What do I write? – Part 1

U.S. History, Quarter 1

In this class you will be asked to answer questions, summarize material, evaluate primary sources, and/or formulate original responses based on information given. This short presentation deals with how do you answer questions without having plagiarism problems.

How to answer common knowledge questions is pretty straightforward. For example, if I ask you the question: How many distinct groups of Americans were living here when European Explorers arrived? The answer is easy right? You look at the text, third paragraph down and find the answer and copy it down: “140 to 160.”

Because the answer to this question is considered general, common knowledge, like Washington’s birthdate or the name of a country, you don’t need to worry about giving a source or copying it directly.

But once you leave that common knowledge area and head into an author’s discussion or interpretation of something, you’ve got something that can’t be copied—it can be paraphrased, or put in your own words.

What if you are asked the question: “What have archeologist learned about native people?”

You look at the third paragraph and you find the following sentence: “Archaeologists have learned that North American Indians made salt by evaporation and mined a great many minerals including copper, lead, and coal.” Your first inclination might be to just copy this as well—OOPS! That’s plagiarism. While you might consider this to be pretty general information, the way it is worded is unique to this author—so it can’t be considered “common knowledge.” So, you need to find a way to paraphrase this—put it entirely in your own words.

What if you say this?: “Archaeologists have found that North American Indians made salt by evaporation and mined minerals including copper, lead, and coal.” You’ve changed some of the wording, so you’re okay right? NOPE.

A legal paraphrase can’t include the author’s original wording or phrasing.  So what could you say? “North American Indians used evaporation to harvest salt from salt water. They had also developed procedures for mining and refining minerals such as copper, lead, and coal.”  That works. That sentence shows that you found the information required and that you understood what it was talking about.

As a student you are required to give all responses in your own words—for two very important reasons:

1) Well, because not doing so is illegal, unethical, and against the policy of

every school, business, or organization you will ever be in (Including EHS—remember the Honor Code you accepted?)

2) Also because it forces you to understand the information well enough to re-phrase it (I want to know what you understand, not how well you can cut and paste)

As you answer the questions for this assignment, keep in mind that for any question that isn’t a matter of common knowledge, you will need to paraphrase – put the idea in your own words.

A last note about citing sources: When do you need to cite a source? For the purposes of this class, you will need to cite any source that isn’t obvious—say you found information from a source I hadn’t provided in the class materials, then cite that source.