What’s on This
Webpage:
How Feedback
on the History Changes Essay Helps Your Success
With the History Changes Essay, I will provide your essay with my Checklist #s pointing to a section of your words. I do this because I discovered that if I pointed to a problem (such as factual inaccuracy—CL 4), then students could figure out what might be wrong by looking at that spot and comparing it with the source. I will give you instructions at that time specifically for your paper.
To prepare, take a look at the items in the checklist below.
After
looking at the Checklist, if you think… |
Then
do this… |
If you think the items in the checklist are NOT standards for evidence in academics |
Ask me to show you the scanned pages from The Bedford Handbook, covering the standards for:
I will be glad to spent time with you on this. |
If you think your prior professors did NOT follow these standards for evidence so these could NOT be standards |
Professors can decide not to follow a standard for an assignment, but that does not
change the standard for evidence. FYI: I also break a standard for citations. I do not ask you to provide page numbers for the History Changes Essay or the Unit Essays. HOWEVER, if I cannot guess where you were in the textbook, I will write CL 5 and ask you to show me where you found the fact in our textbook. |
If you think future professors will NOT follow these standards for evidence |
Other professors may assume you already know these standards—so you want to understand these basic standards so you can succeed no matter what professor you encounter. |
If you think these standards for evidence do NOT apply to jobs |
Ask me to talk to you about this. In every professional job in industry that I had, these standards saved me. I will be glad to spent time with you on this. |
Grading
and the Evidence Checklist/Rubric:
The word checklist means a list of things necessary for success (such as
a pilot’s checklist for takeoff) and you either do them and succeed or you do
not and failure occurs. The word rubric usually means a way to give feedback
that is useful but quick for both instructors and students, and it is usually a
visual tool for determining the level of a grade (such as columns ranging from
Needs Improvement to a final column for Exemplary Participation).
The term checklist/rubric indicates
this is a checklist for success with evidence and it is way to give feedback
that is useful but quick for both instructors and students. The items in the
checklist, abbreviated as CL 1 through CL 5, are common standards in academics
and for jobs that depend on evidence, but they are written very informally and
specifically to what you need to do in this course.
CL 1 |
For your
source of facts, you use only the
textbook chosen by the History Department and the sources provided in our Blackboard course. Do not use Internet websites, another textbook, or any other
source—including your own memory. |
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). |
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. |
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. - 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. |
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—whether you wrote the words or the author did. With the alternative
third assignment, you must cite according to the instructions. |
Frequently students have been rewarded with high grades just to type piles of words from a source. If that is what your professors want, they probably have good reasons for that type of assignment. Do what they want, but do not assume that future professors will want this (and no boss ever will pay people—not well anyway—just to copy words from one place to another).
On the other hand, the next professor may mark a zero (0) and say you are plagiarizing, and your submission of the paper is the professor's evidence that you plagiarized. The next professor may call it plagiarism or “half-copy” plagiarism (term from The Bedford Handbook, page 692) if you:
Caution: If you think saying the name of the source and perhaps page numbers means you can copy another’s words without quotations marks, look at the table below.
Look at the table carefully.
What
Kind of Fact Are You Using |
Do
You Need Citation (Page # etc.)? |
Do
You Need Quotation Marks (“”)? |
A fact in your own words |
Yes—although I do not require that for the History Changes Essay or Unit Essays |
No |
A fact in the author’s words |
Yes |
Yes
– Notice the Caution |
.
In this course, you may not plagiarize or “half-copy” plagiarize. You may however quote, but you have to use the rules in The Bedford Handbook for quoting. One of the simplest ways to avoid problems is:
If you want more tips, please ask.
Copyright C. J. Bibus,
Ed.D. 2003-2012 |