http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/index.html
http://www.devry-phx.edu/lrnresrc/dowsc/integrty.htm
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue16/digital/
Academic Integrity
Writing the Research Paper
(Source: Empire
State College: Academic Integrity: Writing the Research
Paper
http://www.esc.edu/ESConline/ESCdocuments/escpub.nsf/wholeshortlinks2/Academic+Integrity?opendocument)
“Academic Integrity” is
an impressive-sounding phrase. What does it mean?
While the
phrase can refer to a broad spectrum of actions, most of the time we use it to
mean
“don’t
plagiarize,” or don’t pass off others’ ideas and information as your own. In
other words,
acknowledge
the specific information that you get from sources, whether those sources are
online or printed articles or books, interviews, online discussions, video
tapes, or lectures. Your reader should be able to distinguish your own ideas
and information from your sources’ ideas and information at all times.
As you may
have realized from the explanation above, there’s an additional dimension to
academic integrity. Academic integrity involves not only acknowledging your
sources, but also creating your own ideas.
Academic
integrity, explained in this way, sounds relatively simple. But the particular
applications are a bit more tricky. This pamphlet identifies and offers
strategies to solve some of the most common academic integrity problems that
you may encounter:
1 relying
too heavily on others’ information in a research paper,
2 relying
too heavily on others’ words in a paraphrase or summary,
3 citing and
documenting sources incorrectly, and
4 relying
too heavily on help from other sources.
P R O B L
E M # 1:
BUT IT’S SUPPOSED TO
BE A RESEARCH PAPER!
You read
all of the assigned chapters in the textbook. You researched and read
additional articles on an issue presented in the textbook, in preparation for
writing your research paper. You now have all of this information “in your
head,” and you simply sit down and write the research paper using all of your
new knowledge, making sure to put a bibliography at the end to list all of the
sources that you read.
You get
the paper back from the tutor with comments that say, “This is not a research
paper,”
“What are
your own ideas?,” “What are your sources?,” and “Don’t plagiarize.” What went
wrong?
Remember
that the emphasis in a research paper is on your own thoughts, shaped and
validated by data from experts in the field. A college-level research paper is
not just a series of quotations strung together or a series of summaries of the
different sources that you read (called a review of literature in the field, in
which you re-word information to show that you understand it). A college-level
research paper is intended to show not only how well you can find and
understand appropriate sources, but also how well you can use and think about
the information in those sources to make your own informed judgments about a
topic or an issue.
Remember,
too, that a reader needs to be able to distinguish your own ideas from your
sources’
ideas. A
research paper cannot simply include a lot of information massed together
without
accurately
identifying where that information came from — you or one of your many expert
sources. You need to identify specific information from your sources and
document it, both within the paper and in a list of sources at the end.
You can
translate this explanation into a process of approach to the research paper
assignment, a
process of
approach that will help you maintain academic integrity:
1 Complete
your background reading, jotting down general information and your own
thoughts as you read.
2 Ask
yourself, “What do I think about my topic?”
3 Create
your thesis, main idea statement, or research question which reflects your own
thinking and offers your own argument to prove.
4 Do more
directed, specific research to find expert sources to back up your own
argument. Be alert to evidence that does not support your
position and address that as well.
5 As you
research and take notes, carefully record the page numbers or other identifiers
(e.g., screen number or title in an online source). You will
need this information when you document sources in the research paper.
6 Identify,
in your notes, whether you’ve quoted or paraphrased. Reproduce a quotation
exactly as it appears in the original text.
7 Record
additional source information needed in the list of sources at the end of the paper
(author, title, publisher, place of publication, date of
publication, span of pages for a
journal article, web address and date of access).
8 Distinguish
your own from others’ information as you write the first draft of
your research paper. In the final draft, use a standard
documentation format to identify the sources of information within the paper,
in addition to listing those sources at the end.
P R O B L
E M # 2:
I CITED MY
SOURCES WHEN I PARAPHRASED
AND SUMMARIZED;
WHAT WENT
WRONG?
