Okay, when you are writing a paper, let's say on something you have no idea of, but it includes facts, dates, names, events, etc., how do you know when you make a citation and when not to?
Let's say a book tells me "such and such happened on this day," should I cite it or not? It is a fact, and it's not something found exclusively in that book. I could have even been there to experience the event myself or have heard about the event from various sources. And you can't site common knowledge (unless you forcibly seach for a resource that conforms to what you had known all along.)
I have always cited only opinions and ideas, not facts. If I were to cite facts my papers would be drowning in numbers and parentheses (especially if it was for history).
I'm trying to rationalize this. But what is the common protocol for knowing when to cite something?
Im a grammar and English teacher so I wouldn't know for sure; not that you got to be a teacher, I'm not a scholar either then.
But I would say that regular facts not from the author would not need cited. I would say if it was his theories or facts, then ya, I would cite them. But read my signature also.
I think there's a "not" missing, Your Majesty.
"The source of any direct quotations in a scholarly text should be made clear to the reader in what the author says about it either in the text or in a note. Paraphrases of other writers' ideas should be acknowledged and sources of little-known facts given. Well-known facts, easily ascertainable from many sources, need no documentation."
~The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. (1993), 2.108.
Oh okay.
Thanks Father Steve!
I knew it. "Well-known" and "little-known" fact," it's one of those ambiguous, subjective things.
Oh well, that makes me feel better.
It's up to me what I think would be "well-known," and if I use any ideas or theories to cite them.
Good, I don't have to worry about being thought of plagiarizing now.
> Paraphrases of other writers' ideas should be acknowledged
yeahbut that's the crucial thing that's getting increasingly overlooked, and one that requires scrupulous care. If in doubt, cite.
OH and also.
This is for an introductory class called "MIDI composition." It's online, and pretty much it seems like a ploy to get grades in.
I really haven't learned anything in that class.
there you go.
"... no matter where you go, there you are."
~Buckaroo Banzai, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984).
loved that movie. Jeff Goldblum was great.
I've always wondered why they didn't make a sequel.
At the end of "Buckaroo Banzai" there is a credit which invites viewers to watch for a sequel entitled "Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League." BB was directed by W.D. Richter in 1984. Richter set to work on a sequel to BB, presumably the one about the World Crime League. John Carpenter then stole Richter away from the idea and morphed his idea into the script for "Big Trouble in Little China." Go figure.
When I went back to school a while ago (to GMU), they had begun a policy of academic integrity. Apparently this is all the rage on campuses these days, but I don't know that students take it very seriously for the most part.
The prof was adamant and I was actually very happy to include an acknowledgements section to every homework and other assignment. Typically I included an entire page, but here's a copy of one the shortest - taken from our final (take home) exam.
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Acknowledgements
I have neither given nor received aid on this exam.
However, I have used several references while formulating my responses. I used the Silberschatz and Tanenbaum texts. I also reviewed many of Denning’s course slides (particularly those on synchronization, security, and queueing). I wrote a program to do mean value analysis that is a direct implementation of the MVA algorithm given in Denning’s lecture slides and course notes. There is no original material in this. It is my own imperfect interpretation of what I have read and heard in lectures. I have also browsed web pages at
(1)
http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/honey/crypto/lecture-14/lecture%2014.PPT(2)
http://www.esign.com.au/guide/guide.shtml(3)
http://archive.entrust.com/resourcecenter/pdf/tech_overview.pdf(4)
http://www-itg.lbl.gov/security/Akenti/pk_infrastructure.vg.pdf(5)
http://www.ise.gmu.edu/~csis/infs762/handouts/handout11.pdf(6)
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/pubs/pdfs/redbooks/sg245512.pdf(7)
http://www.cs.uni-sb.de/~anja/lehre/vorlesung00/book/Computer_Networking/07.05.htmFinally, I received several (at least five or six) responses from Professor Denning clarifying parts g and i of problem 1, and the code sample in problem 2.
Keith L. Green
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In addition to having an "acknowledgements" section, you should include a bibliography for a formal paper. It's *very* easy to plagiarize though. If you read a lot, you can inadvertently borrow some particular phrasing and not realize it. Additionally, it's easy to miss a point in your reading, then gradually to figure it out - and think it was your own idea.
I'm glad schools seem to be taking this more seriously, but they still need some work on getting the word out. My daughters get this in HS, BUT for example, last year the older girl got two sets of instructions from two different teachers - but they disagreed with each other.
Also, the teachers don't enforce it very rigorously. One of my daughter's friends actually bragged that she downloaded reports directly off the internet and this girl is near the top of her class.
