1. Teaching Assistant: Jack Horton
English 1112L Technical Report Writing Lynda Morrissey September 12, 2014
Teaching Assistant: Jack Horton

2. Administrative Information
Library Presentation – Sept. 26 – Location – lecture room – Hagen 302
No DGs next week – Sept. 18
No hardcopies of the syllabus - Posted in Blackboard Learn – under Course Information
Lecture presentations posted after each lecture in folder Lecture Presentations

3. Lecture outline
Avoiding Plagiarism, Documenting Sources – required reading - Beer pp. 235 – 236
Sources of Information
Required reading - Beer Ch. 8 – pp

4. Plagiarism
“Plagiarism is taking another person’s works, ideas or statistics and passing them off as your own.”
“incorrect use of source material. Whether it is intentional or not, failing to give credit for words, ideas or concepts that you get from any source, including your own previously submitted work, is plagiarism.”
(University of Ottawa definition)

5. Plagiarism awareness
Reflect: why do students plagiarise? “Plagiarism is frequently the result of ignorance or carelessness rather than dishonesty. Some writers and researchers simply get lazy.” (Beer 258)

6. Forms of Plagiarism
Using an author’s words or ideas without proper reference
Failing to put quotation marks around words taken from a source
Doing work for someone else, or having someone do it for you
Unauthorized collaboration
Falsifying or inventing information or data
“Cutting and pasting” from the Internet without identyfing the source
(University of Ottawa pamphlet)

7. Correct Uses of Source Material
Quoting
The purpose of quoting is to support your own argument.
Take the exact words of an author and place them within quotation marks or set apart from main text.
Quoting is different from paraphrasing or summarizing because it uses only the words of the original author.
Use it sparingly: a quotation must reinforce your ideas, not replace them

8. Correct Uses of Source Material
Summarizing
The purpose is simply to give a brief account of what an author says, without going into the specific details or examples.
Condense the meaning of a larger text into a more concise format, using your own words.
When summarizing, follow the same order of ideas as the original.

9. Correct Uses of Source Material
Paraphrasing
The purpose is to reword what an author says in order to support your own argument.
reformulation of another author's ideas words using your own words.
Use your own style without changing the meaning of the original text.

10. Avoiding Plagiarism Proper use of secondary information
In text citations
Documenting / Referencing secondary resources
List of works cited – “Bibliography”
Videos

11. Detailed information about referencing
Major discussion next week – Sept. 19
For our purposes
MLA (Modern Language Association)
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
APA (American Psychology Association)
MLA and APA – reference point OWL at Purdue
IEEE – see Beer 237 – 242

12. Reference for Citation styles
Student Academic Success Service (SASS) website - Academic Writing Help Centre Service – OWL – Purdue Online Writing Lab. Owl at Purdue. “Research and Citation Resources.” The Purdue Owl Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, Web. 5 May < 12

13. Conducting Research Beer Chapter 8
Information related to search strategies, types of information, recommended sources
We will look particularly at types of information relevant to the development of your technical document – final report
To help you identify reference sources for preparation of bibliography (assignment due Oct. 10)

14. Where to look for information? What types of sources are available?
Conducting Research
Where to begin?
Where to look for information?
What types of sources are available?

15. Conducting Research
Kind of information: History, Research Studies, Analyses, Statistical reports, Facts, News Reports, Opinions, Personal Reflections
Primary vs. secondary research
Number of sources of information
Do you need to explore opposing sides of the issue?
Traditional publications vs. Internet resources.

16. Conducting Research Primary vs. Secondary Research Primary Research
Research you conduct yourself
Collecting raw data about a given subject
interviews, surveys, observations, and analysis
Secondary Research
Searching, investigating, analyzing existing information resources (often result of research conducted by others)
Must be acknowledged – otherwise it is plagiarism

17. Sources of Information
Where to start
Indexes and Abstracts
Tools for finding and selecting articles in periodicals
Usually found on library home page
Indexes
Periodical index - lists articles in periodicals by subject from periodicals (e.g. journals).
Abstracts
high level summary of the publication (book, article)
Reference works / sources
for consultation (in library, online through subscription)
starting point, foundation
e.g. dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, manuals,

18. Sources of Information
Traditional Publications (print or electronic)
Books
usually dated information
current information (recent publications)
historical trail and context (older publications)
Journals
specific to areas of specialization
“peer-reviewed” articles, news briefs, book reviews, reports on current research
Newspapers, Academic and Trade Journals, Government Reports and Legal Documents . . .

19. Sources of Information
Product Literature
product, manufacturer, company, vendor info
catalogues, buyer guides, consumer reports
For selecting products, for comparison of products
(specifications, performance data, test data)
Multimedia
radio and television broadcasts
Movies, films
Interactive forums
public meetings
(3 and 4 – could be videos, audio tapes, transcripts, reports, minutes)

20. Internet Information Resources
Websites
vary widely in quality of information and validity of sources
Newsgroups, Mailing Lists, Message boards, discussion lists, and chat rooms
Blogs
Ongoing internet based discussions of topics written by anyone
Questionable reliability, fragmented
But - provide start point for independent research - public opinion, consumer assessments, basis for survey
Electronic Newsletters,
less formal than publications
report research findings – technical and practical information
often for promotional or selling purposes (could be biased)

21. Discussion Group – Sept. 18
There will be no discussion group next week – Sept. 18.