no new model for responding to charges of plagiarism. Helene Hegemann's defense was oddly similar when her novel "Axolotl Roadkill" was discovered to be lifted wholesale from the pages of a less successful novel.
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• The file distributed by the Senator included a law school faculty report, dated Dec. 1, 1965, that concluded that Mr. Biden had ''used five pages from a published law review article without quotation or attribution'' and that he ought to be failed in the legal methods course for which he had submitted the 15-page paper.

• ''My intent was not to deceive anyone,'' Mr. Biden wrote. ''For if it were, I would not have been so blatant.''

   

    At another point, the young Mr. Biden said that ''if I had intended to cheat, would I have been so stupid?''

  • To his credit, this is as good an explanation as any for the reasons behind ALL students who plagiarize prose. Never credit to malice what can be more easily attributed to stupidity.

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• Although Ms. Hegemann has apologized for not being more open about her sources, she has also defended herself as the representative of a different generation, one that freely mixes and matches from the whirring flood of information across new and old media, to create something new. “There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity,” said Ms. Hegemann in a statement released by her publisher after the scandal broke.

• Students are natural economizers
• Remind students that the purpose of the course is to learn and develop skills and not just "get through."
• Many students have poor time management and planning skills
• Some students fear that their writing ability is inadequate
• A few students like the thrill of rule breaking
• Do not assume that students know what plagiarism is, even if they nod their heads when you ask them. Provide an explicit definition for them.
• you should discuss with your students the difference between appropriate, referenced use of ideas or quotations and inappropriate use. You might show them an example of a permissible paraphrase (with its citation) and an impermissible paraphrase (containing some paraphrasing and some copying), and discuss the difference.
• Clarifying for them that plagiarism is a combination of stealing (another's words) and lying (claiming implicitly that the words are the student's own) should be mentioned at some point
• Perhaps the most effective discussion will ask the students to think about who is really being cheated when someone plagiarizes.  Copying papers or even parts of papers short circuits a number of learning experiences and opportunities for the development of skills: actually doing the work of the research paper rather than counterfeiting it gives the student not only knowledge of the subject and insights into the world of information and controversy, but improves research skills, thinking and analyzing, organizing, writing, planning and time management, and even meticulousness (those picky citation styles actually help improve one's attention to detail).  All this is missed when the paper is faked, and it is these missed skills which will be of high value in the working world.  A degree will help students get a first job, but performance--using the skills developed by doing just such assignments as research papers--will be required for promotion.

  • At this point you should look at the USA Today article on the Johns Hopkins MBA position being eliminated because students were more interested in advancement than learning. You can find it at this link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-07-27-IHE-plagiarism-China27_ST_N.htm?csp=34news
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• Using sources shows that the student in engaged in "the great conversation," the world of ideas, and that the student is aware of other thinkers' positions on the topic. By quoting (and citing) writers who support the student's position, the student adds strength to the position. By responding reasonably to those who oppose the position, the student shows that there are valid counter arguments
• The rough draft serves several functions.  A quick glance will reveal whether whole sections are appearing without citations. At the draft stage, you have the opportunity to educate the student further and discuss how proper citation works. You can also mark places and ask for more research material to be incorporated. If you are suspicious of the paper at this point, ask for the incorporation of some specific material that you name, such as a particular book or article.  Keep the drafts and let students know that you expect major revisions and improvements between drafts. (This is actually a great way to improve students' writing, quite apart from the other goal of preventing plagairism.)
• The annotation should include a brief summary of the source, where it was located (including call number for books or complete Web URL), and an evaluation about the usefulness of the source. (Optionally, as a lesson in information quality, ask them to comment on why they thought the source credible.)  The normal process of research makes completing this task easy, but it creates headaches for students who have copied a paper from someone else since few papers include annotated bibliographies like this. Another benefit of this assignment is that students must reflect on the reliability and quality of their sources.
• On the day you collect the papers, have students write an in-class essay about what they learned from the assignment. What problems did they face and how did they overcome them? What research strategy did they follow?  Where did they locate most of their sources? What is the most important thing they learned from investigating this subject?  For most students, who actually did the research paper, this assignment will help them think about their own learning. It also provides you with information about the students' knowledge of their papers and it gives you a writing sample to compare with the papers. If a student's knowledge of the paper and its process seems modest or if the in-class essay quality diverges strikingly from the writing ability shown in the paper, further investigation is probably warranted.

