Discussion 1
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1.4 What Is APA Style, and Why Is It Important to Researchers?
Your Road Map to Success: Section 1.4
Learning Outcome 1.4: Explain how and why researchers use APA Style.
Why is this important?
Understanding how to format your work using APA Style will allow you to develop evidence-based work that is consistent with professional research. Following a standardized style for formatting your work results in a presentation that is clear and easily verifiable as well as academically honest. When Darryl, a health care administration student, first encountered APA Style, he felt frustrated and confused, in part because in high school he had used MLA style. After mastering this learning outcome, he understood that all other research in his field would be formatted using APA Style. Darryl is now in graduate school. He is glad he learned how to use APA Style as a college freshman because he’s still using it today as he works on his master’s thesis.
How does this relate to your success in this course?
Mastering this learning outcome will help you present your research honestly and ethically. Using APA Style to cite and reference your sources will help you avoid plagiarism and adhere to a formatting style consistent with scholarly work.
Why Using a Style Guide Matters
A style guide is a set of rules for formatting written work and crediting sources that writers and editors of a given field or profession follow. Using a style guide ensures that work shared within the field is presented in a uniform way. Researchers can quickly glance at the author’s references to learn how to trace the evidence back to its source. Looking back at the ACRL’s framework for information literacy, following a style guide supports both scholarship as conversation and information has value. We can better focus on the substance of the conversation when technical elements, such as how a table is formatted or how references are listed, are settled and agreed on. Moreover, crediting our sources is not only an ethical obligation, it is an acknowledgment of those who worked hard to produce the information.
Popular Style Guides
There are numerous style guides in use for different purposes. The Associated Press Stylebook (AP style) is the standard for all journalists. The Modern Language Association’s MLA style is commonly used by scholars in the humanities. Many publishers follow the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). Countless companies have their own style guides for internal use, also known as house styles. For example, The New York Times maintains its own manual of style for its writers and editors. The style covers everything from grammar and punctuation to formatting references. Many writers outside of The New York Times refer to the style for editing guidance. There are also other styles associated with specific fields, such as the American Medical Association style for medical research. The style guide you need to use will depend on the purpose of and audience for your writing.
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APA Style refers to the set of rules and guidelines developed by the American Psychological Association (APA), one of the largest scientific and professional associations in the United States, to ensure a professional and academic standard of scholarly writing, formatting, and citing. It is commonly used not only in psychology but throughout the social sciences and is the style you will learn to use in this text.
Table 1.4 compares the most commonly used styles, their associated fields of study, and some notable characteristics. In addition to these four, remember that some organizations and institutions may follow a house style.
Keeping a copy of the latest style manual is a good idea, since it provides instruction in punctuation, word choice, sentence structure, and formatting.
Table 1.4: Four popular style guides
Style and website Common fields of study Key features
APA Style https://apastyle.apa.org/ (https://apastyle.apa.org/)
Business, criminal justice, economics, education, psychology, and sociology
In-text citations emphasize author last name and publication year: (Smith, 2020).
References also pair author with publication year and typically only the first initial of the author’s first name:
Smith, A. (2020). Book title. Publisher.
AP style https://www.apstylebook. com/ (https://www.apstylebook.com /)
Communications and journalism
This style focuses on questions of grammar and mechanics, such as concision, abbreviations, and capitalization.
CMOS https://www.chicagoman ualofstyle.org/home.html (https://www.chicagomanualo fstyle.org/home.html)
Art history, English, and history
Citations can include numbered notations with corresponding footnotes that list the reference at the bottom of the page. For example: According to Smith, “a quotation will be followed by a number in superscript.”1
Alexander Smith, “Title of Article,” Journal Title, no. 1 (2020): 123–24.
MLA style https://style.mla.org/ (https://style.mla.org/)
Foreign language studies, literature, and theater
In-text citations emphasize author and page number: (Smith 123).
References are listed on a “Works Cited” page that also emphasizes author’s full name:
Smith, Anne. Book title. Publisher, Year.
Benefits of Understanding and Using APA Style
Once you have a strong grasp of APA Style’s defining features, you can feel confident in developing research-based assignments. You will know, for example, how to indicate that the information you are sharing came from a journal article, documentary film, or webpage. You will also understand how to incorporate a quotation, statistics, or images that support your argument without worrying about plagiarism. As a result, the work you develop will appear professional and be clear to your readers.
