March 26

Today, we wrote down our current definition of plagiarism for writing into the day.  Then, in groups, we read page 282-284 in Practical Argument and wrote down another definition of plagiarism as a group.  Generally, the class wrote definitions like, "Using someone's thoughts, statements, ideas or data without giving credit or documenting properly."

For 30 minutes, we talked about complexity of plagiarism by discussing the following questions:

• How do you figure out whether you need to cite an idea?
• If someone else's article gives you an idea, do you have to cite the original source?
• If you have an idea and then find out that an article was published five years earlier about that same idea, do you have to cite that source?
• Can you plagiarize yourself?
• How do you decide what counts as "common knowledge"?

Each person had different opinions ranging from the assertion that you only should cite directly quoted words to having to cite even vague ideas from a source.  In academia, you are required to cite a source if you directly quote, paraphrase or summarize from that source.  Also, in academia, if you turn in a paper you had written for another class, it is consider academic dishonesty.

Then, we talked about paraphrasing using the PowerPoint on BlackBoard under the coursework section (called "Paraphrasing and MLA PowerPoint").  After talking about the examples in the PowerPoint, we got into partners and wrote a paraphrase of the paragraph on the bottom of page 282 and the top of page 283 in Practical Argument.

Finally, we talked about how to format an MLA paper.  

• Times New Roman 12 pt font
• 1 inch margins
• Double space the entire document (make sure you check the box to not add space between paragraphs of the same style)
• Your last name and the page number need to go in the right side of the header of each page
• On the left side at the top of your first page, you need the following heading:
• Name
• Instructor's Name (Megan Keaton)
• Course (ENG 112)
• Date - day month year (Example: 10 December 2012)
• Your title should be only one double spaced line below your heading.  The title should be in Times New Roman 12 pt font (no bold, underline or italics) and centered.
• Start your paper only one double spaced line below the title.

Homework:

• Finish the Annotated Bibliography for your first three sources.
• Post the first draft to your blog.
• Bring hard copies to class for your workshop group.