GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Plagiarism, Citations, and Note Taking & Cause and Effect Writing Models

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Let’s Review from Week 5: - Thesis Statement = A narrow, specific topic + an attitude, belief, opinion about the topic. - Thesis Statements must be debatable in a sense, or it’s not a Thesis. - Thesis Statements require Evidence for support.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Week 5 Review (Continued): Evidence can include: Examples, Facts, Reasons, Experiences, Anecdotes, Numbers, Statistics, Quotations, Expert Opinions, etc. Evidence should be: Relevant, Unified, Specific, Adequate, Dramatic, Accurate, Representative, and Documented (if borrowed)

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Week 5 Review (Continued): - HW Assignment: The Best ___ is a ____ - Choose a class of objects or activities - Identify a specific type within the class - Provide 3 types of evidence that support the claim that the specific type is the best within the class

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Today’s Objectives: 1) Describe strategies to avoid plagiarism. 2) Review how to utilize the MLA Citation System in your Research Paper. 3) Know when to cite sources, and how to cite them properly. 4) Describe and utilize Cause-Effect as a writing model.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Q: What is “plagiarism” ? A: Plagiarism occurs when a writer borrows or steals the ideas, thoughts, facts, or words of another writer without giving credit to the original source.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Q: Why is plagiarism wrong? A: 1) It robs someone else of their work. 2) It gives a student an unfair advantage in grading compared to students who do not plagiarize. 3) It hurts the student who doesn’t learn anything in the process. 4) It devalues the worth of a diploma from the student’s college or institution.

Q: How does plagiarism occur? A: While some student intentionally decide to buy or copy an assignment, others do genuine research on a topic but they still unintentionally plagiarize. Most cases of plagiarism are unintentional!

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Q: If most cases of plagiarism are unintentional, how can I be sure to avoid it? A: By doing two things: 1) Taking proper notes carefully 2) Utilizing a method for citations

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Taking Notes - Create a consistent system for taking and storing notes: Index cards, a dedicated notebook, a specific file on a hard drive, etc. - Write your notes while reading your original sources, then write your paper from your notes, not the sources.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Taking Notes - Strive to write notes only when you believe it will be useful in your paper. Avoid recording everything and anything. - Consider taking notes on: Facts, Stats, Anecdotes, Quotations, Expert opinions, etc. (anything considered “evidence”).

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing acceptable notes - When writing notes, always remember there are only 3 types of notes that are acceptable in a research paper or academic essay. - The 3 types of notes are: Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing acceptable notes - If you write down a note, and more importantly, if you actually use it in your work, it must be 1 of the acceptable types, or it will lead to plagiarism! - Therefore, when you write a note, always record in shorthand (S, P, Q) what type of note it is FIRST!!!!!!!!

Writing Summaries - A summary is written in your own words. - It’s shorter and more condensed than the original source material. - Summaries focus only on main ideas and the “big picture.” - They never go into specifics or details.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing Summaries - Summaries can cover a lot of material in a little bit of space. - Summaries are useful in providing necessary background information or an overview on a topic. - Summaries are often found early on in papers, before the writer goes into detail.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing Summaries - Read the original material thoroughly, put the source aside, and in your own words, express only the main ideas. - Compare your summary to the original and make sure you aren’t occasionally borrowing exact words and phrases from the original source.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing Paraphrases - A paraphrase is also written in your own words. - A paraphrase is just as long as the original source material. - There is a sentence by sentence correspondence between the original and the paraphrase.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing Paraphrases - A paraphrase is as detailed and specific as the original source material. - Paraphrases are useful in providing specifics, details, and more than main ideas. - Paraphrases are found anywhere a writer needs to use specifics or details.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing Paraphrases - Read the original source carefully, and then put it aside. - Write out your paraphrase in your own words, creating the same number of sentences as the original. - Compare your paraphrase, sentence by sentence, to the original. Change any exact words or phrases you use that come from the original source.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing Quotations - A quotation is the use of someone else’s exact words. - A quotation must be indicated through the use of “quotation marks.” - A quotation is exactly as long as the original material. - Quotations cannot be rewritten or edited

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing Quotations - Since paraphrases and summaries require you to use your own words, there should be a good reason to use a quotation instead. - Quote when a writer’s thoughts are unusual or controversial to accurately convey their beliefs.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Writing Quotations - Quote when a writer’s words are particularly memorable or eloquent. - Quote when any attempt to paraphrase or summarize would make the material less clear or less eloquent. - Quote when an expert’s opinion reinforces your own beliefs (and thesis!)

