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Form for all written work

Identification -- each homework or other assignment handed in shall be identified on the first page by: Student's Name; SCI 1201; A. Myers, Instructor; Date. All other pages should have student's last name, date, page number.

If you have used any sources other than lecture (including the textbook) in your work, please include a bibliography of cited works. The point of a bibliography is
(1) to give credit to the work of others;
(2) to allow an interested reader to pursue the topic.

Examples:

Book --

Garrison, T., 1994, Essentials of Oceanography, Knoxville, TN: Wadsworth Publ. Inc.

Article --

Myers, A., 1972, Tube-animal-sediment relationships in Diopatra cupraea (Polychaeta:Onuphidae). Mar. Biol. 8(4): 157 - 168.

Johnson, F., 1982, Turtles, p. 385-392, in Encyclopedia Britannica, V. 14.

------, 1998, Special Report on the Formation of Galaxies, Time Magazine 37(25) or November 3: 33 - 37.

Electronic Media

Encyclopedia articles: cite as if printed, e.g.

Jameson, F.G., 1996, Molluscs, Grolier CD-Rom Encyclopedia, 1st ed.

Internet materials:

          Cite the subject, the internet address and the date you accessed it.

Penguins, www.Antarctic Research Notes.edu 23 June 1998

All papers -- short or long -- must include at least two citations from print media. As BTS students, you have borrowing privileges at Bangor Public Library and the University of Maine Library at Orono: both have geology collections.

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How To Use Sources Gracefully And Avoid Unconscious Plagiarism

Inevitably, some students in introductory college courses turn in as their own material written work in which whole sentences or paragraphs from reference works or encyclopedias are included verbatim without quotation marks. When such inclusions are conscientiously footnoted, there is obviously no intent to deceive. Such instances are "unconscious plagiarism", but plagiarism nonetheless, to be treated severely under the academic standards applicable to college- and graduate-level work.

Every student must know how to absorb into her or his own writing the ideas and information gleaned from other sources -- correctly, honestly, and gracefully.  

All three of the examples below are based on the following material, found on page 10 of the textbook, Modern Physical Geology, by Graham Thompson and Jonathan Turk (2nd ed., NY: Saunders College Publishing, 1997). Each shows a different way of treating the same material.

          "On an afternoon field trip, you may find several different types   of rocks or watch a river flow by.  But you can never see the rocks or river as they existed in the past or as they will exist in the future.  Yet a geologist might explain to you how the rocks formed millions or even a few billion years ago and might predict how the river valley will change in the future.  Scientists not only study events that they have never observed and will never observe, but they also study objects that can never be seen, touched, or felt."

 

1. Paraphrase (= a summary in your own words). Quotation marks are not needed because the material has been completely reworded. Credit must nonetheless be given in an appropriate manner (footnote, endnote, or literature citation).

According to Thompson and Turk (1997), it is possible to come across various kinds of geological phenomena on a field trip. However, they point out that the observer of these phenomena cannot directly observe them either in times past or in the future. Nonetheless, they assert that a trained observer may well be able to describe plausibly how these phenomena developed over great spans of time in the past, and what their likely developmental course in the future will be.

Note how, in the above passage, there are various ways (emphasized) of reminding the reader that these ideas are the source's, not your own.

2. Summary with quotes. Correct and honest, but nevertheless too close to the original, the writer has swallowed Thompson and Turk whole, not masticated the material first. Warning! If this passage were presented without quotation marks, it would be a good example of what some students think of as "research", but which is in fact plagiarism.

Thompson and Turk suggest that, when "on an afternoon field trip," it is possible to come across "several different types of rocks". Nonetheless, the observer "can never see the rocks" the way they once "existed in the past", or the way "they will exist in the future." A scientist "might explain to you" the way the "rocks formed" at some previous time "millions or even a few billion years ago," and could possibly "predict" what the future of those rocks might be.

Note the choppiness of this passage. It is ethically correct, but is a rather poor piece of writing.

3. Combination of paraphrase with significant quotation. This is to be contrasted with section 2, above, in which the words quoted have no particular interest or force, and might just as well be replaced with words of the student's own choosing. Compare this with the following summary, in which the material has not been parroted, but understood and absorbed by the writer.

Thompson and Turk (1997) begin their discussion of the scientific method with a reference to the fact that we often observe a variety of things in nature which have both a past and a future. They point out that the development of geological phenomena such as rocks may extend back millions or even billions of years, yet a geologist can with reasonable confidence make assertions not only about a rock's course of development in the past, but also the likely course of its development in the future. "Scientists not only study events that they have never observed and never will observe, but they also study objects that can never be seen, touched, or felt" (Thompson and Turk, 1997, p. 10).

Some kind of formal attribution will be necessary for all three passages: I advocate the literature citation form used in scientific papers, which has been used in the above passage. In this form, the names of the authors (in this case, Thompson and Turk) are followed by the date of the publication from which the material is paraphrased. In the case of a direct quotation, the quotation is followed by the citation, in parentheses, of the authors' names, date of publication, and the page number of the direct quotation.

At the end of the paper is a "Literature Cited" section, which lists alphabetically (by first author) each reference consulted. In the event that one (or multiple) author(s) has contributed more than one reference, these are listed by order of publication, oldest first. Unlike a bibliography, such a section lists only literature actually cited in the paper, not works consulted for general information but not cited. In the latter case, it is better to construct a formal Bibliography.

Note: Synonyms for "s/he says that..." are, for examples, s/he points out; s/he notes; s/he emphasizes; s/he insists; s/he asserts; s/he states; s/he remarks; s/he considers; s/he affirms; s/he thinks; s/he believes; s/he shows; s/he observes; s/he maintains; s/he suggests; s/he wonders; and there are many others.

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The foregoing presentation is based on "Appendix T" of a mimeographed document from the English Department of Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, numbered pages 44 + 45. The document to which this was an appendix is unknown, as are the original year of production and the author. The two pages I possess were given me years ago by a non-teaching colleague. It has been reworked and revised to apply more directly to the scientific subject matter of the current course at Bangor Theological Seminary. Nonetheless, I am deeply indebted to the Berkshire Community College author of the original piece for the title, tone, organization, and the sections in smaller Times New Roman font, containing both quoted and paraphrased material.

Allen Myers, Instructor