Just as it
doesn’t show integrity to rely too much on others’ ideas in a research paper,
it doesn’t show integrity to rely too much on others’ words in a paraphrase or
summary, both of which ask you to rewrite others’ ideas in your own language
(an important skill for maintaining consistent style in a research paper that
integrates ideas from many sources). A paraphrase is a direct translation of
the author’s ideas into your own language, and a summary is a condensed
translation of only the author’s main ideas into your own language. Again, both
seem simple. But in practice, you need to be careful not to plagiarize
inadvertently as you translate, as you can see from the following samples
(taken from page 15 of the 2001 CDL Student
Handbook).
QUOTATION:
“Plagiarism, forgery,
misrepresentation and other dishonest or deceptive acts constitute grounds for
academic warning or dismissal from the College. Mentors should first discuss
suspected unethical acts with the student. Suspected cases should be brought to
the attention of the center or program director in a timely way by a tutor,
mentor, student, evaluator or other individual aware of the behavior. The
center or program director may discuss the case with the student, student’s
mentor or other people deemed appropriate. The center or program director will
refer cases requiring further review to the center or program academic review
committee for consideration. A
student
has the right to present his or her case in person to the center or program
academic review committee. If warranted, a warning or dismissal will be issued
by the center or program director on the recommendation of the center or
program academic review committee. If a student disagrees with the decision of
the center or program director, he or she may make a final appeal of the case
to the College’s vice president for academic affairs. If a student is dismissed
from the College, readmission is subject to the approval of the center or
program director and may not occur sooner than three months after the dismissal
is issued.” (CDL Student Handbook 15).
(citation
in MLA — Modern Language Association — format)
PARAPHRASE THAT INADVERTENTLY PLAGIARIZES:
(retains
too much of the source’s language and sentence structure)
The Student Handbook (2001) states that the College
has a policy that describes the different instances under which students may be
withdrawn from the College. These instances include plagiarism, forgery,
misrepresentation, and other instances that show dishonest or deceptive
practice.
(citation in APA — American Psychological Association
— format)
PARAPHRASE THAT RETAINS ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
According
to a policy in the Student Handbook (2001),
Empire State College may take punitive action (including dismissal) against
students who act fraudulently. Fraudulent action includes using the words or
ideas of others without proper attribution, falsifying documents, or depicting
the work of others as one’s own.
(citation in APA — American Psychological Association
— Format)
SUMMARY THAT RETAINS ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
The Student Handbook states that the College
may dismiss students who in any way present others’ work as their own (15).
(citation
in MLA — Modern Language Association — format)
How do you
avoid inadvertent plagiarism? Write the paraphrase or summary in stages, a
process
that’s
especially important when paraphrasing or summarizing a complex passage. Do a
direct
translation
of the author’s words first, a translation which probably will retain the
author’s sentence structure. Set this translation aside. Then do a second-stage
translation to present the author’s ideas in your own way. And always avoid
plagiarism by citing the source.
P R O B L
E M # 3:
ISN’T IT ENOUGH TO MENTION MY SOURCES DURING AND AT THE
END OF MY RESEARCH
PAPER? WHAT DIFFERENCE DO FORMATS — PARENTHESES AND PERIODS — MAKE?
Using a
documentation format is like speaking or writing grammatically. A documentation
format,
like grammar conventions, provides a code that all speakers of a certain
language agree
to follow
in order to make communication easier. Speakers of the language in this case
are
members of
an academic community in a certain field of study. So while it is of primary
importance
to know when to document a source, it’s also very important to know how.
The
problem is that there are many different “hows,” depending on the field of
study — too
many to go
into in a short pamphlet. The two most well-known “hows” are formats of the
Modern
Language Association (MLA, used in the humanities) and American Psychological
Association
(APA, used in the social sciences). There are some general principles that both
the
MLA and
APA formats use:
1 Cite the
source of a quotation within the paper by putting information in parentheses:
* the author’s last name and the page number in parentheses
at the end of the quotation
(MLA), or
* the date
of publication and the page number in parentheses at the end of the
quotation (APA).
Of course,
the quotation itself needs to be reproduced exactly and needs to begin and
end with
quotation marks.
