Chapter 14: Effective Writing
Overview
Learning Framework: Effective Strategies for College Success
Chapter 14: Effective Writing
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Describe the importance of good writing skills.
- Define “academic writing" and explain the key aspects of academic writing.
- Define what instructors expect of a college student’s writing.
- Understand and utilize the five writing-process steps.
- Differentiate between revision and proofreading, and explain the value of each.
- Know where to get help with your writing.
- Understand the principles of academic integrity.
- Identify strategies for ethical use of sources in writing.
Effective Writing
The Importance Of Writing Skills
Writing is one of the key skills all successful students must acquire. You might think your main job in a history class is to learn facts about events. So you read your textbook and take notes on important dates, names, causes, etc. But however important these details are to your instructor, they don’t mean much if you can’t explain them in writing. Even if you remember the facts and believe you understand their meaning completely, if you can’t express your understanding by communicating it—in college that almost always means in writing—then as far as others may know, you don’t have an understanding. In a way, learning history is learning to write about history.
History is just one example. Consider a lab course—a class that’s as much hands-on as any in college. At some point, you’ll be asked to write a step-by-step report on an experiment you have run. The quality of your lab work will not show if you cannot describe that work and state your findings well in writing. Even though instructors in courses other than English classes may not comment directly on your writing, their judgment of your understanding will still be mostly based on what you write. This means that in all your courses, not just your English courses, instructors expect good writing.
In college courses, writing is how ideas are exchanged, from scholars to students and from students back to scholars. While the grade in some courses may be based mostly on class participation, oral reports, or multiple-choice exams, writing is by far the single most important form of instruction and assessment.
If you find that a scary thought, take heart! By paying attention to your writing and learning and practicing basic skills, even those who never thought of themselves as good writers can succeed in college writing. As with other college skills, getting off to a good start is mostly a matter of being motivated and developing a confident attitude that you can do it. Research shows that deliberate practice—that is, close focus on improving one’s skills—makes all the difference in how one performs.
A survey of employers conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that 89 percent of employers say that colleges and universities should place more emphasis on “the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing.” In addition, several of the other valued skills are grounded in written communication: “Critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills” (81 percent); “The ability to analyze and solve complex problems” (75 percent); and “The ability to locate, organize, and evaluate information from multiple sources” (68 percent).
The payoff for improving your writing comes much sooner than graduation. Suppose you complete about 40 classes for a 120-credit bachelor's degree, and—averaging across writing-intensive and non-writing-intensive courses—you produce about 2,500 words of formal writing per class. Even with that low estimate, you’ll write 100,000 words during your college career. That’s roughly equivalent to a 330-page book.
Spending a few hours sharpening your writing skills will make those 100,000 words much easier and more rewarding to write. All of your professors care about good writing.
What is Academic Writing?
Writing in college is a fairly specialized writing situation, and it has developed its own codes and conventions that you need to have a keen awareness of if you are going to write successfully in college. Let’s break down the writing situation in college:
| Who’s your audience? | Primarily the professor and possibly your classmates (though you may be asked to include a secondary outside audience). |
| What’s the occasion or context? | An assignment given by the teacher within a learning context and designed to have you learn and demonstrate your learning. |
| What’s your message? | It will be your learning or the interpretation gained from your study of the subject matter. |
| What’s your purpose? | To show your learning and get a good grade (or to accomplish the goals of the writing assignment). |
| What documents/ genres are used? | The essay is the most frequent type of document used. |
Every form of writing has its conventions. How we write text messages to our friends is different from how we write a job application; the language used in a soap opera is different from the language used on the news. And the language of academic writing has its own set of characteristics.
As a basic rule, academic writing is more formal than the everyday language we tend to use for communication. But at the same time, academic writing isn't about impressing people with ‘big words’ or being overly formal. It needs to be clear, concise, and objective so that you can communicate your ideas effectively.
Compare these two sentences - they contain the same information, but the better style example is much shorter, simpler, and easier to understand.
Poor style: The primary ambition of expressing concepts in an academic fashion is to provide assistance for the audience of the piece in comprehending the information being conveyed in an expeditious and accessible manner.
Better style: Effective academic writing helps readers understand your points quickly and easily.
