What You Do with the History Changes Feedback AND How Grading Works with All Unit Essays Caution: I have copied a resource for my distance learning students. I may have some leftover specifics for them. If you see distance learning issues, please tell me so I can fix it. |
What’s on This Webpage:
Making Sure I
Try to Be Clear about the Limits of What I Am Saying
What’s in the
Form That I Will Attach to a Copy of Your Essay?
If You Are
Really Puzzled Because You Have QP Marked
How Can You
Prevent the Problems Identified by the Evidence Checklist?
Basic
Information and Specific Information for This Course
How Does Your
Instructor Grade Your Writing?
What Is the
Evidence Checklist and What Are Its 2-Letter Abbreviations for Feedback?
Click here to hear a voice explanation of the main points in next heading. – This is similar to what I say in class but the overview might help you. |
I stress what works based on learning history. I stress what is necessary:
HOWEVER, if bosses or professors say to do the opposite, then do that for them. That is the right thing to do.
Click here to hear a voice explanation of how grading works and how this process works. – This is similar to what I say in class but the overview might help you. |
·
I record a real
grade for your work on the Practice Essay (History Changes Essay). ·
If you do the instructions below, I record all
of the extra credit I have promised. If
you cannot tell what to do, talk to me. I am glad to help you. · If you change how you work in the future, you will not only learn history a lot better (my goal for all this), but practice skills to help you for your entire life. Practice being the person you want to be. |
The form is my feedback to you,
with Xs marked and comments added to show you the
feedback.
I have marked this with a common example of someone with interrelated
bad habits (with blue highlights).
Habits (or how you work) are what
gets you in trouble—being smart is never enough. I have also placed links in
the example so you can go to more information if you want to.
Keep in mind I know I can be wrong. If you can show me where the source
supports something, I am fine.
My feedback to you, with Xs marked and
comments added to show you the feedback These are the 5 items in
the Evidence Checklist. If I placed an X below the item, you had this problem
and you need to look at the instructions in the link and then do that IN the
copy of your work below.
These are general problems. If I placed an X to the left of the item,
you seem to have these problems.
|
You are not rewriting, not modifying anything, and not creating a new version of this assignment.
So
what are you to do?
In this order, do this:
Example: If the author wrote the word demonstrating and if you wrote demonstrated, then you underline demonstrated |
·
If the textbook does not specifically support what you say, then strike through those words. (Strike through
looks like · If you think that those pages you were supposed to read do specifically support what you say and that you could tell me a specific place on a specific page where the textbook does back that up, then leave it alone. · Do, however, be prepared to show me exactly the page number and exactly where it is on the page. |
· EITHER modified the quotation without following the rules in The Bedford Handbook to reveal your changes to a reader · AND/OR used the author’s words for another purpose than he or she intended So what do you do? You go compare letter-by-letter the author’s words and yours: · IF you modified the quotation without following the rules in The Bedford Handbook to reveal your changes to a reader, insert a [ ] immediately after the quotation and type it exactly. · IF you used the author’s words for another purpose than he or she intended, strike through the quotation. |
Students are usually puzzled about the QP marking because they lack some basic information. Here are the basics.
1. The
submission of a paper with words from an author without quotation marks can be the professor's evidence that you plagiarized. Some professors may not
notice, but some may call it plagiarism. Do
not assume that past responses by professors guarantees what future
professors will want (and no boss ever will pay people—not well anyway—to copy
words from one place to another).
2. If you do this, some professors may label your work as “half-copy” plagiarism (term from The Bedford Handbook, page 692) if you:
· Either copy an author’s phrases without quotation marks (“”) ·
Or use the author’s sentence structure and just swap a few words with what
you think are synonyms |
3. Caution: If you think saying the name
of the source means you can copy another’s words without quotations marks, look
at this table. If you use a fact in the author’s words, citation is not enough; you must also use
quotation marks.
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
· A fact in the author’s words (you are quoting):
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 in the Blackboard’s tiny box for essays |
No |
A fact in the author’s words |
Yes |
Yes <Notice this. |
Specifics about this course:
·
I do not require
citations when you use facts in an essay that you do in the Blackboard’s tiny
box for essays, but there are conditions.
· On the other hand, I do require quotation marks if you use the author’s words. In this course, you may not plagiarize or “half-copy” plagiarize. You may however quote, but you have to use the rules for quoting. If you want more tips, check the preventions link below. If you have questions, please ask.
If you are confused about when to use quotation marks, these examples may help you.