2 Cite the
source of a paraphrase or summary within the paper by mentioning the author at
the start, so the reader can distinguish where your own ideas end and the
source’s ideas
begin. Put
the page number in parentheses at the end of the summary or paraphrase
(MLA), or
put the publication date in parentheses after the mention of the author’s name
(APA). The
paraphrases and summary in problem #2 offer examples of citations using
MLA and
APA formats.
3 At the end
of the paper, alphabetically list the sources that you used, according to
authors’
last names. Only list those sources from which you quoted, paraphrased, or
summarized;
do NOT include the sources that you read as background material but
didn’t use
in the paper itself.
Consult a
standard style manual for more particulars about format. Note that there are
other
formats as
well, for example, those that use footnotes or endnotes instead of the MLA or
APA
in-text
citations. Remember to ask your tutor beforehand which format to use, and
always
consult your
tutor if you have a question about using a standard format.
Using a
standard format is easy if you know which format to use and if you have a good
style
manual to
consult — you don’t have to memorize all of the periods and parentheses! Simply
find the appropriate
example in the style manual (a journal article, a book with two authors,
an online
source, etc.) and replace the sample’s information with your source’s
information,
retaining
the format.
P R O B L
E M # 4:
BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS GOOD PRACTICE TO GET SOME OUTSIDE HELP!
It is. It’s important for
you, as a writer, to get a reader's reaction. (Is there enough information
here? Is the second paragraph clear?) And it’s important for you, as a student,
to consult your tutor if you have general questions about course concepts or
particular questions about the writing assignment. But it’s also important to
stop there. Both course tutors and casual readers can help you understand and
clarify your own ideas; they should NOT create those ideas for you. If a helper
does create ideas, and if you use those ideas and that language as your own,
you will not be acting with integrity. Passing off ideas or language created by
others, without documenting the source, is a form of plagiarism. Even when you
work collaboratively with other students, you need to identify and give credit
to specific ideas that are not your own. It’s important for all assignments to
reflect your own thinking, understanding, and form of expression.
It also is
acceptable to get outside help by consulting resources on your own. The
following services and texts provide useful information about creating your own
ideas, paraphrasing and summarizing, and citing and documenting source
information correctly:
The
Writer’s Complex, an online resource created especially for Empire State
College students.
www.esc.edu/writer
American
Psychological Association. Publication of
the American Psychological Association.
http://www.apastyle.org
Gibaldi,
Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers. 5th ed. www.MLA.org
Hacker,
Diana. A Writer’s Reference. Boston:
Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 4th ed. (CoversMLA and APA formats.
Available through the CDL bookstore, 518 587-2100 ext. 365.)
Spatt,
Brenda. Writing From Sources. 5th ed.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Turabian,
Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term
Papers, Theses and Dissertations. 6th ed. rev.
Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1996.
AS YOU CAN SEE, THERE ARE MANY SOURCES
AVAILABLE TO HELP YOU APPROACH YOUR ACADEMIC WORK WITH INTEGRITY. THE MAIN
THING TO REMEMBER IS THAT YOU ALWAYS NEED TO CREATE YOUR OWN IDEAS AND THEN
ACKNOWLEDGE OTHER SOURCES’ IDEAS THATYOU USE TO SUPPORT YOUR OWN.
(Source: Empire State College’s website on “Academic
Integrity and Writing the Research Paper” http://www.esc.edu/ESCONLINE/ACROSS_ESC/LNS0ES.NSF/0/d60a86185609a3d885256b1900572710?OpenDocument)
The ability to summarize and paraphrase is an essential academic skill all
students must develop. Writers use summaries and paraphrases in research papers
to substantiate their ideas since they do not need to use every word of every
relevant source.
A summary is a condensed version of the main ideas of all or part of a source,
written in your own words.
A paraphrase is a rewording of a particular point in a source.
You can be accused of plagiarism if you only change a
few words of the original source and use that as your summary or paraphrase.
Instead, you should work carefully to use your own words and sentences.
To write a summary or paraphrase, first read and reread your source until you
understand exactly what it is saying. Then put the source and any notes away.
Write down the relevant information from the source. At this point you may
still be using phrasing and language from the source. So next, rewrite this
information into your own words and sentences so it becomes a coherent part of
your paper written in your own style.
