Hard Sciences

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 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 28- Undergraduate science student

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Source text:

The compound eyes, which are the visual organs of most adult insects, are much more complicated. The whole eye has an external transparent layer called the cornea divided up into facets, usually hexagonal in form, each of which is the outermost part of a visual structure called an ommatidium. In some dragonflies there are over 20,000 ommatidia in each eye, and most of the higher insects like flies and butterflies have several thousand. In worker ants there may be a dozen or less, and the eye hardly functions as a compound organ. (p.32)

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Example 26- Undergraduate science student

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Source text:

A combination of tuberculostatic drugs also enables the dose of streptomycin to be reduced to a level at which severe toxic side-reactions are less liable to occur. Side-effects with streptomycin include hypersensitivity reactions, renal and liver damage, and disturbance of balance due to the drug affecting the vestibular part of the 8th cranial nerve. The more potent derivative, Dihydrostreptomycin, is not now used because it affects the auditory part of the nerve and may give rise to permanent deafness.

Source:

Harris, Malcolm. Pharmaceutical Microbiology. London: Baillière, Tindall and Cox, 1964.

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Example 25- Undergraduate science student

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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.

Source:

Harris, Malcolm. Pharmaceutical Microbiology. London: Baillière, Tindall and Cox, 1964.

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Example 24 – Undergraduate science student

Hard Sciences, Undergraduate Students, One Comment

Source text:

The Goluszek court was confronted with a male plaintiff who had never been married and had never lived anywhere but in his mother’s home. Goluszek was surrounded by makes in his work environment and the men constantly teased him about not having a girlfriend and not engaging in sexual activities. They periodically showed him pictures of nude women, told him they would arrange sex for him, accused him of being gay or bisexual and made other sex-related comments. Virtually nothing was done when Goluszek reported this activity to his supervisors. In fact, they joined in the fray.

Source: 

Bennett-Alexander, Dawn D. “same-gender harassment: The Supreme Court allows coverage under Title VII.” Labor Law Journal 49. 4 (1998): 928-937.

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