Research+Paper+7

=**Understanding Plagiarism and Integrating Resources**=

Following the conventions of documentation and avoiding plagiarism are key responsibilities of researchers. As a researcher, you must document how and where you locate your resources for three primary reasons:


 * to give credit to the original author/artist/speaker


 * to help your audience find the same resource, and


 * to build your credibility as a researcher

Documentation is your ethical responsibility to the individuals who produced the resources from which you are drawing your information, and you demonstrate good will to your audience by providing them with the information they need to find the original source in a manner that they can easily understand. By understanding and abiding by the principles of copyright and by documenting how and where you locate information or ideas that are not your own, you are following legal guideline and demonstrating your high ethical standards.

=**Copyright**=

One of the reasons we document resources is to uphold the copyright laws that protect the information that we use. Copyright laws regulate the use of a particular expression of an idea. Ideas that are considered "common knowledge" are not protected by copyright, but many people disagree about what constitutes common knowledge. Therefore, if an idea you include in your writing is not your own, you must cit it as someone else's work and five that person the credit.

Copyright laws protect the author, or producer, of any given text (written, audio, visual, performance, etc.) from people who might reproduce that text without permission. The entertainment industry, both in music and movies, fights to keep very strict copyright regulations on their texts so that they will continue to earn money for the work and resources that went into the production of those texts. Similarly, scholars, and publishing houses that publish their work, also want to retain control over their materials. You should be aware that even though you might not see a copyright symbol. or the statement "all rights reserved" on a text, copyright is automatically granted to the author or producer of a work once it is published in a tangible form. For example. you own the copyright to all of the papers you write for various purposes.

Copyright does not last forever, however. The length of any text's coverage under copyright law depends on when and how the text was published, among other things. Copyright coverage can expire after a certain length of time. But remember, the ethics of documentation are not only about following copyright law but also about giving credit where credit is due and being responsible to your audience by providing pertinent information about the resource so they can find it themselves.


 * Fair Use**

What should you do if you want to refer to something in a resource that is still protected by copyright? Fair use allows individuals to copy small portions of texts to use them in other contexts, especially research and education. If you are doing a critical analysis of a book that has been written in the past fifty years, you may quote a few small excerpts from it under the fair-use doctrine. Always keep in mind that even though fair use gives you this right, you still need to document how and where you found the information. This gives credit to the copyright holder while providing your audience with the information needed to find the original sources.


 * Ideas versus Words**

Copyright technically protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. However, in academic research it is expected that you will also document where and how you found specific ideas. For example, imagine that a doctor who specializes in hip replacements has conducted research into a new method for connecting the replacement hip to the patient's thighbone. When writing his article about the new method, he needs to briefly discuss the methods currently in use to demonstrate why his new method is better. When referring to the other methods, he is not reprinting the exact details of them; however, he still must cite the resources that originally presented the other methods. If the audience wants, or needs, to read more specific or detailed material about the other hip replacement methods, his documentation will provide the way.

=**Plagiarism**=

Remember, documentation and plagiarism are ultimately about ethics. Therefore, if you plagiarize by copying the work of others without documenting, you are being unethical in two ways:

1. you are most likely breaking copyright law, and 2. you are not acknowledging the work of others.

When talking about plagiarism in an academic setting, most teachers are highly concerned about the second issue. The production of original ideas is valued in academic settings, and it is important to give credit to the original author(s). Writing assignments are one of many methods that teachers use to evaluate how much you have learned in the class. If you copy someone's work without documenting it, you have committed plagiarism: you have stolen someone's ideas and you are not demonstrating your own learning.

Part of the difficulty in talking about plagiarism, however, is that it can be difficult to define. Plagiarism, as it is generally defined by academic institutions, includes many kinds of academic violations, including the following:


 * turning in an entire work composed by someone else and claiming it as your own


 * using someone else's exact words in your writing without acknowledging the source


 * paraphrasing someone else's work or using someone else's ideas in your writing without acknowledging the source

In addition, some teachers classify turning in work that you have completed for another class as a form of academic dishonesty. To complicate matters, plagiarism (a sit is defined in academic settings) happens in other settings as normal practice. In some contexts, copying parts of a text into a new document is considered normal, accepted practice (in the writing of contracts, for example). Furthermore, in different cultures and settings, the "rules" of documentation and plagiarism are shaped by **rhetorical** context, just like everything else discussed so far.

