What Comparing Students’ Sources with Students’ Work Shows Your
Instructor, Researchers, and You
Your Instructor’s Surveys of
Students
How Your Instructor Grades
with the Source and Your Writing Side by Side
The research below
was done by comparing students’ work with their sources. This research that
compares students’ work with their sources shows many students do not understand the basics of evidence:
1.
91% of examples showed that students did not understand the
basics of evidence.
The Citation Project – 20 researchers, 164 papers from
“first year composition classes” in many types of institutions in 12 states,
and 1,832 citations
If
You Want More: For a short summary of the Citation Project, click here.
For a link to an article on the Citation project in 2011, click The
Citation Project
2.
All of the papers (18 of 18) in a “research writing course”
for sophomores at a “well-regarded college” showed they did not understand the
basic Good Habit of Evidence that you must read and understand the whole to
write about it. You can’t figure something out if all you do is copy sentences.
Quotation from the Article
Explaining This 2007 Research: The
students “worked at the sentence level
only, selecting and replicating isolated sentences and weaving them
into their arguments.… A writer who works only at the sentence level must
always quote or paraphrase.“ [bold added]
If
You Want More: For a link to an article referring
to this 2007 research, click “Plagiarism
in the Internet Age.” It is covered
in the section entitled “Teach Summarizing.” Their use of the
term summarizing requires a minimum
reduction in words of 50%.
Related
information comes from students’ statements in surveys collected in my classes
since Spring 2011. Year after year, students responses
usually showed over 60% did not know prior to the feedback in the class that
they needed to be factually accurate and complete when writing about history.
If
You Want More: For a link to a table showing the
survey results, click Surveys
of students from Spring 2011 on whether they need to
be factually accurate when writing about history
Your sources are where you get your
evidence for what you figure out and what you write
and say about reality (such as history, biology, technology, and business). In
your future, the people who evaluate what you write and say will all be experts
in their fields. Upper level professors who might give you a reference if you
excel will be experts; your bosses will be experts. They will know if you are
faking understanding or, if they can’t be sure, they will ask you for proof in
a source they consider reliable. Comparing your work with the source shows everything about the evidence—and your
work.
I grade students’ written
assignments by comparing side by side what you wrote with the source you were
to read. Click if you want to see:
·
A
visual example of how I grade
·
How
grading with a source changes grading itself
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu |
Last Updated: |
2014 |
WCJC Home: |