December 2, 2009
Student Surveys
I am always looking for ways to be a better and more effective teacher, which is one reason I have you fill out a short survey as you turn in each essay. Another important way that I can learn from you about what I’m doing that works and what I can change is through the Student Survey of Instruction, which you can complete online. You should have received an email about this survey from the College, and information is available to you on Blackboard as well. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Your login information is:
User Name: Student’s G# – i.e., G00XXXXXX
Password: sjcdsurvey
I am also told that the College will be giving away one new Dell Mini 10v on each campus this semester–to be eligible to win, you need to complete the survey.
Final Exams
Please be aware of your posted final exam date and time, which is also listed on the course agenda you were given at the beginning of the semester:
1301-341 Thursday, December 10th 1:00pm-3:00pm
1301-3U4 Thursday, December 10th 3:00pm-5:00pm
1302-303 Monday, December 7th 8:00am-10:00am
1302-307 Wednesday, December 9th 12:30pm-2:30pm
November 7, 2009
As I’ve been grading this round of essays, I’m realizing that some students are not as familiar as they should be with what counts as plagiarism. I think that most would agree that, for example, borrowing a friend’s paper and turning it in as your own work would be plagiarism. Likewise, buying or copying a whole paper from a student paper site is something that most would recognize as plagiarism. But smaller incidents count as plagiarism as well, such as:
- Copying sentences or parts of sentences from other sources, no matter what the source may be (student paper sites, Wikipedia, scholarly papers, etc.).
- Forgetting to put quotation marks around a passage that you’re quoting.
- Copying a sentence (or more) from a source and inserting one or two words of your own.
- Copying a sentence (or more) from a source and using the thesaurus to change some of the words.
- Paraphrasing a source without giving credit to its author.
Plagiarism is a serious matter, and even an incident that seems as small as those listed above can cause you to fail the paper, the course, or both. Read page 47 of the current course catalog and pages 38-39 of the Student Handbook for the SanJac policy on plagiarism. As stated in the course syllabus, it is your responsibility to know what counts as plagiarism and to aviod plagiarism in all your assignments.
A good rule of thumb is to know that you must cite (give credit to) any words or ideas that did not come out of your own brain. Your textbooks give instructions for giving proper credit to your sources, and we have discussed this in class as well. Whenever you’re in doubt, please come to me with your writing and your sources so that I can assist you in using your sources appropriately.
Additionally, remember that although student paper sites can be tempting, they are never good resources for your papers, even as background research. Most of these papers are poorly written, and none will be as valuable as a resource written by an expert — or even a brief conversation with the instructor!
Here are some online resources that can help you identify and avoid plagiarism in your work:
[photo via Transguyjay on flickr, licensed through creative commons ]
October 2, 2009
Since we’re busy with our first drafts of the personal narrative essay, I thought this story from NPR’s Story Corps project was especially relevant to us. Click here to listen and/or read the story about the positive impact one person (and a book!) can have on another’s life. Enjoy!
[photo via Dawn Endico on flickr, licensed through creative commons ]