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• "But their words are better"
• "But their words are better"

  • Sadly, this is probably the fault of teachers, word mavens that we are. We write to impress as much with our prose as with our ideas. When giving examples of prose, students see our attempts as a bar to which they cannot rise. They should be encouraged to use the templates developed by Birkettstein and Graff in their book "They Say, I Say."
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• must be identical to the original
• taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly.
• Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.
• • Read the entire text, noting the key points and main ideas.
   
  • Summarize in your own words what the single main idea of the essay is.
   
  • Paraphrase important supporting points that come up in the essay.
   
  • Consider any words, phrases, or brief passages that you believe should be quoted directly.

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• Some examples to compare

   

  The original passage:

   

  Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.

   

  A legitimate paraphrase:

   

  In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).

   

  An acceptable summary:

   

  Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).

   

  A plagiarized version:

   

  Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

• Example Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation from the Essay:

   

   

  Example summary: Roger Sipher makes his case for getting rid of compulsory-attendance laws in primary and secondary schools with six arguments. These fall into three groups—first that education is for those who want to learn and by including those that don't want to learn, everyone suffers. Second, that grades would be reflective of effort and elementary school teachers wouldn't feel compelled to pass failing students. Third, that schools would both save money and save face with the elimination of compulsory-attendance laws (Page #).

   

   

   

  Example paraphrase: Roger Sipher concludes his essay by insisting that schools have failed to fulfill their primary duty of education because they try to fill multiple social functions (Page #).

   

   

   

  Example quotation: According to Roger Sipher, a solution to the perceived crisis of American education is to "Abolish compulsory-attendance laws and allow only those who are committed to getting an education to attend" (Page#).

• Paraphrasing Exercise

   

  Summary: This resources discusses how to paraphrase correctly and accurately.

   

  Contributors:Purdue OWL
  Last Edited: 2010-04-21 07:48:34

     

  Directions: On a separate piece of paper, write a paraphrase of each of the following passages. Try not to look back at the original passage.

   

  1. "The Antarctic is the vast source of cold on our planet, just as the sun is the source of our heat, and it exerts tremendous control on our climate," [Jacques] Cousteau told the camera. "The cold ocean water around Antarctica flows north to mix with warmer water from the tropics, and its upwellings help to cool both the surface water and our atmosphere. Yet the fragility of this regulating system is now threatened by human activity." From "Captain Cousteau," Audubon (May 1990):17.

   

  2. The twenties were the years when drinking was against the law, and the law was a bad joke because everyone knew of a local bar where liquor could be had. They were the years when organized crime ruled the cities, and the police seemed powerless to do anything against it. Classical music was forgotten while jazz spread throughout the land, and men like Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie became the heroes of the young. The flapper was born in the twenties, and with her bobbed hair and short skirts, she symbolized, perhaps more than anyone or anything else, America's break with the past. From Kathleen Yancey, English 102 Supplemental Guide (1989): 25.

   

  3. Of the more than 1000 bicycling deaths each year, three-fourths are caused by head injuries. Half of those killed are school-age children. One study concluded that wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent. In an accident, a bike helmet absorbs the shock and cushions the head. From "Bike Helmets: Unused Lifesavers," Consumer Reports (May 1990): 348.

   

  4. Matisse is the best painter ever at putting the viewer at the scene. He's the most realistic of all modern artists, if you admit the feel of the breeze as necessary to a landscape and the smell of oranges as essential to a still life. "The Casbah Gate" depicts the well-known gateway Bab el Aassa, which pierces the southern wall of the city near the sultan's palace. With scrubby coats of ivory, aqua, blue, and rose delicately fenced by the liveliest gray outline in art history, Matisse gets the essence of a Tangier afternoon, including the subtle presence of the bowaab, the sentry who sits and surveys those who pass through the gate. From Peter Plagens, "Bright Lights." Newsweek (26 March 1990): 50.

   

  5. While the Sears Tower is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraper engineering so far, it's unlikely that architects and engineers have abandoned the quest for the world's tallest building. The question is: Just how high can a building go? Structural engineer William LeMessurier has designed a skyscraper nearly one-half mile high, twice as tall as the Sears Tower. And architect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could produce a 500-story building. From Ron Bachman, "Reaching for the Sky." Dial (May 1990): 15.