<p>Quoting Ryanbis: "Direct quotes are frowned upon in any paper at the college level."</p>
<p>CC'ers - is this the current state of affairs in University writing? A stunning statement. Nope, no reference. It's just the truth.</p>
<p>I agree with firsttimemom that teaching students to use quotes--correctly--is standard college writing. I teach freshman comp and a soph resaearch paper class, and I expect students to use quotations. How to do so correctly is the hard part.</p>
<p>I see a couple issues here, most of which have been already touched on. First, that the prof is asking a student to do a research paper without quotes is odd, and either a misunderstanding, or, if that's the case, a discussion prior to writing the paper of how he wants the student to use sources was needed. Synthesis is fine, but quotation exists to back up the synthesis--it's the evidence to support the verdict.</p>
<p>The issue of whether or not this is plagiarism is difficult. I agree that the ideas have not been plagiarized--the citations take care of that. What has been plagiarized are the words--changing a few words but keeping the basic sentence structure and voacabulary is a way of claiming the wording is yours when in fact it is not. That, I think, is what she is being called on.</p>
<p>Because of the history as presented here by the OP, it seems fairly certain that the mistake was inadvertent and prompted by the student's confusion over the instructor's corrections. I myself wouldn't send this one on to the Standards people. I think, as has been said by others, she needs to stress that this came from her confusion,and that she understands now what mistake she made.</p>
<p>In our school, first plagiarism cases only go on the record if another one happens--perhaps that will be true at your D's school as well. I hope all goes well for her.</p>
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In our school, first plagiarism cases only go on the record if another one happens--perhaps that will be true at your D's school as well. I hope all goes well for her.
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<p>It was my daughter's professor who proposed to the judicial committee that she plagiarized the final paper. If the judicial board does find her guilty of plagiarism, my daughter could be suspended.</p>
<p>Lulu, my heart goes out to you. I just had a conversation with my son, a 9th grader who just won a commendation for English (the only one in his group), about this debate. I described to him the situation of a student who had used quotation in a research paper, and then had the teacher say not to use quotations, and that the student had then paraphrased with reference and been accused of plagiarism. His reply: "Yeah, well, we had totally different methods to quote in 8th vs. 9th grade." I replied with something like, "Huh? Different methods from 8th to 9th grade?" He replied with something like, "Yeah. Totally different. One teacher said to do it one way, and now my teacher says to do it another way." I replied with something like, "but you have to use quotes?" His response, verbatim: "Obviously." (Please use all the teenage 9th grade sarcasm you wish.)</p>
<p>"...Your reader has got to be able to go back to the original research, as referenced, to check you, the writer's, interpretation and to assess for him/herself (the research paper's reader) that you (the research paper writer) are accurately representing the work upon which you are reporting."</p>
<p>That is the point of a reference--you don't need a direct quotation for that. If you're writing a psychology paper, for instance, and you don't need to repeatedly quote published research on your topic--it's a waste of space. You summarize the relevant points of the source, cite it and then move on. </p>
<p>For instance:</p>
<p>Previous reserach conducted by So and So (1976) has demonstrated this bias through the use of Such and Such technique. The authors believe that their results differ from past research due to their different sampling method. </p>
<p>Your reference to So and So would be detailed at the end of your paper so that the reader can go back and check. Direct quotations are not necessary for that. If you have a 10 page paper that uses 40 different sources, direct quotations would take up your entire paper.</p>
<p>"If this student was reporting on other people's work, then she needed to use references. If it was her own research, then she needed to use references to back up her approach, and then she could report her research in her own words."</p>
<p>No one's disputing the usage of references--there's a big different from referencing something and a direct quotation.</p>
<p>Yes, Ryanbis, and in our school district, it would be imperative, for your reference to a paper on, "Previous research conducted by So and So (1976)...," to follow with a direct quotation supporting your statement.</p>
<p>The method is, in our school district, the following:</p>
<p>1) State, in your own words, the current understanding.
2) Summarize, in your own words, the research.
3) Support your summarization, with a direct quotation. (Provide reference.) </p>
<p>Point 3) is not necessary for every reference, but is required in a few of your references to demonstrate your accurate reading of the literature and to strengthen your thesis. Quotation is required, in at least a few cases of reference, to demonstrate that you, the research paper writer, are accurately reflecting the information referenced. Again, I believe it is the case in our district, which leads me to believe it may have been drummed into Lulu's daughter, that it is considered very very poor form to NOT use a direct quotation.</p>
<p>I will be contacting my son's English teacher, who is recognized in our district as and excellent and demanding instructor, regarding this discussion.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that Lulu. What I meant is that the first time it goes to the committee, if it's found to be plagiarism, the student gets a warning and the item is put in a temporary file. Further attempts would trigger the suspension and the permament record. It sounds like your D's school doesn't have that interim step.</p>
<p>I've never been discouraged from quoting in my papers and I go to a pretty decent college ;). There's nothing wrong with quoting if the quotes are appropriate and support points you've made regarding the author's work/source of research. I find it strange that people have been instructed not to use quotes at all in research papers, since I've never been told to do that, even at Cornell.</p>
<p>"The method is, in our school district, the following:</p>
<p>1) State, in your own words, the current understanding.
2) Summarize, in your own words, the research.
3) Support your summarization, with a direct quotation. (Provide reference.) "</p>
<p>Which is fine for high school writing (and I remember my AP English teachers having their own little structures that they liked students to follow)--but there is no specified structures for college papers. High school teachers tend to give their students cookie-cutter structures like that almost as training wheels--they are there to get you used to writing a certain style and making sure that you have a point and an argument with some backing--however, it's usually expected that you can write beyond this level in college. Sometimes direct quotes are merited, but they are used carefully and sparingly. </p>
<p>BTW, in reference to your son using different techniques between grades, my high school had two years of AP English and my first year and second year teacher each had their own little structures in which they liked papers to be written. My second year teacher made fun of the first year's teacher's format and my second year teacher's format was thrown out the window by the time I got to college. </p>
<p>Each of my professors had different styles in which they wanted the class to write--my first semester writing professor like long, complex sentences with a detailed thesis, whereas my second semester writing professor liked short, succinct sentences in plain language. In both cases, however, they discouraged overusing direct quotes, although they are used a bit more often in writing/English papers for criticizing literature/poetry than they are in other subjects.</p>