Example 43- Undergraduate student in arts

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Source text:

From Jones, D. 1998.

Writer’s text:

A major issue surrounding this area is the amount of drug addicts that are currently populating its streets. Vancouver is seen as a prime location towards which addicts migrate, due to the relative ease with which they can obtain illegal substances there.

Writer’s comment:

I just kind of took it in my own words.

Student’s comment:

  1. But the idea is not his, and he’s taking direct the idea from the source. I would like to see that cited. The fact that it is saying it’s a “prime location”, I would be interested in knowing who thought it was a prime location and what kind of proof they had about that, that sort of thing. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
  2. I would say you would have to put the source at the end. The reason is cause you can’t be making some very specific comments, and saying some very specific facts without qualifying. So if someone says “a major issue surrounding this area is” whatever, and “Vancouver is seen as a prime location”, well, seen by whom? You know, how do you see that. And “due to the relative ease with which they can obtain illegal substances there”, relative to what? You know, it doesn’t… I’ve given no credibility at all. So I would say that they have to put something there. (A graduate in Business)

Faculty member’s comment:

  1. That’s not an opinion. If you say ‘think’ this is due. But it says ‘due to this,’ so somebody else found out that it is due to this; it’s not like I think it is due to this or Jones thinks it is due to this and I agree with him… It’s written as general known conclusion.     It would ask the student to provide reference here, beause it’s just not an opinion. (A professor in Education)
  2. This is the case of content representing what probably is fairly specific claim. I would challenge the student to supply evidence for this claim either external evidence from an externally published source, or provide documentation inside the body of the writing. (A professor in Education).

Example 42- Undergraduate student in science

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Source text:

The student could not remember where s/he read this.

Writer’s text:

Because streptomycin leads to disruption during translation, protein is not being made, and as a result, deaths occur in bacteria. Since streptomycin can significantly affect the population of the bacteria, in order for the bacteria to survive, they must have resistance to this antibiotic.

Writer’s comment:

I did not indicate the source because I couldn’t remember where I read it. Probably it’s in one of these journal articles.

Student’s comment:

  1. It doesn’t seem like it’s a common knowledge. But he’s definitely saying that it’s not his own idea, it came from a journal. But this is not a direct citation, it’s just an idea. I would definitely prefer this idea to be cited because he definitely said it didn’t come from him and it’s not general information, it came from one specific source, he just doesn’t know which one. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
  2. I think it’s all fact, it’s not opinion at all of the writer. So I would say that they have to quote where they got that information from. As a reader, it doesn’t mean anything to me. It could be backed up. That’s not a good thing enough. If you can’t remember, then you can find something. (A graduate in Business)

Faculty member’s comment:

  1. This is a journal article. This is knowledge too. You really need to X medicine, you need to quote where it comes from. Tons of people work to… for the students to be able to say that. I mean find somebody who says that. Nobody cares about what they’ve read. If they found somebody, author that says exactly that doesn’t matter whether it’s the same author student write. As long as you have reference for what you see. (A professor in Education)
  2. It looks to me just reading the excerpt as if it is a fairly central claim that is being made in the body of report, and because of that, it does make sense to require a support for the claim. That could be one or two kinds of support. Either full argument, in other words, this is a logical conclusion of some previous discussion, previous facts, in which case that’s fine. In other words, there’s an internal support and this is a logical conclusion. If in the absence of that kind of internal support for this claim in the paper, this student could easily appeal to an outside source to support this claim, and in this case I suspect that should have occurred if the student hasn’t supported this claim up to this point, then an outside source should have been used. The student has been lazy about citing. (A professor in Education)

 

Example 41- Undergraduate in film study

Social Sciences, Undergraduate Students One Comment

Source text:

From Kelly, M. K. (1991).

Writer’s text:

Scorsese’s films are not so preoccupied with the theme of love as they are with the darker issues of New York such as violence and urban alienation.

Writer’s comment:

“Urban alienation” was a phrase I took from a book that I read. I thought that was a neat way of calling it. I did not refer to the source because it’s a common term that people use.

Student’s comment:

  1. But it’s so, it’s already in like… they only have to type it into the computer twice, in order to get a footnote or a cite out of it, so I would say cite it. I mean what’s the worst alternative is that you get… there is the suggestion that it’s plagiarized, so… five seconds to put in Kelly or… (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
  2. I’ve seen that phrase cross multiple texts than be cited. This is not, this is like, try to copy, right, something. It’s like “ah, no, that’s out there, that’s newspapers, magazines.” So no need to put citation.(A PhD student in Education)

Faculty member’s comment:

  1. He thought it’s a neat term; it’s a neat term then it’s not so common. You would not think, ‘oh that’s a neat term. I already use it.’ I will ask the student to cite. (A professor in Education)
  2. I tend to agree with the writer that it seems to me to be a very everyday part of English language. I can put the two parts of the phrase together and calculate or compute probably an easy meaning. It doesn’t seem puzzling to me. I would expect to read it in a newspaper. (A professor in Education) 

 

 

Example 40- Undergraduate student in arts

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Source text:

(Several different sources.)