Two kinds of plagiarism are commonly viewed as academic violations in American higher education. In academic contexts, students who plagiarize often fall into one of two categories:

1. **Blatant plagiarism**. Someone knowingly copied sections of other resources and submitted them as his or her own work.

2. **Careless plagiarism**. Someone knowingly used information from an outside resource but thought that it was considered common knowledge or do not adequately provide in-text and full bibliographic documentation within the paper.

Both kinds of plagiarism have serious academic consequences, and it is important to understand the conventions of citing sources in order to avoid them.


 * Blatant plagiarism**

Is there a difference between copying a whole paper and copying and pasting text from several sources into a paper? For the purposes of following an academic code of conduct, not really. In either case, the writer is knowingly copying another resource and presenting that work as his or her own. Obviously, if you submit an entire paper that was written by another individual, you are plagiarizing. However, if you copy and paste small sections form another resource, shouldn't that count as fair use? Yes, if you document where and how you found that resource both within the paper (through the use of quotation marks or block quotation and in-text citations) and in the bibliographic citations at the end of the paper. If you do not properly cite those copied and pasted section, however, you are plagiarizing.

Why would a student plagiarize on purpose? There are a few common reasons, and at least two of them are completely avoidable with proper planning:

1. The student didn't understand the assignment or the material and relied on someone else's work instead.

2. The student ran out of time to work on the assignment and copied someone else's work out of desperation.

In the first instance, the student who doesn't understand the assignment or material could seek help from the teacher, or perhaps from someone else in the class, to understand the requirements of the assignment. Planning ahead and seeking help early can prevent this situation. Planning ahead will also help you avoid the second circumstance, running out of time and plagiarizing from desperation. A carefully written research plan will help you plan the time to find all of the information you need to complete your own work.

=**Integration of Resources into Your Argument**=

Once you have developed your argument and know what resources, data, and evidence you will incorporate into the final published product, you should start thinking about how to incorporate those resources into your writing. For every outside piece of information that you present in your writing, whether it is from **primary** research or from a **secondary** resource, make sure to do the following four things.


 * Introduce the source.


 * Incorporate the resource as a summary, paraphrase, or quotation into your writing.


 * Interpret the resource, connecting it to your argument.


 * Document the location of the resource.

If you follow these four steps when incorporating resources into your writing, you will be sure to avoid plagiarism as well as provide your readers wi the information they need.


 * Introduction of the Resource**

One of the common challenges students face in research-based writing is figuring out how to elegantly incorporate resources into their own argument. What often happens is that a student ends uo "dumping" a quotation into a paragraph, or stringing several quotations together, or just putting a quotation in a paragraph by itself. The problem with that approach is that the audience (1) has not context or the quotations and (2) is disoriented because your text shifts from your own words to those of your source with no warning. If you take the time to introduce your resource, you will avoid this common problem. First, you'll have a transition from what you were previously discussing in your argument. Second, and more importantly, you'll provide a context for the resource itself - what it is and, if needed, where it come from.


 * WRITE: Introduce secondary resources **

Find a specific section of a resource that you are fairly certain that you will use in your final research paper. Answer the following questions about this specific information or piece of evidence.


 * Why might this resource be helpful in the development of your argument?


 * What might be important to point out to your audience about the information so that they pay attention to this resource in your argument?


 * Who is the author? Is the author well known in the field? Will the audience know the author's name? Does the author have very strong credentials related to this topic? (If so, you might consider incorporating the author's name, and maybe even his or her credentials, when introducing the resource).