Instead of being formal, academic writing uses neutral words and avoids informal, conversational, or colloquial language. For example, 'many factors' is more academic than 'loads of things'. Also, avoid personal language - you're not the focus of the work (unless it's a reflective assignment like those often found in this EDUC course). You should also generally use objective language, for example, "it is really bad" is subjective, but "a key negative consequence" is objective.
Be Clear
Clarity is a key aspect of academic writing style. This helps the reader understand and follow your points easily.
- Break down long, complex sentences into shorter, clearer sentences.
- Don’t use formal or unusual words where you can use a ‘normal’ one.
- You won’t get points for being overly formal, or ‘sounding like an academic ’ - probably the opposite, as this makes your writing harder to follow.
Be concise
Academic writing also aims to be concise and use as few words as possible. Remove words and phrases that don’t add anything to your argument. This makes your writing clearer and means you’ll have more words to make your points with. After writing a paragraph, read it back and remove any unnecessary words. Be ruthless!
Avoid personal pronouns
Usually, you're not the focus of the writing, so using personal pronouns can make the important aspects of your writing harder to identify. We also know that you wrote the work, or that you did the research, so you don't need to tell us this.
Avoiding personal pronouns like "I" helps you focus on what's important:
- I will argue that... → This essay will argue that...
- I tested the samples → Samples were tested
The exception is reflective writing. In this case, you may use personal language to discuss your own experiences.
Be objective
Academic writing is based on objective arguments. Using personal or emotive language makes your writing subjective and more opinion-based, and so weakens these arguments.
- I think X is the best solution. → Based on this evidence, it seems X is the best solution.
- In my opinion, this happened because... → The reasons for this are...
- Many people believe that... → It is widely believed that...
- avoid emotive and subjective words like "unfortunately", "luckily" etc.
Use Structure
Academic writing has a clear, logical structure to communicate your points and show the connections between them; a well-structured assignment is easy for the reader to follow and understand.
These general principles apply to structuring most types of academic writing:
- Use a linear structure where points build on each other - don't jump backward and forwards.
- Start with more general and then move to the more specific ideas and points.
- Put more relevant/important information first.
- Everything is relevant to the main argument or point of the paragraph.
- Use cohesion to join ideas and points clearly - don't make the reader do the work.
- Follow any structural requirements for your assignment or type of writing.
The best way to write a well-structured assignment is to have a good plan before you start writing. What's your argument? What are the main points you want to include? What's a logical way to order these points? Don't just launch into writing with no idea of where you're going!
To make a general plan:
- Make a list of the information and points to include.
- Organize similar points into groups.
- Put the groups in a logical order.
- Within each group, organize the points logically.
- Check the plan to make sure it meets task requirements.
Paragraph Structure
A well-structured paragraph contains one main point or idea - all the information included is relevant to this point. If it's not related to the main point, it probably shouldn't be there!
There are many ways to structure a paragraph, but they generally all include:
- a topic sentence showing the main point
- the body of the paragraph, integrating:
- development of the point: more detail, examples, etc.
- evidence to support the point
- critical analysis showing how evidence relates to the main point
- a final wrap-up linking to the overall argument or the next paragraph
However, this is only a guide - there are many ways to structure a paragraph. Reading sources from your field will help you to get a feel of ways to organize paragraphs.
Be Cohesive
Cohesive words and phrases are used heavily in academic writing style to smoothly link points. They're generally small and fairly simple but are integral to communicating your argument. If the structure is the order of your points, cohesion is what ties them together and guides the reader through your argument.
Create cohesion using words and phrases that show the relationships between points. For example:
- basic connectives: and, or, but, so
- giving more detail: for example, to illustrate, an example of this is
- showing contrast: however, although, while, conversely, alternatively
- showing similarity: another, also, similarly, collectively, taken together
- cause/effect: leading to, the effect of this is, therefore, may stem from
- referencing words: this/that, who, which/that, the groups, these findings
- showing implications: this suggests that, these findings may mean that, based on this
Myths About College Writing
There are many misconceptions about college writing. Here are a few myths that can lead to problems in writing.
Myth #1: The “Paint by Numbers” myth
Some writers believe they must perform certain steps in a particular order to write “correctly.” Rather than being a lock-step linear process, writing is “recursive.” That means we cycle through and repeat the various activities of the writing process many times as we write.