Writer’s text:

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated Japanese politics for most of the post world war period. Many scholars have been debating over what are the key sources of LDP power to marginalize other political parties. Since the case in Japan is very rare compared to other democratic countries – in fact it is the only political party in the history to manage to stay in power without being forced to join in any coalition for such a long period of time- the search for its ability to stay in power becomes essential.

Writer’s comment:

I remember reading it in so many different places; so I thought that I should highlight it in the introduction.

Student’s comment:

  1. Well, in introduction I mean I’m assuming that all this is talked about later on, that how the liberal Democratic Party has dominated Japanese politics, and where that information comes from. So I think I’m comfortable with this not being cited. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
  2. As a marker or as a teacher, I would not give any credibility to that. At the minimum, as a reader, I just won’t believe it. You need the reference. So, the minimum level is that I wouldn’t believe it, and the maximum level, I would say, well, you have to put a reference there… a mark for it , or I certainly wouldn’t give it any credibility. (A graduate in Business

Faculty member’s comment:

  1. At least cite some… it doesn’t have to be exhaustive, but you have to show you know. (A professor in Education)
  2. I would require a citation for. Either this party has stayed in power without being forced to join the coalition or it hasn’t. It is so simple to verify that anybody who can read a newspaper could do so, or consult a simple encyclopedia. So there’s no scholarly claim or knowledge here that is beyond what would be common knowledge for any Japanese citizen. Like the sentence, ‘many scholars have been debating over,’ because there’s no debate quoted here. It’s simply stating student’s topic, so there’s no substantive claim being made here. And any claim that is made is simply a common knowledge fact. This would work very well as statement of a problem in a paper.( A professor in Education)

Example 39- Undergraduate student in arts

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Source text:

It used to be only five to ten percent of people developed allergic reactions to antibiotics, mainly penicillin. Now, as more and more individuals are exposed to antibiotics more and more often, increasing number of people are developing allergic reactions to drugs. (From (McKenna, J. 1998, p.29)

Writer’s text:

In the past, only 5% to 10% of the people are allergic to antibiotics, primarily penicillin. Now, as antibiotics are used more and more often, increasing number of people are developing allergic effects. (McKenna, 1998, p.29)

Writer’s comment:

I did not use quotation marks because it was too long. I changed a few words in there.

Student’s comment:

  1. But she didn’t use quotation marks…Seems like that the student has recognized the source text said it best, but for whatever reason didn’t want actually quote the source text…I mean there are ways to quote long passages, and there would also be ways to not say in the exactly the same way. So it’s much better that he did use the source text, but same thing I think should be quoted. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
  2. I would prefer a quotation. I think that quotation chunk dot dot dot continuing quotation would have been a better way of representing this, cause they have it succeeded in rephrasing it enough. So my hunch is that I would have said “just go to the quote on this one”. (A PhD student in Education)

Faculty member’s comment:

  1. In this case, it is a bad job of paraphrasing. And it comes to close to a direct quotation. So I failed to understand the writer’s justification of passage being too long. The writer believes it’s a paraphrase, there’s too much material that has been used directly from the source to count as genuine paraphrase. So there’s another thing that looks as if we need to be teaching what counts as paraphrase, how much change does one need to introduce to become a paraphrase. This does not count as a paraphrase. It’s a poor job of quotation. (A professor in Education)

Example 38- Undergraduate student in arts

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Source text:

As a nonprofit entity responsible for the collective good, the government is often the only institution capable of preventing this from happening. (From Okimoto, D. I. p.11)

Writer’s text:

The government is the only institution capable of preventing this from happening between MITI and the market (Daniel I. Okimoto, p.11)

Writer’s comment:

The professor recommended this book.

Student’s comment:

  1. I would put it in quotation marks. And the fact that the professor recommended the book, again I fear plagiarism, the prof would be familiar with it, so would be more likely to pick this up. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
  2. I actually think this is ok. I think you’ve already given the source. You are not putting it in quotes, but I think… to me, if one word is different, even one word, then you should not put in quote, anything that you should put in quotes is the exact copy of what said. So I think that’s fine. (A graduate in Business)

Faculty member’s comment:

  1. This is okay, because you have the person who said it… because it’s not exactly the same sentence. Just one word. (Reads the student’s text) It’s difficult because it’s not exactly the same thing, you cannot treat with quotation marks, it’s not exactly what person says. I would agree with that. At least we know that this person said this basically maybe few different words. (A professor in Education)
  2. It’s a case of slightly inaccurate quotation. The student deserves credit for citing the source, and in fact including the page reference, because in the case of direct quotation most style manuals require a page reference, so good for the student.