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Learning to use APA Style will benefit you enormously in your academic career and your profession. Some of the benefits include the following.
You will more quickly recognize the information you need when you are looking at a paper formatted in APA. This will increase your effectiveness as a researcher. Carefully adhering to APA Style will help you practice the habits of research, which involve the ability to read and create references and to locate pertinent information. Facility with APA Style will help you as you pursue graduate study. Even if your degree program requires that you use a different style, learning one style will enable you to adapt quickly to a new one. Even if graduate study is not on the horizon for you, your understanding of APA Style will help you in your career, because companies generally require their employees to adhere to a particular style guide for all writing done on the job. Again, even if your employer requires that you use a different style, mastering APA Style now will give you the skills to adapt to any and all style guides in the future.
In-Text Citations in APA Style
Citing in APA Style is twofold: It includes in-text citations and a corresponding reference list. Let’s begin by discussing in-text citations.
As you’re writing your paper, you’ll frequently include material that originated from others. Perhaps you’ll summarize a medical study or directly quote from a memoir. You might also rephrase key ideas in your own words, also known as paraphrasing. In all such cases, you are required to include a notation identifying the source of the material at the point you use it in your text. These notations are called in-text citations. In APA Style, in-text citations include at least two components: the author’s last name and the publication year. When directly quoting, you need a third component: the page or paragraph number where the quotation is found. As opposed to some other style guides, APA requires the year of publication when citing a source, emphasizing rapidly changing and evolving fields of study. This is how a basic in-text citation for a quoted passage looks: (Author’s last name, Year, p. #). Notice that each element inside the in-text citation is separated by a comma. The in-text citation immediately follows the borrowed material.
Let’s look at a few examples of in-text citations in APA Style. Notice that you should allow the period to follow the citation so that the citation remains inside of the sentence.
“Good writing is often about letting go of affectation and fear. Affectation itself, beginning with the need to define some sorts of writing as ‘good’ and others as ‘bad,’ is fearful behavior” (King, 2000, p. 128).
If the citation does not list a publication year, the letters “n.d.” (for “no date”) are used.
“The writer’s job is to find the argument, the approach, the angle, the wording that will take the reader with him” (Roberts, n.d., p. 2).
If the author’s name is introduced in the sentence, using a so-called signal phrase, the year of publication belongs alongside the name, and page numbers go at the end of the passage.
As E. B. White (1976) once reflected, “all writing is both a masking and an unveiling, and the question of honesty is uppermost, particularly in the case of the essayist” (p. 516).
Reference List in APA Style
The second component of citing in APA Style is the complete list of the sources you cited in your paper. This is your reference list.
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Following APA Style can be crucial to the success of your research paper. As you write your academic paper, format your references based on the most recent publication manual’s guidelines.
APA Style requires that any writing assignment involving outside research include a reference list. Moreover, any source cited in your work must include a corresponding reference. This is essential not only for acknowledging the work of others but also for providing readers the information they need to locate that work. According to the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2020), each entry in your reference list must identify general publication information, including but not limited to the author’s name, title, publication or publisher, and year of publication. Because so many sources appear online and do not have publication dates or even authors, additional information may be required, including retrieval data and corporate author information.
Different types of sources have unique formatting rules that govern their citation. Here are key rules for compiling your reference page.
Center the word “References” at the top of a new page following the conclusion of your paper. No boldface, no italic, no quotation marks. Just this word: References. Double space every line. No additional spacing is required. Alphabetize entries by authors’ last names. This includes corporate authors, such as the U.S. Department of Education. In that situation, you would alphabetize the entry under the letter “U.” Create a hanging indent for every line after the first in your citation. This means the first line of each reference is aligned with the left margin, and subsequent lines from the same reference are indented a half inch. Follow APA rules for punctuation, italics, and capitalization. For instance, APA Style has very specific capitalization rules for titles, and whereas printed source citations end in a period, online source citations that include web addresses do not.
Here are a few examples.
A reference for an article from an academic journal will include the title of the article, name of the journal, and volume number.