Myth #2: Writers only start writing when they have everything figured out
Writing is not like sending a fax! Writers figure out much of what they want to write as they write it. Rather than waiting, get some writing on the page—even with gaps or problems. You can come back to patch up rough spots.
Myth #3: Perfect first drafts
We put unrealistic expectations on early drafts, either by focusing too much on the impossible task of making them perfect (which can put a cap on the development of our ideas), or by making too little effort because we don’t care or know about their inevitable problems. Nobody writes perfect first drafts; polished writing takes lots of revision.
Myth #4: Some got it; I don’t—the genius fallacy
When you see your writing ability as something fixed or out of your control (as if it were in your genetic code), then you won’t believe you can improve as a writer and are likely not to make any efforts in that direction. With effort and study, though, you can improve as a writer.
Myth #5: Good grammar is good writing
When people say “I can’t write,” what they often mean is they have problems with grammatical correctness. Writing, however, is about more than just grammatical correctness. Good writing is a matter of achieving your desired effect on an intended audience. Plus, as we saw in Myth #3, no one writes perfect first drafts.
Myth #6: The Five-Paragraph Essay
Some people say to avoid it at all costs, while others believe no other way to write exists. With an introduction, three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion, the five-paragraph essay is a format you should know, but one which you will outgrow. You’ll have to gauge the particular writing assignment to see whether and how this format is useful for you.
Myth #7: Never use “I”
Adopting this formal stance of objectivity implies a distrust (almost fear) of informality and often leads to artificial, puffed-up prose. Although some writing situations will call on you to avoid using “I” (for example, a lab report), much college writing can be done in a middle, semi-formal style where it is ok to use “I.”
What Do Instructors Want?
Successful academic writing starts with recognizing what the instructor is requesting, or what you are required to do. So pay close attention to the assignment. Sometimes the essential information about an assignment is conveyed through class discussions, however, so be sure to listen for the keywords that will help you understand what the instructor expects. If you feel the assignment does not give you a sense of direction, seek clarification.
Some instructors may say they have no particular expectations for student papers. This is partly true. College instructors do not usually have one right answer in mind or one right approach to take when they assign a paper topic. They expect you to engage in critical thinking and decide for yourself what you are saying and how to say it. But in other ways, college instructors do have expectations, and it is important to understand them. Some expectations involve mastering the material or demonstrating critical thinking. Other expectations involve specific writing skills. Most college instructors expect certain characteristics in student writing. Here are general principles you should follow when writing essays or student “papers.” (Some may not be appropriate for specific formats such as lab reports.)
Title the paper to identify your topic. This may sound obvious, but it needs to be said. Some students think of a paper as an exercise and write something like “Assignment 2: History 101” on the title page. Such a title gives no idea about how you are approaching the assignment or your topic. Your title should prepare your reader for what your paper is about or what you will argue. (With essays, always consider your reader as an educated adult interested in your topic. An essay is not a letter written to your instructor.) Compare the following:
Incorrect: Assignment 2: History 101
Correct: Why the New World Was Not “New”
It is obvious which of these two titles begins to prepare your reader for the paper itself. Similarly, don’t make your title the same as the title of a work you are writing about. Instead, be sure your title signals an aspect of the work you are focusing on:
Incorrect: Catcher in the Rye
Correct: Family Relationships in Catcher in the Rye
Address the terms of the assignment. Again, pay particular attention to words in the assignment that signal a preferred approach. If the instructor asks you to “argue” a point, be sure to make a statement that expresses your idea about the topic. Then follow that statement with your reasons and evidence in support of the statement. Look for any signals that will help you focus or limit your approach. Since no paper can cover everything about a complex topic, what is it that your instructor wants you to cover?
Finally, pay attention to the little things. For example, if the assignment specifies “5 to 6 pages in length,” write a five- to six-page paper. Don’t try to stretch a short paper longer by enlarging the font (12 points is standard) or making your margins bigger than the normal one inch (or as specified by the instructor). If the assignment is due at the beginning of class on Monday, have it ready then or before. Do not assume you can negotiate a revised due date.
In your introduction, define your topic and establish your approach or sense of purpose. Think of your introduction as an extension of your title. Instructors (like all readers) appreciate being oriented by a clear opening. They appreciate knowing that you have a purpose for your topic—that you have a reason for writing the paper. If they feel they’ve just been dropped into the middle of a paper, they may miss important ideas. They may not make the connections you want them to make.
