additional resources
Assembling a
Writing Portfolio
Stasis Theory
Tips on Using Sources and Considering Your Own Intellectual Property
Preparing for the CLAST
Preparing for the THEA
Commas with Coordinate Adjectives
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Tips on Using Sources and Considering Your Own Intellectual Property

  • Tips on Using Sources
  • Considering Your Own Intellectual Property

    TIPS ON USING SOURCES

    Precisely because downloading material from the Web and cutting and pasting from one document to another are so simple today, you need to be even more careful about the sources you work with. Instructor Nick Carbone provides the following advice for students who are working with sources in their writing:

    DO
    • Share ideas with others, give and get responses to writing, help one another write.

    • Edit sections of one another's papers from time to time.

    • Expect to make mistakes in managing and citing your sources.

    • Expect to correct such mistakes.

    • Be careful in downloading sources and in taking notes.

    • Find a way to use your sources fairly and wisely, without these sources taking over your essay.

    • Learn the many purposes that using and citing sources can have in your writing.

    • Use your word processor to help you manage sources (for example, put sources you're quoting or paraphrasing in a different font and font color until your final draft so you don't forget they came from one of your sources).

    • See your instructor when you are in doubt about how to use or acknowledge a source.

    • Tell your instructor if you feel overwhelmed or fall behind; knowing your predicament will enable the instructor to help you find a solution.

    DON'T
    • Don't cheat, steal, or misrepresent the work of others as your own.

    • Don't use online term-paper mills; they aren't worthy of you.

    • Don't think that because something is on the Internet it doesn't need to be acknowledged in a citation.

    • Don't think that simply changing a few words means you don't have to provide a citation and put what is quoted in quotation marks.

    • Don't think that because politicians have speechwriters whom they don't acknowledge you can reasonably get someone else to write a paper for you: the purpose of being in college is to acquire knowledge through your own research and writing.

    • Don't procrastinate on assignments so that you put undue pressure on yourself and are tempted to take shortcuts.

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    CONSIDERING YOUR OWN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

    Although you may not have thought much about it, all of your work in college represents a growing bank of intellectual property, and this includes all of the research and writing you do, online and off. In fact, such original work is automatically copyrighted, even if it lacks the © symbol. Here are some tips for making sure that others respect your intellectual property just as you respect theirs:

    Realize that any email you send or anything you post to a listserv or discussion group is public. If you don’t want your thoughts and ideas repeated or forwarded, keep them offline. In addition, you may want to let your friends know specifically that you do not want your e-mail passed on to any third parties. In turn, remember that you should not use material from e-mail, discussion groups, or other online forums without asking for permission to do so.

    Be careful with your passwords and with discs you carry around. Whatever method you use for storing your work should be secure; only you should be able to give someone access to that work.

    Save all your drafts and notes so that you can show where your work has come from, should anyone ask you.

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