Now try writing an introduction to the information for that resource that you could include in your final paper. Include the relevant information that will help your audience interpret the resource you are presenting to them. Here are two examples.

1. "Leading researchers in child psychology agree that spanking can be damaging to a small child..."

2. "According to Glenn, a respected researcher in child psychology..."


 * Incorporation of the Data**

Once you've introduced the information from your resource, you then need to incorporate the actual data you are using into the sentence. You can directly quote the resource or more casually refer to it by summarizing or paraphrasing the information provided in the resource.

//**Quotations from Resources**// Many beginning researchers make the two common mistakes of incorporating lots of direct quotes and incorporating very long quotes into their papers. To avoid committing these common errors, make sure that you are directly quoting for the right reasons. Generally, you only need to quote a resource directly for one of the following reasons.


 * You are doing direct analysis of a written text and need to provide the specific examples you are analyzing.


 * The section of text that you would like to use is short and could easily be incorporated into your larger text.


 * The author(s) of the resource used language that you believe to be particularly powerful and/or persuasive for your intended audience, and you would lose meaning or emphasis if you paraphrased it.


 * The text is well known, and your audience might already be familiar with the quotation.


 * You want to comment directly on the author's ideas and/or language.

If you can articulate why you chose to quote directly instead of **paraphrase** a resource, you generally are doing it for the right reasons. If you are only directly quoting a resource because you have the resource and want to include it in your argument, you probably should **summarize** or **paraphrase** instead. **Summarizing** and **paraphrasing** give you the opportunity to present the resource in a way that gives the most support for your position.

Many scholars examine texts and language and are interested in the specific phrasing that someone might use in an expression. While analyzing any text, they must refer to the specific words on the page as well as the specific utterances of individuals. In this case, the scholars are focusing on the choice, order, and style of works, among other things. They must include detailed quotations from the texts that they then continue to analyze in their papers. Obviously, this type of scholarship requires writers to include direct quotations from resources into their papers.

Although other scholars may not be specifically studying language and texts, they are sensitive to highly expressive moments where someone wrote or said just the right thing.

Many arguments that revolve around definitions use direct quotes to distinguish specific ideas, concepts, and perspectives from one another.

Ultimately, it is important to remember that you do not always need to directly quote individuals who support your opinion, perspective, or argument. Unless the specific language is essential to your argument, you should try to **summarize** or **paraphrase** your resources.

//**Summarizing and Paraphrasing Revisited**// Unless you need to quote directly for one of the reasons listed, you should either **summarize** or **paraphrase** the resources you are incorporating into your argument. **Summarizing** might be useful if you want to condense some of the ideas of a particular resources to support your argument. If you don't want to conse the ideas but you don't have a reason to directly quote the original author, you might **paraphrase** the source. This could be a useful strategy if the original language of the source might be inaccessible to your audience, for example.


 * Interpreting the Resource**

Another important step when incorporating resources into your writing successfully is to interpret the resource for your audience. When a writer doesn't make explicit connections between the source and his or her argument, the writer leaves the audience to make the connections themselves. A better approach is to provide the connection for you reader, which prevents him or her from making the wrong connection or interpreting the resource in a manner that does not support the argument. By interpreting your resources for your audience, you are also ensuring that your voice, not someone else's, remains the dominant one in your research.

This final connection can take place either in the sentence that includes the information from the resource (as well as the introduction and in-text citation) or in a separate sentence. Sometimes getting everything (introduction, resource, interpretation, and in-text citation) into one sentence is overwhelming and it is easier on both the writer and the reader if you interpret your resource in the following sentence. If you choose to do the latter, always interpret the resource immediately following the sentence in which you included the resource to avoid confusion.

Some resources might not need interpretation, however. If you have found a particularly effective quotation, for example, you might want to have it stand alone without interpreting for your reader. Such cases should be conscious choices, though. In other words, if you choose not to interpret a resource you have included, you should have a clearly understood reason for no doing so, knowing that the quotation will draw attention to itself because there is no interpretation.