Build from a thesis or a clearly stated sense of purpose. Many college assignments require you to make some form of argument. To do that, you generally start with a statement that needs to be supported and build from there. Your thesis is that statement; it is a guiding assertion for the paper. Be clear in your mind about the difference between your topic and your thesis. The topic is what your paper is about; the thesis is what you argue about the topic. Some assignments do not require an explicit argument and thesis, but even then you should make clear at the beginning your main emphasis, your purpose, or your most important idea.
Develop ideas patiently. You might, like many students, worry about boring your reader with too much detail or information. However, college instructors will not be bored by carefully explained ideas, well-selected examples, and relevant details. College instructors, after all, are professionally devoted to their subjects. If your sociology instructor asks you to write about youth crime in rural areas, you can be sure they are interested in that subject.
Integrate—do not just “plug-in”—quotations, graphs, and illustrations. As you outline or sketch out your material, you will think things like “This quotation can go here” or “I can put that graph there.” Remember that a quotation, graph, or illustration does not make a point for you. You make the point first and then use such material to help back it up. Using a quotation, a graph, or an illustration involves more than simply sticking it into the paper. Always lead into such material. Make sure the reader understands why you are using it and how it fits in at that place in your presentation.
Build clear transitions at the beginning of every paragraph to link from one idea to another. A good paper is more than a list of good ideas. It should also show how the ideas fit together. As you write the first sentence of any paragraph, have a clear sense of what the prior paragraph was about. Think of the first sentence in any paragraph as a kind of bridge for the reader from what came before.
Document your sources appropriately. If your paper involves research of any kind, indicate the use you make of outside sources. If you have used those sources well, there is no reason to hide them. Careful research and the thoughtful application of the ideas and evidence of others are part of what college instructors value.
Carefully edit your paper. College instructors assume you will take the time to edit and proofread your essay. A misspelled word or an incomplete sentence may signal a lack of concern on your part. It may not seem fair to make a harsh judgment about your seriousness based on little errors, but in all writing, impressions count. Since it is often hard to find small errors in our own writing, ask a classmate or a friend to review it and mark any word or sentence that seems “off” in any way. Although you should certainly use a spell-checker, don’t assume it can catch everything.
Turn in a clean hard copy. Some instructors accept or even prefer digital papers, but do not assume this. Some instructors want a paper copy. Present your paper in a professional (and unfussy) way, using a staple or paper clip on the left top to hold the pages together (unless the instructor specifies otherwise). If submitting digitally, make sure the formatting you intended remains intact after you upload the file. Review the uploaded file carefully before pressing "submit." And, be sure you are uploading the file type requested by your instructor/
The Writing Process
The following video provides a thorough overview of the five steps of the writing process.
No writer, not even a professional, composes a perfect draft in her first attempt. Every writer fumbles and has to work through a series of steps to arrive at a high-quality finished project.
You may have encountered these steps as assignments in classes—draft a thesis statement, complete an outline, turn in a rough draft, and participate in a peer review. The further you get into higher education, the less often these steps will be completed as part of a class.
That’s not to say that you won’t still need to follow these steps on your own. It helps to recognize that these steps, commonly, referred to as the writing process, aren’t rigid and prescribed. Instead, it can be liberating to see them as flexible, allowing you to adapt them to your personal habits, preferences, and the topic at hand. You will probably find that your process changes, depending on the type of writing you’re doing and your comfort level with the subject matter.
Consider the following flowchart of the writing process:
The writing process can be summed up in five steps: pre-writing, planning and outlining, drafting, revising, and editing (proofreading.) Keep in mind that it isn’t always a linear process, though. It’s okay to loop back to earlier steps again if needed. For instance, after completing a draft, you may realize that a significant aspect of the topic is missing, which sends you back to researching. Or the process of research may lead you to an unexpected subtopic, which shifts your focus and leads you to revise your thesis. Embrace the circular path that writing often takes!
Because writing is sometimes hard, procrastination is easy. Don’t let yourself put off the task. Use the time management strategies described in Chapter 4. One good approach is to schedule shorter periods over a series of days, rather than trying to sit down for one long period to accomplish a lot. (Even professional writers can write only so much at a time.)
- Prewriting. This stage is for generating ideas, understanding the ideas of others, and collecting information (note-taking, free-writing, brainstorming, researching, etc.) This is where you will decide on the specific topic of your paper.
