Group Members: Yuka, Elise, and Lillian 

Part I: Hard evidence or constructed arguments?

Discuss whether the following statements are examples of hard evidence or constructed arguments. Not all cases are clear-cut. 

  1. Drunk drivers are involved in more than 50 percent of traffic deaths
    1. Hard evidence
  2. DNA tests of skin found under the victim’s fingernails suggest that the defendant was responsible for the assault.
    1. Constructed argument
  3. A psychologist testified that teenage violence could not be blamed on video games.
    1. Constructed argument
  4. The crowds at President Trump’s inauguration were the largest on record.
    1. Hard evidence
  5. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
    1. Constructed argument
  6. Airbags ought to be removed from vehicles because they can kill young children and small-framed adults. (Based on the activities in Lunsford, p. 63)
    1. Constructed argument

Part II: Plagiarism or not?

Directions:  Read the following scenarios and decide whether it is a case of plagiarism or not. (Y or N) and explain why._____ 

 

  1. Kyoko needs to write a report on American politics.  She looks up Barack Obama in Wikipedia and discovers he is the 44th president of the United States.  She includes this information in her report but doesn’t mention Wikipedia. Plagiarism, because even though she didn’t use direct quotations, she used a piece of information that she found on Wikipedia. 

 

  1. Tam is writing a paper on a novel for his English class.  Since the whole class is reading the same book, he doesn’t need to use a citation. Plagiarism because he isn’t citing the source. 

 

  1. Sugi wrote a paper for his European history class last semester and got an A on the paper. This semester, his Political Science class is addressing some of the same issues that are in his History paper.  He checks with his professor first who agrees with Sugi, so he uses the material from his History paper.  Self- Plagiarism.
  2. Ramiro, Stephan, April, and Chris are working on a group project.  Chris submits his work and the others suspect that some of it came from the Internet, but it sounds good, so they submit it. Plagiarism, because Chris didn’t cite information. 
  3. Maria finds a lot of good information for her paper on the Internet.  She carefully changes the wording and prepares a good paraphrase.  She doesn’t copy anything verbatim. Plagiarism, she didn’t cite the source. 

 

 Directions:  Decide whether the information described in each scenario will require citation of the source (Y or N) and explain why.

 

  1. You clearly identify the source at the beginning of a paragraph that summarizes the author’s ideas about teenage drinking.  Since readers will naturally assume all of the ideas in the paragraph are from the source, no additional citation is necessary. You need the citation because the author shouldn’t “assume” that the readers know the whole paragraph is from the source. 

 

  1. In your paper on the history of aviation, you state the date of the Wright brothers’ first successful flight at Kitty Hawk. You need a citation because you didn’t cite the source. 

 

  1. In a paper on the civil rights movement, you find some general, well-known background information in an encyclopedia.  It is obviously common knowledge, so you copy the information and include it in your paper. You need a citation because you copied the information, if you didn’t copy it, then it would be fine. 

 

  1. You ask your mother about the steps she went through in obtaining a bank loan for a new car. You include this information in your paper.  If it’s an interview, then you need to cite. Otherwise, you don’t need to.

 

  1. You skim a 325-page book entitled Using the Internet. A major theme throughout the book is that the Internet is an important technological achievement.  You include this in your paper.

Cite it because you used the book. 

  1. You find an article that takes the same position you have taken on the subject of gun control. To save time you summarize in your paper a portion of the argument from the article since the author’s ideas are identical to your own.

Cite it because you clearly used it from an article