Good interpretation can be challenging to write. Try to avoid the trap of writing, "This quotation means that..." Instead, think about how to use your interpretation to point the reader back to the argument that you are developing.


 * Documenting the Resource**

After introducing and incorporating information from the resource, documentation is the next step. You must document the resource in the same sentence as you refer to it in your argument. Most guides require a two-step documentation process for previously published resources:

1. **In-text citation**. In-text citations give the reader the reader just enough information to locate the correct, full bibliographic citation elsewhere in the document. In-text citations are brief so that readers are not distracted by them and can continue to read with the flow of the text.

2. **Full bibliographic citation**. Full bibliographic citations provide detailed information on how and where to locate the resource. Since full bibliographic citations are bulky and do not fit well within the flow of the text, most are found in either footnotes (at the bottom of the page) or endnotes (at the end of the paper).

//**What to Cite**// You should cite any information that you locate from an outside resource. The only exception is if the information is considered "common knowledge" within the context in which are are writing the document. (In other words, is this "common knowledge" to your specific audience?) Your citation should be included in //every sentence// that incorporates information from an outside resource.

//**How to Cite**// Before figuring out how to construct your in-text and full bibliographic citations, you need to determine in which citation style you will follow. This book contains guidelines for four of the most popular citation styles, which have been developed by professional organizations for academic writing.


 * **Modern Language Association (MLA)**. Scholars who study literature, languages, and other humanities generally follow MLA documentation style.


 * **American Psychological Association (APA)**. Scholars who study psychology, sociology, and other social sciences usually follow APA documentation style.


 * **//The Chicago Manual of Style//**. CMS includes two types of citation styles, one designed for the humanities and one designed for the social sciences. History scholars tend to follow CMS documentation style.


 * **Council of Science Editors (CSE)**. SCE is a good example of a citation style in the sciences; however, engineers, chemists, and doctors often have discipline-specific citation style guidelines as well.

As with any other decision you make during your research process, your selection of citation style should be based on your **rhetorical situation**.

//**In-Text Citations**// One of the challenges in citing resources accurately is figuring out what the in-text citations should look like. A second challenge is figuring out where and when to include citations in the text. The rules for when and where to include in-text citations are fairly consistent across citation styles. In-text citations should be included for every idea, quotation, and piece of information that you take from another resource. When in doubt, cite.

//**Full Bibliographic Citations**// Compiling a full list of references at the end of your research is an important part of the research process. Your bibliography, list of references, or works cited list will provide further information and resources for your readers in case they would like to follow up and discover more information about your topic for themselves.

=**Avoiding Common Documentation Pitfalls**=

As you put together your full list of resources at the end of your research, follow the guidelines for the citation style you have chosen. Each style has its own unique details, but you'll see commonalities among them. Try to avoid these common pitfalls.

1. **Incorrect formatting of author's names**. Check the formatting guidelines for the citation style you are using to make sure you are listing the authors' names correctly. For example, in **MLA format** you include the author's full first name, but in **APA format** you include only the initial of the author's first name.

2. **No author listed**. If you cannot find an author for your resource, consider the following steps:


 * Really search for the author. On Web sites, the author's name may be listed on a different page. Take some time and really search.


 * Government agencies, organizations, and corporations can be authors.


 * If you really can't find an author, do not start your citation with the date. Use the title of the work in the place of the author.

3. **Incorrect use of italics**. Titles of major works (books, films, television shows) and periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and journals) are italicized. Specific articles, chapters, and television episodes titles are not italicized. In some citation styles, they are put in quotation marks. Also note that some citation styles specify when and how to capitalize the title of the work.

4. **Incorrect punctuation**. Follow the exact punctuation guidelines for you citation style for every period, comma, semicolon, and quotation mark. Each style has its specific rules, and they are important to follow. For example, in APA you should not include periods at the end of a full bibliographic citation with a URL.

5. **Inaccurate listing of URLs for digital resources**. Styles differ in the specifics for listing URLs and databases. You should always keep a copy of the exact URL or database name in your notes in case you change citation styles.