- Planning and Outlining. Here, you are organizing and focusing on ideas. You are making a plan for your writing, which can include an outline or a mind map.
- Drafting. In the drafting stage, you are writing initial drafts of a text focusing mainly on the development, organization, and elaboration of ideas.
- Revision. In the revision stage, let the work sit and come back to it later with a fresh set of eyes. You may cycle back between drafting and revision several times before moving on. This is also a good time to get feedback from others. In the revision stage, you are further developing and clarifying ideas and the structure of the text. If the work requires additional research or idea generation, return to the planning stage.
- Editing and Proofreading. Here the focus is on surface-level features of the text. This is where you correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
What’s the Difference Between Revision and Editing?
These last two stages of the writing process are often confused with each other, but they mean very different things and serve very different purposes.
Revision is literally “reseeing.” It asks a writer to step away from a piece of work for a significant amount of time and return later to see it with new eyes. This is why the process of producing multiple drafts of an essay is so important. It allows some space in between, to let thoughts mature, connections to arise, and gaps in content or an argument to appear. It’s also difficult to do, especially given that most college students face tight timelines to get big writing projects done. Still, there are some tricks to help you “re-see” a piece of writing when you’re short on time, such as reading a paper backward, sentence by sentence, and reading your work aloud. Both are ways of reconceptualizing your writing so you approach it from a fresh perspective. Whenever possible, build in at least a day or two to set a draft aside before returning to work on the final version.
Revising a draft usually involves significant changes including the following:
- Making organizational changes like the reordering of paragraphs (don’t forget that new transitions will be needed when you move paragraphs).
- Clarifying the thesis or adjustments between the thesis and supporting points that follow.
- Cutting material that is unnecessary or irrelevant.
- Adding new points to strengthen or clarify the presentation.
Editing and Proofreading are the last steps following revision. This is the point where spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting all take center stage.
Editing and proofreading are focused, late-stage activities for style and correctness. They are important final parts of the writing process, but they should not be confused with revision itself. Editing and proofreading a draft involve these steps:
- Careful spell-checking. This includes checking the spelling of names.
- Attention to sentence-level issues. Be especially attentive to sentence boundaries, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and pronoun referents. You can also attend at this stage to matters of style.
A person can be the best writer in the world and still be a terrible proofreader. It’s okay not to memorize every rule out there, but to know where to turn for help. Utilizing the grammar-check feature of your word processor is a good start, but it won’t solve every issue. There are also programs you can use such as Grammarly.
Finding a trusted person to help you edit is perfectly ethical, as long as that person offers you advice and doesn’t do any of the writing for you. Professional writers rely on outside readers for the revision and editing process, and it’s good practice for you to do so, too.
Remember to get started on a writing assignment early so that you complete the first draft well before the due date, allowing you time for genuine revision and careful editing.
CHECKLISTS FOR REVISION AND EDITING
When you revise…
| Check the assignment: does your paper do what it’s supposed to do? | |
| Check the title: does it clearly identify the overall topic or position? | |
| Check the introduction: does it set the stage and establish the purpose? | |
| Check each paragraph in the body: does each begin with a transition from the preceding? | |
| Check the organization: does it make sense why each topic precedes or follows another? | |
| Check development: is each topic fully explained, detailed, supported, and exemplified? | |
| Check the conclusion: does it restate the thesis and pull key ideas together? |
When you edit…
| Read the paper aloud, listening for flow and natural word style. | |
| Check for any lapses into slang, colloquialisms, or nonstandard English phrasing. | |
| Check sentence-level mechanics: grammar and punctuation (pay special attention to past writing problems). | |
| When everything seems done, run the spell-checker again and do a final proofread. | |
| Check physical layout and mechanics against instructor’s expectations: Title page? Font and margins? Endnotes? |
Getting Help with Writing
Writing can be hard work. Most colleges provide resources that can help you from the early stages of an assignment through to the completion of an essay. Your first resource may be a writing class. Most students are encouraged or required to enroll in a writing class in their first term, and it’s a good idea for everyone. Use everything you learn there about drafting and revising in all your courses.
Most colleges have a tutoring service that focuses primarily on student writing. At ACC, you can request help from the Learning Lab Tutors, either virtually or in person at any of the campuses. You can also get assistance from The Writing Center.