 

 

Example 37- Undergraduate student in arts

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Source text:

These allergic reactions can range from a skin rash to edema (tissue swelling), to anaphylactic reactions, including bronchospasm (constriction of the airways) and shock. These reactions are not limited to the use of the penicillin group of antibiotics, either. They may occur also as a result of the use of the cephalosporins and tetracyclines. (From McKenna, J. 1998, p. 29)

Writer’s text:

Some of these allergic reactions include skin rash, edema (swelling of tissue), bronchospasm (constriction of the airways), and shock. These side effects are not only present for the penicillin-like antibiotics. These side effects also present for antibiotics like cephalosporin and tetracycline.

Writer’s comment:

That’s general information so I do not need to cite. If it actually involves numbers then it is specific information and needs to be acknowledged.

Student’s comment:

  1. This is my paranoia about being caught for plagiarism. If something was this common, I would definitely just put without doubting, and if it’s like I said it’s in the bibliography it takes very little efforts to turn it into footnotes… This isn’t most of the words, this is most of the word order, this is not just words here and there, it’s the words in the same order with almost the exactly same sentence structure…If I can say better than the source text, I would use my own words; if the source text said it better, I would say in the source text’s words. Well, they seemed like the source text said it better and the writer recognized it, but he didn’t actually change into his own words. I mean, I don’t think he can talk about “allergic reactions” to “penicillin” without saying things like “skin rash” and “bronchospasm” that sort of stuff. But they don’t have to be in the same order, and it doesn’t have to be the exact meaning to make sense. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
  2. I would tell him this is was a cite. I think when we become an ordinary tradition run discipline, we start to have different assumptions what general information is, and forget there’s a variety of audience that come to the text. (A PhD student in Education)

Faculty member’s comment:

  1. It’s not general information for everybody, it’s general information maybe for the people in the field. I mean these things are pretty specific, that’s knowledge that’s science, there has been experiments done for these two things. I mean this first thing, I can see that you know, they would use those words, but for the second part, you would need quotation of the study that chose that…You need to conduct to experiment to know that. So I would say this (second part) belongs to somebody who did the study. Also, people who study on that. (A professor in Education)
  2. APA has some good language on that how you handle direct quotations versus paraphrases, and both cases it requires a citation, in one case with a page reference, in the other without. Paraphrases you don’t bother putting a page reference in, ’cause you’ll never find that exact quotation and you don’t use quotation marks. The student in the case would have been smarter to simply taken the exact quotation shown here in the source, put quotation marks around them, and drop in the text, and attribute it… but I would give the student credit for making that judgment. In fact it is to student’s credit. They’re beginning to make the discrimination what’s widely accepted knowledge and what might be controversial or contestable knowledge. ‘New study suggests this view is incorrect.’ Cite that new study   (A professor in Education

Example 36- Undergraduate student in arts

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Source text:

(The writer could not remember where s/he read it.)

Writer’s text:

In my opinion, teaching grammar is important but it is not only about establishing moral conductivity.

Writer’s comment:

The actual words or the idea of “moral conductivity” is from one of the readings but I don’t remember the details.

Student’s comment:

  1. If it was me, I think what I would do when it happened that I couldn’t remember where something was from, instead of using the exact term, I’d try to make the terms my own. So you avoid the problem of having to…I don’t think I would use that if I didn’t remember where it was from, and something which was obviously not my idea. So yes, she has a problem with her “moral conductivity” and not saying where it comes from, and I agree that it’s not a good excuse that she can’t remember where it came from. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
  2. I disagree with the student here. Moral conductivity is not a common phrase, and it’s not a common thing which people would use to describe. It’s a very specific term. Because of that, if you gonna use something like that, and it’s not obvious what it means to a person with, I mean, ok, I consider myself with OK level of English, I don’t know what exactly it means by “moral conductivity”. I mean it’s obviously a term borrowed from somewhere else. And they have to either, in my mind, they have to either go on and explain what that means, or they have to attribute the source. So at least, me as a reader, I can look at that and think “well, I’m not sure what that means, I can look at the source and then see the rest of the context”. So I think the student should have gone a step further. (A graduate in Business)

Faculty member’s comment:

  1. I would not see to quote any words, but this is a very specific term. I XX definition somebody gave, I have no idea what it means. So I would put the author or the person who made up this term. I mean it would be better to give reference, but… otherwise, it really looks like plagiarism, the student doesn’t know what she/he is saying. She is putting big XX for… but if the student gives a definition then at least it would be deferential XX…(A professor in Education)
  2. That’s interesting. The student here has confessing to have been a bit lazy. This student at least has been honesty, but could easily have found the source just by using any of the searching techniques for this exact phrase. And the instructor could easily find that exact phrase and to find out what are the possible sources for this. It’s also expression that is rather specialized, so it falls into that category of not standard or widely understood knowledge, therefore to the extent that it is a specialized term. The student probably should have given a source if only, so the reader could find out more about what this specialized term might mean and how it’s used.( A professor in Education)

Example 35- Undergraduate student in arts

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Source text:

(Lecture notes)

Writer’s text:

The Realist perspective emphasizes that a causal determinant of the theory is whether or not the theory fits the situation in the real world.

Writer’s comment:

This is from lecture notes by the instructor. I didn’t think that it warranted a citation.

Student’s comment:

  1. I cite lecture notes as long as I remember that. It wasn’t what I had thought, wasn’t what I had said, so I deserve to give… I guess if it was from two different professors, so I deserve to tell the professor from reading the paper where that came from, because it wasn’t me. I guess it depends, if it’s direct, you know it’s a quotation from what the professor said in the course in the class, yes, I would always cite it in direct quotation. But if it’s an idea, I think I would inquire, asking whether that professor really want it. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies) 
  2. I probably wouldn’t cite that. I mean if I set the sociolinguistic perspective on something, if I made a broad statement like that, I don’t think we cite. You know, if it’s broad statement, this is what the general…this particular student here, she is saying it comes from lecture notes. I think it could come from a number of places where you, whatever the final penny is… make sure I understand this is what they say is. This is… I think we do this all the time…This is really broad, general statement, this is like, you know, someone putting, this is postmodernism, you know. (A PhD student in Education)

Faculty member’s comment:

  1. If a prof said that there are perspectives, there are people behind that. There are authors. So, students should find out who actually said this. The original author of of this, not just a lecturer. (A professor in Education)
  2. I would prefer that the student cite the sources that I was using, in other words to go back behind my lecture, and do a little more work to go to primary sources rather than lecture notes, but it depends how important this piece of text is for the success of the student’s own paper. If it’s a central claim, I would expect the student go behind my lectures to the sources that I have cited in the lectures. If it is a peripheral claim and who knows where the line is, it’s a judgment, just citing lecture notes is a good practice. I don’t require it.  (A professor in Education)

Example 34- Undergraduate student in political science

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Source text:

The student recognized that this idea was not his own but could not remember where it originally came from.

Writer’s text:

It is not entirely clear why the United States did not choose to remove Mr. Hussein from power when they had the opportunity to after the success of Operation Desert Storm, apart from the fact that Colin Powell, then the commanding general of the coalition troops, stressed that they should not enter Baghdad for that purpose.

Writer’s comment:

I just take a whole bunch of stuff, think about it for a while and then come up with my own ideas. There is a lot of gray area in describing what I think of as my own because it came from someone else’s ideas originally.

Student’s comment:

  1. He could list the sources in his bibliography, with note, footnote, explaining that it was…it would be incredibly hard to cite anything, when it is jumbled. And I think that as long as he wrote in his bibliography that he had to use these sources. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
  2. My first feeling is that I agree with the student. I think that you are not referencing very specific facts, you are talking about why or why not in this case or particular instance a country did not do something. There is always lots of opinions flying about as towards what should have happened, what shouldn’t have happened. The person is not specifically stating that is what the US did or what the US didn’t do, they are making an opinion, I think everyone open to their own opinion, I think, this is one where I think personally that if you are sometimes taking the opinion which could be a general opinion from several people, I think it’s fine. I don’t see problem with what this student saying that. (A graduate in Business)

Faculty  member’s comment:

  1. In this one, I would not think you need a quotation, if the student takes that idea to be their own. It’s like an opinion, so student allow to have an opinion, and when you have an opinion for sure somebody else may have the same opinion. Many people would have the same opinion. So it’s really an original creation, or new idea…But it also depends on academic topics, if somebody says ‘I believe that ecological awareness is necessary to learn how to read’ and there are lots of studies and research behind that. You cannot just say ‘I believe.’ You have to have facts to show why you believe that. Political issues should be different. If it’s political issues about something that should have been done, it’s not really knowledge, I wouldn’t call it knowledge. It depends. (A professor in Education) 
  2. On number 5 I believe that so long as the student is prepared to take responsibility for defending what he or she has written in the text, in the overall text. I would not require outside documentation of these claims. I would accept this as assumptions made by the student, therefore subject to backing up in the body of the work, but not necessarily backing them up with outside sources. I would find this quite acceptable. (A professor in Education)