How Do I Protect Myself?
Citing the words of others is a more straightforward task than citing
ideas you've picked up from others, but in both cases it's easy enough
to quiet any concerns that your collaborative work might raise. We'll
discuss strategies for both kinds of citation here, so that you can make
sure that it is clear in your papers when you are drawing on the words
or the ideas of others.
You have, no doubt, received instruction many times on the conventions
for identifying when you are using the words of others in your own writing.
Here, we will just briefly review the two primary ways of indicating usage
of this kind: for additional assistance with these conventions, we encourage
you to refer to the citation section of any standard grammar handbook.
You identify your use of the words of others either through quotation
marks and through the indentation and blocking of longer quotations. These
two typographical conventions signal to your reader that you are embedding
the words of another person in your own writing: the conventions signal
the addition of another voice to the conversation.
Examples:
- Quotation Marks
According to Abram, the reason that we no longer look upon nature
with reverence and awe for its spontaneous beauty is that we are no
longer able "to clearly see, or focus upon, anything outside
the realm of human technology, or to hear as meaningful anything other
than human speech" (20).
- Indentation for longer citations
Grieder believes that the daily experience of American workers leads to a political disengagement. As he puts it:
Where did citizens learn the resignation and cynicism that leads them to withdraw as active citizens? They learned it at the office; they learned it on the shop floor. This real-life education in who has power and who doesn't creates a formidable barrier to ever establishing an authentic democracy in which Americans are genuinely represented (254).
One place to test out Greider's argument is to consider whether
or not it applies to other cultures, such as Iran as represented in Nafisi's memoir.
For more on ways to smooth the transition between your own prose and
the material you cite, see Week Seven of the Tutorama, What
to Do When You Quote.
Although the typical image of the writer is of someone sitting alone,
scribbling wildly, we know that the best writing emerges out of a rich
world of engaged conversation. And so, we believe that one way you can
tell if your class is going well is if the class discussions of the readings
and the peer review process are helping you to re-think your first impressions
and to re-work your first drafts. In a collaborative environment such
as this, it is, in other words, a sign of success when the ideas of others
start having an influence on your own thoughts. This kind of influence
isn't something to be avoided or concealed: rather, our writing classes
are small and we require that papers be revised precisely because we hope
to foster this kind of influence.
When it comes time for you sit down to write by yourself, though, it
may be hard to know exactly what to do with the ideas you've heard in
class. Who do those ideas belong to? And how are you meant to cite them?
How do you know when you are doing more than just repeating what someone
else said or what the class as a whole has come to think? In the examples
below, we provide you with straightforward ways to demonstrate when you
are drawing on the ideas of others and when you are using those ideas
to generate your own insights and draw your own conclusions.
Examples
- Ideas and Class Discussion
The problem of how to cite the ideas of others and the insights that
are generated during class discussion is relatively easy to solve. If
someone has said something in class discussion or during your peer review
that has helped start your thinking off in a new direction, you need only
mark that moment in your writing with a brief introductory phrase acknowledging
the contribution.
For example, if Shahin made a statement during class discussion that shifted
the direction of your thoughts, you might note this in your essay with
a simple statement of this fact:
As Shahin suggested, there's
a problem with Greider's emphasis on "self-ownership."
You would then follow this statement by showing where you've taken this
idea since that discussion. Your work, in other words, is not simply to
note the contribution: your job is to show what you can do with this idea
on your own. Or to put this another way, if your paper is nothing but
a record of what others have thought and said, appropriately attributed,
you won't be in danger of plagiarism, but you will be in danger of failing,
since your job is to show what you can do with the words and ideas
that the course has put before you.
Here are other phrases you might find useful:
This thought hadn't occurred to me until
Marcie brought it up during peer review.
One way to connect these ideas is to do
what Bill did in class.
After talking about this idea for some time
with Sean and Judy, we all concluded that the only way
to clean up the Raritan would be to make people see the health consequences
this polluted river poses to those who live nearby.
If you've received editorial assistance, you want to make
certain not to bring any words or ideas into your essay that are not yours.
You should restrict the assistance you receive on editing your drafts
to help with grammar and syntax. Imagine yourself taking the Attribution
Test discussed in the previous section. Would you be able to pass?
If you can't define the words and explain the ideas in your essay on your
own, without assistance, you have crossed the line and are in danger of
handing in work that could be judged as having been plagiarized.
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Well, Why Shouldn't I Cheat?
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