Three points about writing tutors are crucial:
- Writing tutors are there for all student writers—not just for weak or inexperienced writers. Writing in college is supposed to be a challenge. Some students make writing even harder by thinking that good writers work in isolation. But writing is a social act. A good paper should engage others.
- Tutors are not there for you to “correct” sentence-level problems or polish your finished draft. They will help you identify and understand sentence-level problems so that you can achieve greater control over your writing. But, their more important goals often are to address larger concerns like the paper’s organization, the fullness of its development, and the clarity of its argument. So don’t make your first appointment the day before a paper is due, because you may need more time to revise after discussing the paper with a tutor.
- Tutors cannot help you if you do not do your part. Tutors respond only to what you say and write; they cannot enable you to magically jump past the thinking an assignment requires. So do some thinking about the assignment before your meeting and be sure to bring relevant materials with you. For example, bring the paper assignment. You might also bring the course syllabus and perhaps even the required textbook. Most importantly, bring any writing you’ve done in response to the assignment (an outline, a thesis statement, a draft, an introductory paragraph). If you want to get help from a tutor, you need to give the tutor something to work with.
The ACC Library is a great resource for writing papers. You can go to any ACC campus library, email them, call them, zoom them, and there is even a 24-hour live chat. They can help you find appropriate sources, show you how to use citation tools, and help you with citing sources,
Writing Websites and writing handbooks. Many writing websites and handbooks can help you along every step of the way, especially in the late stages of your work. You’ll find lessons on style as well as information about language conventions and “correctness.” Not only should you use the handbook your composition instructor assigns in a writing class, but you should not sell that book back at the end of the term. You will need it again for future writing. For more help, become familiar with a good Web site for student writers. There are many, but here are a few recommended ones:
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Handouts from the Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill
Practicing Academic Integrity
At most educational institutions, “academic honesty” means demonstrating and upholding the highest integrity and honesty in all the academic work that you do. In short, it means doing your own work, not cheating, and not presenting the work of others as your own. ACC has a detailed Academic Integrity Process. ACC's Value Statement on Academic Integrity states:
"Acts of academic dishonesty/misconduct undermine the learning process, present a disadvantage to students who earn credit honestly, and subvert the academic mission of the institution. The potential consequences of fraudulent credentials raise additional concerns for individuals and communities beyond campus who rely on institutions of higher learning to certify students’ academic achievements, and expect to benefit from the claimed knowledge and skills of their graduates."
The following are some common forms of academic dishonesty prohibited by most academic institutions:
Cheating
Cheating can take the form of cheat sheets, looking over someone’s shoulder during an exam, or any forbidden sharing of information between students regarding an exam or exercise. Many elaborate methods of cheating have been developed over the years—storing information in graphing calculators, checking cell phones during bathroom breaks, using apps like Chegg to complete your homework or a take-home exam, using online solutions, using AI to write papers or answer exam questions, etc. Cheating differs from most other forms of academic dishonesty, in that people can engage in it without benefiting themselves academically. For example, a student who illicitly texted answers to a friend during a test would be cheating, even though the student’s own work is in no way affected.
Deception
Deception is providing false information to an instructor concerning an academic assignment. Examples of this include taking more time on a take-home test than is allowed, giving a dishonest excuse when asking for a deadline extension, or falsely claiming to have submitted work. Essentially, it's lying to your instructor.
Fabrication
Fabrication is the falsification of data, information, or citations in an academic assignment. This includes making up citations to back up arguments or inventing quotations. Fabrication is most common in the natural sciences, where students sometimes falsify data to make experiments “work” or false claims are made about the research performed.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the “use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.” In an academic setting, it is seen as the adoption or reproduction of original intellectual creations (such as concepts, ideas, methods, pieces of information or expressions, etc.) of another author (whether an individual, group, or organization) without proper acknowledgment. This can range from borrowing a particular phrase or sentence to paraphrasing someone else’s original idea without citing it. Today, in our networked digital world, the most common form of plagiarism is copying and pasting online material without crediting the source. This includes copying AI generated text.
Common Forms of Plagiarism
According to “The Reality and Solution of College Plagiarism” created by the Health Informatics Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, there are ten main forms of plagiarism that students commit:
- Submitting someone else’s work as their own (this includes AI-generated work).