MLA Citation System - A Citation System is an artificial, but consistent method to document all research sources utilized in a writer’s work. - Citation Systems were first created in the 1900’s by the University of Chicago. - Chicago Manual, MLA, APA, etc.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 MLA Citation System - All citation system can be described as either being Note-based or Parenthetical - A Note-based system uses sequential numbers in the text and footnotes or endnotes to indicate and reveal sources. - A Parenthetical system cites sources using parentheses ( ) and a bibliography.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 MLA Citation System - MLA is a Parenthetical Citation System - MLA requires writers to pay attention to 2 different aspects of the system: 1) In-text, parenthetical attribution 2) A separate and complete bibliography

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 MLA Citation System - An in-text attribution is a simple indicator of the last name of the author of the original source, followed by a page number (if no pagination, always use 1) - The attribution occurs at the end of each and every note used in a paper. It doesn’t wait until the end of the paragraph or page!

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 MLA Citation System Ex: A growing number of scientists have become impatient with the lack of government involvement regarding global warming (Thomas 6). Ex: Researcher Richard Thomas reveals that a growing number of scientists have become impatient with the lack of government involvement regarding global warming (6).

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 MLA Citation Style - Try to use both forms of in-text citation for variety’s sake. - If you’re not sure if you should cite an idea or not, cite it anyway! When in doubt, always document!!!! - Common knowledge does not need to be cited, even if found in original sources.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 MLA Citation System - A bibliography is a list of all relevant information about the original source cited in a paper. - Usually includes: Author’s Name, Title, Publication, Pages, Volume/Issue, Date, Publisher, Publishing city, etc

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 MLA Citation System - MLA is flexible enough that you can cite anything as an original source. - Every different type of source or even variations of the same type have different rules for formatting the bibliography entry. - Refer to your textbook and MLA guides for unique or individual cases. - Utilize Citation Generators like KnightCite.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect - Causal analysis is based on the human need to make connections between events and make sense of the world. - It answers natural questions that we all have about the world: Why?, How Come? What if?, etc.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect Causes can also be worded as: - Reasons - Factors - Precipitating events - Sources - Motivations

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect Causes are concerned with what happened or led up to an event or phenomena occurring. Identifying causes helps us answer the questions “Why?” and “How come?”

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect Effects can also be worded as: - Results - Impact - Significance - Consequences - Aftermath

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect Effects are concerned with what happens after an event or phenomena occurs. Identifying effects answers the question “What if?”

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect There are 3 likely objectives or reasons to use C/E as a writing model. 1) To simply give information 2) To argue or persuade the reader 3) To speculate or predict

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect Some basic strategies for using C/E : 1) Stay focused on your main objective and don’t lose sight of it. 2) Adapt tone, diction, and content for your audience, especially for topics unfamiliar to your readers.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect 3. Think carefully and rigorously about Cause and Effect relationships. Understand Causal Chains and avoid mistaking correlation for causation!!! 4. In a small essay, focus just on the causes of a phenomena, or just on the effects. You won’t have enough room to do both.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect 5. Utilize an organization pattern for your Causes and/or Effects: A) Chronological (the order they happen in) B) Emphatic (the order of importance they have)

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect 6. Use language appropriate for C/E writing. Nothing is black or white or guaranteed. Avoid words such as “clearly”, “definitely”, “obviously”, “without a doubt” or “guaranteed.” Try to use words such as “probably”, “most likely”, or “seems to be”. They give you room for doubt and show you understand the complexity of C/E relationships

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Cause and Effect Let’s read a good example of Cause & Effect writing! Read : “Why we crave horror movies” by Stephen King, pages 398-399.

GE 117 Composition I Week 6 Now for Homework, PRACTICE! - Choose a topic from page 411 (or create one of your own!) - Choose to write about EITHER Causes or Effects (don’t attempt both.) - Identify 3 causes or effects for the topic, and give each one it’s own paragraph. - Included an Intro and Conclusion paragraph.