Patwa, N., Seetharaman, A., Arora, A., Agrawal, R., & Mandalia, H. (2021). Circular economy: Bridging the gap in sustainable manufacturing. Journal of Developing Areas, 55(1), 151–166.
References for sources with a corporate or organizational author will list the organization first. Also note that this reference is an online source and includes a URL.
McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. (2014). Oral presentations. Princeton University. http://www.princeton.edu/mcgraw/library/for-students/pres-questions/ (http://www.princeton.edu/mcgraw/library/for-students/pres-questions/)
The reference for a printed book will identify the publisher.
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King, S. (2000). On writing: A memoir of the craft. Scribner.
As you create your reference list, you can use citation generators, software programs that create a citation in your chosen style when you enter certain publication information. For example, you may consult RefWorks, a citation generator associated with many academic libraries, here: https://www.refworks.com/refworks2/ (https://www.refworks.com/refworks2/) . Sometimes, too, the library you are using to search will provide you with APA citations of the sources you research. However, we advise that you consider these generators and provided entries only as a starting point for citation creation. They are often outdated, incorrect, or not properly formatted, so it’s important to double-check their accuracy. But if you start with these entries, you can easily edit them to the proper APA format discussed here.
Annotated Bibliography in APA Style
In some of your college courses, you may be asked to develop an annotated bibliography as you begin researching a topic. Like a reference list, an annotated bibliography is a list of the sources you used in researching your project. But for each citation, you include notes in which you comment on or summarize the main points of each source and relate them to your research question. This is the annotation (to “annotate” something means to “take notes”). Therefore, an annotated bibliography has two elements, the citations and annotations, whereas a reference list has only one, the citations.
Benefits of the Annotated Bibliography One benefit of compiling an annotated bibliography is that doing so helps you begin formulating and refining your ideas for your paper. Through researching, analyzing, and summarizing sources, you develop a sense of the academic conversation that exists around your topic. You begin to understand the overall direction of arguments or hypotheses and the development of concepts or theories, as well as which details and findings are relevant to your work.
Additionally, as you create your annotated bibliography, you develop your critical reading skills by evaluating the quality of the source data, argument, or study design. This evaluation in turn might lead you to explore new studies, reconsider the scope of your research, or define your research question more precisely. As you can see, an annotated bibliography is not only a good practice for academic integrity but also a practical tool that positions you on solid ground to begin your paper.
Content of the Annotations You may begin your annotated bibliography as soon as you begin research. Each time you find a source, you’ll create an APA Style reference citation as explained earlier and then write your annotation below the reference entry in paragraph form.
Although there is no APA rule governing the content of annotations, they are always written in complete sentences and generally are only one or two paragraphs long (approximately 150–200 words). The content will often be specified by your instructor and may vary from one course to the next. However, each annotation typically includes three elements: a brief summary of the source, its thesis (that is, its position or main claim), and its relevance to your own assignment. You may also include any additional critical analysis that will support your project, such as your analysis of how well the source’s thesis is supported by evidence or whether it makes an important contribution to the existing academic conversation. Avoid quoting directly from the source in the annotation. Although mentioning key terms and concepts that you may want to discuss in your own work is a good idea, you should summarize the annotation in your own words.
Each annotation will include a paragraph or more; however, instead of using traditional paragraph indentations, indent the entire paragraph a half inch.
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The following is an example of an annotated bibliography entry.
Donaldson, J. F., Graham, S. W., Martindill, W., & Bradley, S. (2000). Adult undergraduate students: How do they define their experiences and their success? Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 48(2), 2–11.
This small study confirms current thinking that adults return to school for primarily external reasons; e.g., a major life event or career advancement. One key finding reveals that adult students define success in learning and success in college differently. The research further illustrates that actual success in learning comes from an internal locus of control that includes life experience, maturity, motivation, and self-monitoring. Adult student success can be a result of better time management and well-developed learning strategies connecting to life experiences.
The article is well supported by evidence from the study, involving interviews with 13 students over age 27, as well as a brief literature review. Although the study is more than 20 years old, the results will be compared to other, more current sources. This study will also help answer my research question on whether adults are more likely to return to school for self-fulfillment or for career advancement.
More details on how to format your annotated bibliography can be found in Appendix A.
