INTRODUCTION TO COLLEGE WRITING Writing Workshop September 24 & 25, 2015

This workshop will discuss: How to understand your assignment How to use a rubric to help you get higher grades What plagiarism means and how you can avoid it How Turnitin works Some suggestions for how to become a better writer Where you can go for help with writing

UNDERSTANDING YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Understanding your Assignment Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and write down the answers on the assignment sheet: Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task? What is the topic? Do you need to narrow the topic? Who is your audience? What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas? What kind of writing style is acceptable? What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Understanding your Assignment Review your syllabus carefully. Usually teachers describe assignments in-depth in the course syllabus. Questions you might have already been answered in the syllabus. Make sure you fully know what your instructor expects on each assignment. If you have any questions, ask your instructor as soon as possible. Talk to other students about the assignment: Talk about your ideas with other students. ask them to comment on your topic, main idea, support, etc.

Understanding your Assignment What kind of writing style is acceptable? You cannot always tell from the assignment what kind of writing style your instructor expects. If you don’t know, ask your instructor.

USING A RUBRIC

Using a Rubric How will your teacher grade you?

What is a rubric? A rubric is a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work, or "what counts" (for example, purpose, organization, details, voice, and mechanics) It also shows what is meant for each criterion, from excellent to poor.

Let’s take a look…

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism Plagiarism: Copying another author’s words or ideas without giving the author credit. Plagiarism is NOT ACCEPTABLE at UIC If your teacher finds plagiarism in your writing, they may give you ZERO points or fail you.

UIC Plagiarism Policy 1. Zero marks for the assignment 2. For more serious or repeated cases, the student concerned shall be given an "F" grade for the whole subject 3. Any student found to have committed academic dishonesty shall be excluded from participating in the end-of-semester teaching evaluation for the subject concerned

UIC Plagiarism Policy

How Can I Avoid Plagiarism? There are several ways you can avoid plagiarism when writing academic papers: 1. Quotes ( “ blah blah”) 2. Paraphrase 3. Summary 4. Reference (APA style)

How can I avoid plagiarism? Be careful when using specific words & phrases: If you use the authors specific words or phrases (3 or more together), you must use quotation marks (“”) and give credit to the author. You can paraphrase what the author says. If you want to use an entire section of what the author has written, read it and then write it in your own words. **Be sure to follow the 3 or more rule!** You can summarize what the author says. Summarizing is writing the main points of your source so that it is in your own words. Use references! (APA style referencing) Even if you are simply mentioning an author, theory, fact or finding in your paper, you must reference where you found it!

For more information: If you’d like more information on avoiding plagiarism and paraphrasing, please attend the Writing Workshop in Week 9: Avoiding Plagiarism/Paraphrasing Tuesday, November 3 rd 18:00-18:50 Thursday, November 5 th 18:00-18:50 Location to be announced

Avoiding Plagiarism – Useful Links Helpful websites regarding plagiarism: Go to Baidu/Google…, type in “Owl at Purdue” / /

Turnitin

What is Turnitin? How does Turnitinwork? How can Turnitin help me? Originality Reports

What is Turnitin? Turnitin is an internet based plagiarism prevention service Typically, universities and high schools buy licenses to submit essays to the Turnitin website, which checks the documents for original content

How does it work? Turnitin compares submitted papers to other student papers, current and archived webpages, periodicals, journals and other publications. After the comparison has been made, Turnitin produces an originality report, which indicates what percentage of the student’s paper matches documents in their database.

Originality Reports Let’s take a look at some examples…

Originality Reports

There is no magic number for originality reports but anything 20% and under would be considered fine If too much as been copied, your teacher may ask you to rewrite your paper OR give you a low mark/zero

Habits of a Good Student Writer Make a writing plan Start assignments early Read everyday Write multiple drafts Proofread and edit Ask questions and get help

Where to Go for Help The Writing Resource Centre (B411 & B412) Writing Workshops– new topic every week– check ! IELTS Workshops – check The Library

Online Resources OWL Online Writing Lab APA Style Tutorial

Good luck on your writing assignments this semester!

Any questions?