How to Write a Research Project In your OWN WORDS

What is Plagiarism? Plaigarism is taking the words or ideas of someone else and passing them off as your own. Sometimes people do this on purpose – not good  Sometimes people do this by accident – also not good  If you can avoid plagiarism, you’ll save yourself a lot of grief, “do-overs” and zeros later on!

What do you mean “someone else’s idea”? Page 38 “When larger numbers of newcomers began arriving, First Nations did not see this as a problem, at first. They were used to sharing the land. However, the European idea of private ownership was something new to them. And this ideas did not mix well with traditional economies” Unacceptable (plagiarized): “At first, when lots of new people began arriving, Aboriginal people did not see this as a problem. They were used to sharing land. But, the Europeans idea of owning your own land was new to them and this idea did not mix well with their traditions”

How do I put that in my own words? First of all, you should never write your words with someone else’s words open in front of you. Get yourself some cue cards (recipe cards or squares of cut up paper) and make some notes first. Make sure the notes aren’t just copied bits if information either – make them in point form.

Here is an example Page 38 “When larger numbers of newcomers began arriving, First Nations did not see this as a problem, at first. They were used to sharing the land. However, the European idea of private ownership was something new to them. And this ideas did not mix well with traditional economies” My recipe card might look like this: Contact (text book) –Europeans arrive –Land ownership was important idea –First nations shared land –Ideas didn’t mix

Now what? Now, I can look at another source of information, say a website. ment/kids/ e.htmlhttp:// ment/kids/ e.html I’ll take the same cue card and add more to it:

“The Mi'kmaq developed good relations with the French. The French settled in Acadia. This was an area covering what is now Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and parts of New Brunswick, the Gaspé peninsula of Quebec, and Maine. It was the English people, who arrived after the French, that the Mi'kmaq would have the most problems with”Acadia Contact (text book) –Europeans arrive –Land ownership was important idea –First nations shared land –Ideas didn’t mix –Relations with French were better than English –French/Mi’kmaq shared some same land (Maritimes)

Now I can CLOSE THE BOOK AND WEBSITE and use the cue card to write When Europeans first arrived in what is now Canada, they found other people already living there. At first, the people got along well. The Mi’kmaq shared land with the French although their ideas about land ownership differed. Later, however, when people arrived from England, things became more difficult. The English were not as willing to share and this caused many problems. Contact (text book) –Europeans arrive –Land ownership was important idea –First nations shared land –Ideas didn’t mix –Relations with French were better than English –French/Mi’kmaq shared some same land (Maritimes)

Tips and Tricks If you organize your cue cards into categories, you will have pre-organized information when you start to write. Don’t write whole paragraphs on the cue cards – use point form Use the same cue cards for each source you use. For example, keep adding to the “jobs” cue card every time you find more information about jobs.

Tips and Tricks continued Include the book or website in case you have to go back. Keep a cue card with a list of the web sites for your bibliography. Write your whole paper, or each whole section using only your cue cards. Keep the books and websites closed. If you can’t see what the author wrote, you can’t copy them

Students always say: “But the author says it the right way” “There’s no other way to say it” “That’s exactly how I would say it” If you find a quote or idea that you would like to use unchanged from the author, you can do this by using a direct quote. Since you will have a bibliography included, you can cite the author’s work in brackets after you quote them.

“On top of these problems was the fact that most European settlers believed their economics, political, and cultural ideas were superior to First Nations ideas.” (Sterling, p. 38) Even if you use the main ideas and not a direct quote, you should still cite the author On top of this was the fact that most Europeans believed their economic, political and cultural ideas to be superior. (Sterling, p. 38)

The Bibliography A bibliography is a list of sources included and the end of your project. Bibliography entries follow a very specific pattern. Bibliography entries are listed alphabetically

If your source is a book Service, Robert. A History of Twentieth- Century Russia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Notice the authors last name, then first followed by the book title, underlined, then the place of publication, publisher and date. Punctuation should be followed as in the example.

If your source is a website Richmond, Yale and Duane Goehner. “Russian Orthodoxy”. Russian/American Contrasts. 3 December (15March 2005).

the first date given is the last updated date of the website (if there is no date use --) the second date is the day you viewed it. If no author is available, give the title of the website first and use it in your alphabetial list. Google Yahoo, etc. are search engines not websites.