Remember, do not include your own ideas or commentary in the body of the
summary or paraphrase. Your own ideas should come after the summary or
paraphrase. You don't want your reader to become confused about which
information is yours and which is the source's. And you always have to document
summaries and paraphrases since the ideas are not your own.
Practice: Distinguish Between Summaries and Paraphrases
Below is a quotation followed by three samples, one of which inadvertently
plagiarizes. See if you can identify what each sample is (a paraphrase or a summary),
and see if you can "catch" the one that inadvertently plagiarizes.
Quotation:
"Empire
State College has a policy describing the conditions under which students may
be warned or withdrawn from the College for such unethical academic behavior as
plagiarism, forgery, misrepresentation, or other dishonest or deceptive acts
which constitute grounds for warning or administrative withdrawal" (CDL
Student Handbook 5).
Samples:
1.
The Student Handbook states that the College may dismiss students who in any
way present others' work as their own (5). [MLA format]
2.
According to policy in the Student Handbook, Empire State College may take
punitive action (including dismissal) against students who act fraudulently.
Fraudulent action includes using the words or ideas of others without proper
attribution, falsifying documents, or depicting the words of others as one's
own (1992, p. 5). [APA format]
3.
The Student Handbook states that the College has a policy that describes the
different instances under which students may be withdrawn from the College.
These instances include plagiarism, forgery, misrepresentation, and other
instances that show dishonest or deceptive practice (1992, p. 5). [APA format]
Number 1 is the summary; it has condensed the source and articulates the main
idea. Number 2 is an appropriate paraphrase. The writer has used her own words
and sentence structure to relate the essence of the source. Number 3 is a
paraphrase that inadvertently plagiarizes because it retains too much of the
source's language and sentence structure.
(Source:
University of Kansas Writing Guide
http://www.writing.ku.edu/students/docs/incorp.html)
Make the best use of your research efforts by incorporating reference information
smoothly and systematically into the text and citing your sources accurately
and in a consistent fashion.
Weave the research through the paper rather
than patching a paper together with bits of research. Here are some suggestions
to help you incorporate reference material effectively.
Putting the Information in Your Own
Words
Paraphrasing or summarizing, citing your
sources, is one possibility, unless the reference is best stated and most
effective for your purposes as a quotation. Paraphrasing requires restatement
of the material in your own syntax, while conveying the same ideas or
conclusions as the original that you are citing. Remember, you need to cite the
source for all material that you have paraphrased. Even if the words are your
own, you must give the author credit for the specific idea.
Introducing and Commenting on
Quotations
Weave quotations into your own writing by
clarifying the quote's significance to the topic. Avoid stacking quotations on
top of each other. Incorporate them into the writing instead of inserting
writing into the quotations. Introduce the quotation, comment on content,
explain its significance, disagree with it if necessary, but do not drop a
lengthy quotation in the middle of the prose with no comment.
Citing Reference Sources
To avoid plagiarism, cite everything you
borrow unless that information is common knowledge.
Determining What Constitutes Common
Knowledge
Sometimes, however, common knowledge is
difficult to determine. Consider information common knowledge if:
In addition, keep in mind that the ultimate
test is whether your audience can access your research by using the material
you have provided. If in doubt, cite your source.
Citing Quoted Material
Quotation marks are used to indicate
material that is borrowed verbatim. Standard uses of quotations are summarized
below. Those examples also show conventions for citing the sources of
information. Sources should be cited for all borrowed material, whether direct
quotations or ideas. Citation conventions vary by discipline; these examples
use MLA style, a popular form in the humanities.
In-Text Quotations
Direct quotations need to be surrounded by
quotation marks.
Wilbur Zelinsky argues,
"Over a dozen ethnic groups have had major influence on this county"
(34).
Wilbur Zelinsky argues that
"every ethnic group . . . possesses a distinctive cultural pattern"
(39).
Comments:
"The term 'culture core'
perhaps states most succinctly what is desired" (Zelinsky 39).
