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
http://www.cjbibus.com/Getting_Started_Good_Habits_for_Evidence_SummaryOnCitationProject.htm
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%.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Plagiarism-in-the-Internet-Age.aspx
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
http://www.cjbibus.com/STCT_Am_Exp_quantitiesNOTrealizingPriorToFeedback_Samples.htm
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 http://www.cjbibus.com/Getting_Started_FAQs_Evidence_How_the_Instructor_Grades_Your_WrittenAssignments.htm
How
grading with a source changes grading itself
http://www.cjbibus.com/1301_1302_Good_Habits_For_Evidence_Why_Required_Source_Changes_Grading_Why_Like_World_of_Work.htm
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu |
Last Updated: |
2014 |
WCJC Home: |