- Taking passages from their own previous work without adding citations (submitting a paper you previously wrote for another class or another assignment).
- Rewriting someone’s work without properly citing sources (this includes AI-generated work).
- Using quotations, but not citing the source.
- Interweaving various sources together in the work without citing.
- Citing some, but not all passages that should be cited.
- Melding together cited and uncited sections of the piece.
- Providing proper citations, but failing to change the structure and wording of the borrowed ideas enough.
- Inaccurately citing the source.
- Relying too heavily on other people’s work. Failing to bring original thought into the text.
As a college student, you are now a member of a scholarly community that values other people’s ideas. You will routinely be asked to reference and discuss other people’s thoughts and writing in the course of producing your own work. That’s why it’s so important to understand what plagiarism is and the steps you can take to avoid it.
Avoiding Plagiarism
Below are some useful guidelines to help you avoid plagiarism and show academic honesty in your work:
- Quotes: If you quote another work directly, cite your source. This includes AI-generated work.
- Paraphrase: If you put someone else’s idea into your own words, you still need to cite the author.
- Visual Materials: If you cite statistics, graphs, or charts from a study, cite the source. Keep in mind that if you didn’t do the original research, then you need to credit the person(s) or institution, etc. that did.
The easiest way to make sure you don’t accidentally plagiarize someone else’s work is by taking careful notes as you research. If you are researching on the Web, be sure to copy and paste the links into your notes so you can keep track of the sites you’re visiting. Be sure to list all the sources you consult.
There are many handy online tools to help you create and track references as you go. For example, you can try using Son of Citation Machine. Library databases often have a citation generator. Keeping careful notes will not only help you avoid inadvertent plagiarism, but it will also help you if you need to return to a source later (to check or get more information). If you use citation tools like Son of Citation, be sure to check the accuracy of the citations before you submit your assignment.
Lastly, if you’re in doubt about whether something constitutes plagiarism, cite the source or leave the material out. Better still, ask for help. Most colleges have a writing center, a tutoring center, and a library where students can get help with their writing. Taking the time to seek advice is better than getting in trouble for not attributing your sources. Be honest about your ideas, and give credit where it’s due.
Consequences of Plagiarism
In the academic world, plagiarism is considered a serious offense that can result in punishments such as a failing grade on a particular assignment, the entire course, or even being expelled from the institution. Individual instructors and courses may have their own policies regarding academic honesty and plagiarism; statements of these can usually be found in the course syllabus or online course description.
Avoid Plagiarism: Cite Your Sources
College courses offer a few writing opportunities that won’t require using outside resources. Creative writing classes, applied lab classes, or field research classes will value what you create entirely from your own mind or from the work completed for the class. For most college writing, however, you will need to consult at least one outside source, and possibly more.
The following video provides a helpful overview of how sources are used most effectively and responsibly in academic writing.
Note that this video models MLA-style citations. This is one of several different styles you might be asked to practice in your classes. Your instructors should state which of the major styles they expect you to use in their courses.
Regardless of the style, the same principles are true any time a source is used: give credit to the source when it is used in the writing itself, as well as in a bibliography (or Works Cited page, or References page) at the end.
Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of material from a source. At the most obvious level, plagiarism involves using someone else’s words and ideas as if they were your own. There’s not much to say about copying another person’s work: it’s cheating, pure and simple. But plagiarism is not always so simple. Notice that the definition of plagiarism involves “words and ideas.” Let’s break that down a little further.
Words. Copying the words of another is wrong. If you use another’s words, those words must be in quotation marks, and you must tell your reader where those words came from. But it is not enough to make a few surface changes in wording. You can’t just change some words and call the material yours; an extended paraphrase is not acceptable. For example, compare the two passages that follow. The first comes from Murder Most Foul, a book by Karen Halttunen on changing ideas about murder in nineteenth-century America; the second is a close paraphrase of the same passage:
The new murder narratives were overwhelmingly secular works, written by a diverse array of printers, hack writers, sentimental poets, lawyers, and even murderers themselves, who were displacing the clergy as the dominant interpreters of the crime.
The murder stories that were developing were almost always secular works that were written by many different sorts of people. Printers, hack writers, poets, attorneys, and sometimes even the criminals themselves were writing murder stories. They were the new interpreters of the crime, replacing religious leaders who had held that role before.
