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)