What
the Author Wrote |
What
Words You Want to Write |
Do
You Need Quotation Marks (“”)? and Why |
the Mississippi River |
the Mississippi River |
No – Proper nouns belong to all of us. |
the green, roaring river |
the river |
No – Common nouns belong to all of us. |
the green, roaring Mississippi River |
the roaring Mississippi River |
Yes <Notice this. – These are the author’s unique string of words so you identify them as not your creation with “”: Trade was harder because of the “roaring Mississippi River.” |
|
roaring |
Yes <Notice this. – This is the author’s labeling of a condition and it is easier to be clear by using the author’s word with “”. The author explained that the “roaring” river made trade more difficult. |
Click here for a link showing how you can prevent each of the problems identified by the Evidence Checklist. – This is the only link on this webpage that takes you to another webpage. You can return here by clicking the Back arrow or you can open the link in a new window.
With
something that people talk about in many ways, sometimes it helps to state what
is not the goal. With writing in this course,
you:
·
Are not
summarizing or not paraphrasing the textbook.
·
Do not need
to repeat every fact or word in the textbook.
·
Are not
showing your personal writing style while stating your feelings or your
opinions.
Instead,
in this course, the goal of all writing assignments is for you to do activities
that help you learn the history of our nation. One of the most powerful ways to
learn something is to try to teach it. You will succeed in
these assignments if you do these things:
·
If you read
carefully and work to understand what happened and ask if you need help.
·
If you figure out
what essential facts that you would teach your cousin.
·
If you figure how
you could organize those facts as simply and as accurately as you can.
·
If you write in a
common sense way as though you are teaching your cousin history that he or she
needs to understand.
Because
the goal of writing is to help you learn our nation’s history and the priority
is for you to be accurate, I grade your writing by comparing what you wrote
side by side with the facts in the textbook. With essays submitted, I use a
method that lets me quickly identify all of the submissions where the students
wrote on the same question.
1. I place side by side:
·
On the left, the
textbook opened to the probable section or sections students should have
used. ·
On the right,
the submissions of students’ papers on that question. |
2. I use the Evidence Checklist and its 2-letter abbreviations
for feedback (shown below) and grade each student’s submissions one by one.
3. If there are multiple possible questions, I then
repeat the steps above with the next question.
With
the two essays for the Unit exams, I grade one of the questions using the
method above. Unless I find problems such as factual errors in that essay, I
grade the other one without the textbook side by side with your paper—a quicker
method.
th the e
I
use the Evidence Checklist to grade on common standards (accepted rules or models) for academics and for jobs
that depend on evidence:
·
The word evidence
emphasizes that you must have proof for what you say—some fact from our
approved source that anyone using that source can see for himself or herself.
·
The word checklist means a list of steps or
things necessary for success (such as a pilot’s checklist for takeoff).
This
is both a checklist (on the left) for success with evidence and a way to
give feedback (on the right) about your use of evidence as a 2-letter
abbreviation. Each checklist item:
·
Begins with an
informal statement of a common standard that applies to academics and to jobs
·
Below that are our
specific requirements, identified with the underlined phrase In
this course.
Do each of the things on the checklist below or you
may see the letters on the right as Feedback on your paper. |
Feedback Letters |
|
1. |
For
your source of facts, you use only
sources your professor (or boss) accepts as reliable.
In this course, the only
sources are the textbook chosen by the History Department and the sources provided at our Course Website. Do not use Internet websites, another textbook, or any other source—including
your own memory. |
NS =
Fact is Not from an approved Source |
2. |
You must follow common
standards to reveal to your reader who created the words and/or found the
facts you are using in your writing. This is a requirement in courses and in
some jobs. In
this course, you may: ·
Either write
facts in your own words ·
Or you may use exact sentences or phrases from the
textbook placed within quotation marks according to the specific rules for
quotation marks (“”) to reveal ownership that are covered in The Bedford Handbook ·
In this course, you may not
copy an author’s phrases without quotation marks. You also may not replace a few words in an
author’s sentence. Both are what The
Bedford Handbook calls “half-copy” plagiarism (page 692). |
QP = Quotation includes Plagiarized text |
3. |
You
must follow common standards to reveal any changes you made to the author’s
words. This may not be just a punctuation error. You may be misleading your
reader about the evidence.
In this course, 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 those changes to the reader. |
QC = Quotation is Changed from the source. |
4. |
You must use reliable
sources to verify what you write—to confirm its accuracy. In
this course, 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. |
NT =
Fact is Not True. It is not verifiable using the probable page in the source.
|
5. |
With most written work for professors (or bosses), 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 many college assignments, you
must provide citations and use a specific standard (such as MLA, APA, or the Chicago Manual
of Style). In this course with most
written assignments, you do not need to provide citations (the specific page number from our
textbook) unless I cannot recognize
where the fact came from. If I
cannot recognize where the fact came from, then you must show me
the location on the page. It cannot be a vague statement: if a reasonable
person using a reliable dictionary and reading the entire passage would not
agree that you have evidence for what you say, then neither will I. If you ask to do the more challenging alternative
assignment instead of the essays for Unit 3, then you must cite according to
the instructions. |
W? = Where is the specific page
where this is supported in our textbook? |
Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2013 |
2013 |
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