Comments:
Blocked Quotations
All direct quotations longer than four typed
lines of prose (or three lines of poetry) should be blocked. (MLA requires a
10-space indentation.) This example illustrates what the text might look like:
What we are
after is that most critical set of cultural attributes, the small package that
will most parsimoniously signal the complex totality. The term "culture
core" perhaps states most succinctly what is desired. (Zelinsky 39)
|
Comments:
For additional examples, refer to a standard English handbook or an
appropriate style manual. Creating a Works Cited or Reference Page |
Under the in-text citation
system, a list of works cited in the document is attached on a separate sheet
after the text of the document. In MLA form, that list is called a Works Cited
Page. In some others it is known as a Reference Page. Many people know this
list as the Bibliography. A Works Cited page, however, includes only those
sources cited in the document whereas a bibliography may include addition
resources. As with the in-text citations, the format of this list varies by
discipline. See list of Citations for examples.
(Source:
University of Kansas Writing Guide
http://www.writing.ku.edu/students/docs/paraphrase.html)
Three writing strategies that will help you understand what you are reading are
the paraphrase, summary, and precis. All three ask you to put the information
that you're reading into your own words.
Paraphrase
When you paraphrase, you are explaining your
source's argument, following its line of reasoning and its sequence of ideas,
in your own words. The paraphrase should give the reader an accurate
understanding of the author's position on the topic. The purpose of a
paraphrase is to convey the meaning of the original message and, in doing so,
to prove that you understand the passage well enough to restate it. Remember,
your job is not to prove yourself correct, but to uncover and explain all the
facts and arguments involved in your subject.
To paraphrase, first substitute synonyms for
the passage's more important terms. These synonyms should be accurate both in
denotative and connotative meaning. It does not matter yet whether you agree or
disagree with the passage; it only matters that you comprehend what the show
that you understand what the passage says.
This restatement preserves both the original
meaning of the passage and the author's position on the matter, but it may be
difficult to read at some points. Fine tune the sentence construction, possibly
even adding a phrase here and there to illustrate a point more clearly or show
a connection between two ideas.
The paraphrase alters the wording of the
passage without changing its meaning. It retains the basic logic of the
argument, its sequence of ideas, and even the examples used in the passage.
Most importantly, it accurately conveys the author's meaning and opinion.
Summary
A summary restates only the author's main
ideas, omitting all the examples and evidence used in supporting and
illustrating those points. The function of a summary is to represent the scope
and emphasis of a relatively large amount of material in an efficient and concise
form. In your own words, state the thesis, main arguments and conclusion of the
original. In both the paraphrase and summary, the author's meaning and opinion
have been retained. However, in the case of the summary, examples and
illustrative elements of the passage are omitted. Because they can be used to
encapsulate everything from a long narrative passage of an essay, to a chapter
in a book, to the entire book itself, summaries can be tremendously helpful.
Precis
The precis (pronounced pray-see) is a type
of summarizing that insists on an exact reproduction of the logic,
organization, and emphasis of the original texts. It is of particular use in
situations in which you want to detail the relative order, proportions, and
relationships of the original parts of a text. An effective precis retains the
logic, development, and argument of the original in much shorter form. Thus, a
precis is useful when you are dealing with lengthy passages that demand careful
attention to the logic and organization of an argument.
To write an effective precis, read the
passage several times for a full understanding. Note key points. It may, in
fact, be helpful to underline these words. Restate each paragraph in one or two
sentences. In cases where there are very short paragraphs, combine them in your
restatement. Make sure that you retain the precise order of the original
points, and combine the sentences into one or more smooth paragraphs. Finally,
check your precis against the original to be sure that it is exact and retains
the order, proportions, and relationships of the original.
Citation References:
(Source: University of Kansas Writing Guide http://www.writing.ku.edu/students/guides.shtml)
·
Learning English Online (University of Kansas AEC)
http://www.aec.ukans.edu/leo/
·
Dave's ESL Cafe for Students and Teachers (Dave
Sperling) http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/eslcafe.html
·
Writing for an American Academic Audience (Purdue
University OWL) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslaudience.html
·
Essay Building for ESL (Mt. San Antonio College)
http://elearn.mtsac.edu/pmarcy/vesl1wc/
·
Learn
English Effectively http://www.antimoon.com/