Section 1.4 Knowledge Check Quiz
1. Which of the following style guides is used by all journalists? A. AP style B. APA Style C. MLA style
2. According to APA Style, an in-text citation always __________. A. identifies the page and paragraph number from which the information was drawn B. Identifies the year in which the source was published C. appears in a footnote at the bottom of the page on which the information appears
3. According to APA Style, each entry of an annotated bibliography typically includes __________. A. a brief summary of the source and relevant quotations to cite in your assignment B. a brief summary of the source, its thesis, and its relevance to your own assignment C. only the source’s author, title, publisher, issue and/or year, and relevant pages
Answers 1 (A), 2 (B), 3 (B)
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Historical facts, such as amendments to the Constitution, are an example of common knowledge. These types of information most often do not need to be cited.
2.3 What Is Academic Integrity?
Your Road Map to Success: Section 2.3
Learning Outcome 2.3: Identify the key issues of academic integrity and the role they play in the scholarly conversation.
Why is this important?
Maintaining your academic integrity will result in work that respects the contributions of others while demonstrating your own knowledge and contributions in a way that is both ethical and legal. Consider Tyler, for example. Teaching his sons to be men of integrity is important to Tyler. He used what he learned about academic honesty not only to make sure he maintains his own academic integrity as he works toward his college degree but also to provide an example of the importance of hard work and honesty for his sons.
How does this relate to your success in this course?
Mastering this learning outcome will help you maintain your integrity and reputation and will protect you from legal action and other negative consequences both within and outside of school.
The academic community believes that one of the goals of an institution of higher learning is to strengthen academic integrity and responsibility among its members. To this end, universities emphasize the importance of sound judgment and a personal sense of ethical responsibility. All members of the academic community—students and faculty—are expected to abide by the highest standards of academic integrity. These standards are discussed here.
Academic Honesty and Common Knowledge
Academic honesty means that if you are writing the words of someone else, or if you are explaining in your own words a unique idea you learned from research, you must cite your source. Your writing should leave “citational footprints” so that your readers can track where your work derives from the work of others. They can then locate your sources if they want to better understand the information or use it for their own research.
Some students believe they must give credit to a source only when they quote from it directly. This isn’t the case. Changing a few words in a passage or even putting an idea entirely into your own words, as with a paraphrase or summary, does not relieve you of the responsibility to credit your source. If an idea is not your own, you must cite the source in the text of your paper and include a complete reference at the end of the paper.
The only exception to this citation rule is for facts or concepts that are considered common knowledge. This is information that is widely known, does not stem from one person’s or organization’s original study or theory, and can easily be found or referenced. Some examples are
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historical facts and current events, such as that New York was one of the 13 original colonies of the United States or that George Floyd died after a police officer kneeled on his neck in May 2020; scientific facts, such as that sleep is regulated by the brain or that carbon is an element with the atomic number 6; and knowledge shared within the culture, such as that Spanish is commonly spoken as a first language in the United States.
These types of facts do not need to be documented. In contrast, you must reference unique interpretations of common knowledge. For example, a detailed look at the historical and cultural forces that contributed to George Floyd’s murder would require a citation.
What is considered common knowledge can vary according to your field of study and intended audience. For instance, details on the law of diminishing returns might be common knowledge to students in a graduate-level economics course for which you are writing a paper but not in an introductory sociology course.
Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism
Academic dishonesty is defined as “cheating on a test or examination; claiming the work of another as one’s own; plagiarizing any paper, research project, or assignment; or falsely submitting material to fulfill course requirements” (The University of Arizona Global Campus, 2021, p. 33). Let’s define some key terms in academic dishonesty more precisely.
Cheating: Intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise (e.g., test, essay, etc.).
Fabrication: Intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.
Facilitating academic dishonesty: Intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another student commit a breach of academic integrity.
Plagiarism: Representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise.
