Welcome to My Class

INTEGRATING SOURCES INTO YOUR

ARGUMENTATIVE RESEARCH PAPER

Given as Lecture 4/12/05 on Overhead Transparencies

What is Plagiarism?

(See your course syllabus for my policies on plagiarism, as well as the university definition of plagiarism as described in the University Policy Manual)

Plagiarism can be a difficult concept for students. While some students plagiarize intentionally, often they do so unintentionally. Regardless of intention, plagiarism is very serious. Examples of plagiarism include:

1. Word-for-word copying without proper citation.

2. Summarizing or paraphrasing another person’s ideas without proper citation.

3. Improperly summarizing or paraphrasing (not really in your own words).

4. Fabricating, Inventing, or counterfeiting sources.

5. Submitting someone else’s paper as your own. (Includes having a friend write your paper, or buying a paper from a “paper mill.”)

The Bottom Line: Give Credit Where Credit Is Due!!!

REMEMBER: IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE! It is your responsibility to understand what plagiarism is, and to avoid it. Plagiarism is a serious issue in all disciplines at this university. Don’t run the risk of the serious repercussions! It’s not worth it.

Choosing When to Give Credit (Adapted from Purdue's OWL)

Need to Document

	When you are using or referring to somebody else’s words or ideas from a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium
	When you use information gained through interviewing another person
	When you copy the exact words or a "unique phrase" from somewhere
	When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, and pictures
	When you use ideas that others have given you in conversations or over email

No Need to Document

§ When you are writing your own experiences, your own observations, your own insights, your own thoughts, your own conclusions about a subject

§ When you are using "common knowledge" — folklore, common sense observations, shared information within your field of study or cultural group

§ When you are compiling generally accepted facts

When you are writing up your own experimental results

Material is probably common knowledge if . . .

	You find the same information undocumented in at least five other sources
	You think it is information that your readers will already know
	You think a person could easily find the information with general reference sources

Why Integrate Sources into a Paper?

We have discussed the rhetorical triangle; so, you know that when people make arguments, they use appeals to convince their readers of their point. These include appeals of ethos and logos.

Writers of arguments must show their readers that they are credible by citing authoritative sources, and by giving evidence to support their claims.

REMEMBER: An argumentative research paper is not a report. Avoid slipping into 5-7 pages of summarizing sources. Instead, make your own claims, and use sources to help prove your point.

Three Ways to Use Sources (Adapted from Everday Writer)

§ Quote

§ Paraphrase

§ Summarize

Quotations are effective if:

§ Original wording is particularly memorable or powerful, or expresses a point so perfectly that you cannot change it without weakening its impact.

§ You wish to emphasize an author’s opinions.

§ The original words show that you are considering varying perspectives.

§ The author is a respected authority whose ideas support your own views.

§ The author’s opinions challenge or vary greatly from those of others in the field.

Paraphrase when:

§ Passages do not require quoting, but use details important to your point.

Summarize when:

§ Passage are long. Also, the main point of the passage is important, but the details are not.

§ You need to give the gist of an author’s ideas for background, etc.

Using Quotations

§ Do not allow quotations to speak for themselves. They should support your ideas, not stand alone instead of your ideas.

o Quotes should always be surrounded by analysis. It should be clear why you have used a quote, and how it is significant, or supports your own ideas. Remember: The longer the quote, the longer the analysis.

Some people never seem to shut up. Ira Talott makes a similar point: “The streets are full of people who talk to themselves, who write journal entries to nobody. Do they feel that speaking and writing is more important than listening and reading? These people are boring at parties, but are they arrogant? They are compulsive communicators. It’s more likely that they simply live in perpetual fear of silence” (45).

Unlike people from other cultures, Americans find lapses in conversation awkward, and so they will continue talking long after they have anything left to say. Talott is sympathetic towards “compulsive communicators,” who are “boring at parties” (45), but who are not actually arrogant. Perhaps many Americans are plagued by what Talott describes as a “perpetual fear of silence” (45). This may explain the excessive display of empty small talk at social gatherings.

(Examples adapted from http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic/sources/integrating.htm)

§ Make sure to give the source for a quotation, but avoid clunky, wordy, high-schoolish introductions. Remember: save the details for the works cited page! (See page 171 of Everyday Writer for more information on introducing sources.)

In the book Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, by Fredrich A. Kittler, it talks about writing and gender, and says on page 186, “An omnipresent metaphor equated women with the white sheet of nature or virginity onto which a very male stylus could inscribe the glory of its authorship.” As you can see from this quote, all this would change when women started working as professional typists.

To Kittler, the concept of the pen as a masculine symbol imposing form and order upon feminized, virginal paper was “an omnipresent metaphor” (186) in writings of the 1880s. However, the metaphor disappeared shortly after the invention of the typewriter, when businesses were clamoring for the services of typists, most of whom were female.

(Examples adapted from http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic/sources/integrating.htm)

Paraphrasing

A paraphrase of a passage should be stated in your own words. Unlike a summary, which is much shorter than the original, cutting out details, etc., a paraphrase should be roughly the same number of words as the original. However, a paraphrase should not use exact phrases or wording, and should not mimic the original sentence structure. Also, a paraphrase must remain true to the ideas of the original passage.

Original: The internet offers students a prime opportunity for doing research, but students must be selective. –Hill, James. “Using the Internet for Research.” The Net and Education Jun. 1997: 24.

Bad Paraphrase: The Net gives students a prime opportunity for finding sources of information, but students must be choosey (Hill 24).

Bad Paraphrase: The Net gives researchers a good option for finding sources of information, but they should be choosey (Hill 24).

Bad Paraphrase: Writers who search on the Internet will find lots of excellent sources (Hill 24).

Good Paraphrase: While writers who search on the Internet can find good sources of information, they should not accept what they find without question (Hill 24).

(Examples adapted from http://www.usd.edu/_mrogge/integrating.html)

NOTE: You can incorporate short quotes into a paraphrase or summary if a particular word or phrase is catchy or powerful. Just make sure you properly use quotation marks.