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How to Work in Ways that Prevent Each of the Problems Measured by the CheckList Numbers |
What’s on This
Webpage:
Preventions
for Each Item in the Evidence Checklist/Rubric
What Is the Goal of Written
Assignments in This Course
This table shows the Evidence Checklist/Rubric from the syllabus in the first and second columns. The checklist item in the second column is split apart so specific remedies are visible. I have included links to things that I have shown students directly. I am trying to make those one-to-one conferences useful as PowerPoint movies. These are basic tips I was taught or learned years ago. I am also willing to talk with you.
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# |
Problem Identified by the Checklist Item (Split Apart
to Show the Specific Solutions) |
How to Work to Prevent the Problem With Links If You
Want Them |
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CL 1 |
For your
source of facts, you use only the
textbook chosen by the History Department and the sources provided at our Course Website. |
Turn to the pages
that I identified for you to read. If I did not specify pages to read, use
your index to locate the content. If you still cannot find the pages, ask for
help or use the Forum for the Reading Quiz. |
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Do not use Internet websites, another
textbook, or any other source |
Sounds
corny, but the basic action is that you do not let yourself open other sources. Do not tell yourself the
fib that you are just checking the Internet to make something clearer to
yourself. Do not let bad data in a good mind. |
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—including
your own memory. |
First, do
the right thing to put accurate things in your brain. Use the recommended method
for preparing to write a practical essay to read and determine possible things you will
cover. (It you need an example on a
brain trick for reading, you will find one in this link.) Second,
double check to be sure your brain is not
assuming. Use only the facts you
found in the source. If you remember something being true, do not use it until you carefully verify
it in the required source. If you cannot find it to verify it, ask me for
help in finding it or do not say it. For some
people, touching the fact in the source and in your list of what you plan to
cover helps them. This visual might help. |
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CL 2 |
You may
write facts in your own words or you may use exact words from the textbook as
long as you use quotation marks according to the specific rules in The Bedford Handbook. For example, you
cannot copy an author’s phrases without quotation marks or just replace a few
words in an author’s sentence. This is what The Bedford Handbook calls “half-copy” plagiarism (page 692). |
Before you
worry about quoting something, click here to see
the basics of facts and: §
citations (how
you show exactly where the reader can find the fact) §
quotation marks
(how you show who owns what words) Then do the
preventions with: §
CL 1 (read
required sources carefully and figure things out) §
CL 4 (select
specific facts to reveal the truth) Once you are
sure you want to quote (to use the author’s exact words), then use the trick
in CL 3. |
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CL 3 |
If you use another’s
words, you must be sure either not to change them or—if you change them—to
follow the specific rules in The
Bedford Handbook to reveal any changes you made to those words. |
The rules for showing what you have taken out (…) of
the author’s words or put in ([ ]) are complex and for most of us they are
not worth learning. This trick lets you be accurate but avoid learning those
rules: 1.
Choose 3 to 6
words to quote and change nothing (not an ing
or an ed, not a comma, nothing)
between the first and the last word. 2.
Put a “ before the first word and a ” after the last word. 3.
Place those
words with the “”within your sentences. 4.
If something
sounds awkward about your sentences, then change your own words—the only words you
have a right to change. |
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CL 4 |
You must use
the source to verify what you write. If you cannot verify the fact, do not
write it and do not assume that the source agrees with you. If you are
certain something is true and you cannot find it clearly in our sources, ask
me for help. |
Do the
preventions with CL 1 (read required sources carefully and figure things out) |
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You also
must select facts to reveal the facts accurately. Examples: - If a
question is about something specific (such as a time, type of person, or
region), verify that the source is about that specific thing. - If the
source covers facts about two or more sides or positions, do not include only
one side as though the other did not occur. |
First,
concentrate on the question. What is the prof (or the boss) asking for? Click here for
the goal of all writing in this course. Caution:
In this course, I provide all essay questions ahead of time for two reasons: §
So you have a chance to know what you need to read §
So you can ask a question if you do not understand my question Second, do two
things at the beginning and end of your reading: §
Before you start to read, stop and be sure what you are reading is
appropriate for that question. (Once you start writing, you will not catch
your error.) §
Before you stop reading, look to see if some other things happened. Caution: You are not summarizing or paraphrasing a
section of words. You are figuring things out so you can briefly answer a
question in a common sense way. Just because some fact is in that section of words does not mean it belongs in
your answer. If the fact does
not apply to the question, do not bring
it up or you will look like you misread or miswrote (wrote without thinking). |
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CL 5 |
With most writing work, if asked, you must be able to state exactly where (a specific
page) in the source that each fact
came from— |
Notice the words in the left column: if asked. That means that you do not have to cite pages in that tiny
essay box in Blackboard. On the other hand, if I cannot recognize your
facts as being from our textbook or from my resources in the course, I will
ask you name the specific page where the facts came from. |
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whether you wrote the words or the author did. |
If you follow the method provided with CL 1, you
will have your reminders for what content you plan to cover and the page number where you can
find that content. When you are
figuring out the content and planning what you will write, double check
to be sure the facts are in the source: §
That you wrote
in your own words §
That the author
wrote and you are quoting For some
people, touching the fact in the source and in your list of what you plan to
cover helps them. This visual might help. |
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With the alternative third assignment, you must
cite according to the instructions. |
If you decide to do the alternative third
assignment, I will provide instructions for you. |
The submission of a paper with words from an author without quotation marks can be the professor's evidence that you plagiarized. Some may not notice, but some may call it plagiarism. Some professors may label your work as “half-copy” plagiarism (term from The Bedford Handbook, page 692) if you:
What are the rules for citation and use of quotation marks? The rules vary depending upon whether you are writing a fact from the source in your own words or if you are writing a fact in the author’s words (you are quoting):
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What
Kind of Fact Are You Using |
Do
You Need Citation (Page # etc.)? |
Do
You Need Quotation Marks (“”)? |
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A fact in your own words |
Yes—although I do not require that in the Blackboard’s tiny box for essays |
No |
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A fact in the author’s words |
Yes |
Yes |
In this course, you may not plagiarize or “half-copy” plagiarize. You may however quote, but you have to use the rules for quoting or you can use the prevention above.
With all written assignments, the priorities are factual accuracy and understanding. Common sense writing is fine. To repeat the syllabus:
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Grading
and the Goal of Written Assignments: One
of the most powerful ways to learn something is to try to teach it.
If you follow the standards in the Evidence Checklist/Rubric and you try to
understand what happened so you can teach it as simply but as
accurately as you can, you will have something worth writing. If you then
write in a common sense way as though you were teaching your cousin history
that he or she needed to understand, you will succeed in these assignments. |
If you choose to do the more advanced writing assignment (a comparison) instead of the essays with the third Unit, the priorities are the same. I do, however, grade the comparison on organization, spelling, grammar, and citations.
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Copyright C. J. Bibus,
Ed.D. 2003-2012 |