It is easy to see that the writer of the second version has closely followed the ideas and even used some of the same words as the original. This is a serious form of plagiarism. Even if this writer were to acknowledge the author, there would still be a problem. To simply cite the source at the end does not excuse using so much of the original source.
Ideas. Ideas are also a form of intellectual property. Consider this third version of the previous passage:
At one time, religious leaders shaped the way the public thought about murder. But in nineteenth-century America, this changed. Society’s attitudes were influenced more and more by secular writers.
This version summarizes the original. That is, it states the main idea in compressed form in language that does not come from the original. However, it could still be seen as plagiarism if the source is not cited. This example may make you wonder if you can write anything without citing a source. To help you sort out what ideas need to be cited and what does not, think about these principles:
Common knowledge. There is no need to cite common knowledge. Common knowledge does not mean knowledge everyone has. It means knowledge that everyone can easily access. For example, most people do not know the date of George Washington’s death, but everyone can easily find that information. If the information or idea can be found in multiple sources and the information or idea remains constant from source to source, it can be considered common knowledge. This is one reason so much research is usually done for college writing—the more sources you read, the more easily you can sort out what is common knowledge: if you see an uncited idea in multiple sources, then you can feel secure that idea is common knowledge.
Distinct contributions. One does need to cite ideas that are distinct contributions. A distinct contribution need not be a discovery from the work of one person. It need only be an insight that is not commonly expressed (not found in multiple sources) and not universally agreed upon.
Disputable figures. Always remember that numbers are only as good as the sources they come from. If you use numbers like attendance figures, unemployment rates, or demographic profiles—or any statistics at all—always cite your source of those numbers. If your instructor does not know the source you used, you will not get much credit for the information you have collected.
Everything said previously about using sources applies to all forms of sources. Some students mistakenly believe that material from the Web, for example, need not be cited. Or that an idea from an instructor’s lecture is automatically common property. You must evaluate all sources in the same way and cite them as necessary.
Forms of Citation. You should check with your instructors about their preferred form of citation when you write papers for courses. No one standard is used in all academic papers. You can learn about the three major forms or styles used in almost any college writing handbook and on many Websites for college writers:
- The Modern Language Association (MLA) system of citation is widely used but is most commonly adopted in humanities courses, particularly literature courses.
- The American Psychological Association (APA) system of citation is most common in the social sciences.
- The Turabian Documentation Style (or Chicago) is widely used but perhaps most commonly in history courses.
Many college departments have their own style guides, which may be based on one of the above. Your instructor should refer you to his or her preferred guide, but be sure to ask if you have not been given explicit direction.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Writing is crucial to college success because it is the most common means of evaluation.
- Writers in college must pay close attention to the terms of an assignment.
- Writing is a process that involves several steps; the product will not be good if one does not allow time for the process.
- Seek feedback from classmates, tutors, and instructors during the writing process.
- Revision is not the same thing as editing.
- Understanding and practicing Academic Integrity is a crucial component of college success.
- Words and ideas from sources must be properly cited.
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
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- Writing Effectively. Authored by: Heather Syrett. Provided by: Austin Community College. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0
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- Academic Writing: a Practical Guide in University Library. Provided by: University of York. Located at: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/academic-writing/academic-style. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0
- Chapter 8: Writing for Classes. in College Success. Authored by: Anonymous. Provided by: University of Minnesota. Located at: http://www.oercommons.org/courses/college-success/view. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0
- Editing. Authored by: Joseph M. Moxley. Provided by: Writing Commons. Located at: https://writingcommons.org/section/editing/ License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- What is Academic Writing in Starting the Journey: An Intro to College Writing. Authored by: Lennie L. Irving Provided by: Pressbooks. Located at: https://fsw.pressbooks.pub/enc1101/chapter/thinking-deeper-title-of-article-here/. License: CC BY-NC-SA-4.0
- Writing Processes in Technical Writing Essentials. Authored by: Suzan Last Provided by: Pressbooks. Located at: https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/chapter/writing-processes/#retfig1.5.1 License: CC BY 4.0
- Writing Strategies in EDUC 1300. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sanjacinto-learningframework/chapter/writing-strategies/. License: CC BY 4.0
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- UNC The Writing Center Handouts. Located at: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/. License: All Rights Reserved
- Purdue Online Writing Lab. Located at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. License: All Rights Reserved