Students often misunderstand plagiarism, so it’s worth expanding on this definition. Plagiarism occurs when a student deliberately uses another writer’s original ideas or concepts (not common knowledge) without acknowledging the source. Acts of plagiarism include, but are not limited to, the following.
copying text from printed materials, which include books, magazines, encyclopedias, newspapers, and so on modifying text with the intent of changing phrases, changing words, or inserting the student’s work into the plagiarized work copying and pasting materials from Internet sources and presenting them as the student’s original work using another student’s work, even if the student has the permission of the other student; the use of another’s work is an act of collusion using materials purchased from the Internet or elsewhere recycling previous work (that is, old papers) for a current course without instructor permission paraphrasing or summarizing another’s work without giving appropriate credit
Keep in mind that unintended or accidental plagiarism is still plagiarism. This means that even though you intended to go back and cite outside research properly, forgot to cite it, or did not know you had to cite it, you are still responsible. Intention cannot be proved or disproved; your instructor and your university will not be able to determine whether or not it was your intention to plagiarize.
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When you plagiarize, you are essentially trying to represent someone else’s ideas or words as your own. As stated in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association:
Writers who plagiarize disrespect the efforts of original authors by failing to acknowledge their contributions, stifle further research by preventing readers from tracing ideas back to their original sources, and unfairly disregard those who exerted the effort to complete their own work. (APA, 2020, p. 254)
Additionally, when students plagiarize, they diminish the learning experience as well as their own education. By plagiarizing, students lose the opportunity to act ethically and think independently and critically. This is one reason that colleges and universities take plagiarism so seriously.
Consider how the students in the following activity struggle with academic dishonesty and help them maintain academic integrity.
Consequences of Academic Dishonesty
Academic dishonesty undermines the bonds of trust and personal responsibility between and among students and faculty, weakens the credibility of the academic enterprise, and defrauds those who believe in the value and integrity of an academic degree. All universities and colleges therefore have policies identifying the consequences for
Start
Maintaining Academic Integrity
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academic dishonesty. Depending on the institution and the severity of the case, these policies can range from receiving a failing grade on the assignment to dismissal from the school. In some extreme cases, a degree may be retracted after the student has already graduated.
When a student is suspected of any type of academic dishonesty, usually the faculty, dean, and other members of a university’s administration are notified. If the student feels that this accusation is unjust, they are usually given a chance to refute the charges and prove that the work is original. Students who have maintained practices of academic integrity, such as keeping detailed notes of research and citations throughout the writing process, are more likely to be able to defend themselves successfully. If a charge of academic dishonesty cannot be refuted, it may seriously tarnish the student’s record and may even follow the student throughout his or her scholastic or professional career.
Highlight: Plagiarism in the Popular Media
If you’re like most people, the requirement to write won’t end when you complete your degree. You will continue to write for the rest of your life for a variety of reasons and purposes: to fulfill job requirements, appeal grievances, explain your position, or even just express yourself. This process is almost never easy, and plenty of people—sometimes even established authors—succumb to the temptation to get a little assistance from someone who has already put in that hard work and struggle.
The following are a few real situations you might have heard about in which a person committed plagiarism for his or her personal gain. Notice the personal and professional consequences that followed.
In 2019 author Nora Roberts sued Brazilian novelist Cristiane Serruya for plagiarism. Roberts and other authors accused Serruya of plagiarizing over 40 authors and 90 books in her novel Royal Love. Serruya is now known as #CopyPasteCris following a Twitter campaign that exposed her plagiarism in detail. Sales of her books were suspended following a court order, and her reputation as a romance novelist may be irreparably damaged. In 2014 the website BuzzFeed was found to contain 41 specific instances of plagiarism throughout its content. These instances ranged from an individual sentence or phrasing to entire articles. The person held responsible for this breach was BuzzFeed’s viral politics editor, Benny Johnson, since it was on his watch that these instances of plagiarism slipped through to publication on the site, intentionally or otherwise. Johnson was fired, and his reputation as an editor was tarnished. Fabrication is a common form of plagiarism in the real world. In 2003 Jayson Blair was found to have fabricated several of his news articles for The New York Times. Blair admitted to using quotations from press events he had not attended and explained that this rather innocent ethical wavering was the beginning of his foray into more serious acts of plagiarism, including the almost word-for-word copying of a story written by another journalist and published by a different newspaper. Blair explained that he committed these acts as a result of feeling inadequate at his job. He lost that job at The New York Times, along with his credibility as a journalist. Another famous case of fabrication occurred in the 1990s. Stephen Glass, a journalist for The New Republic, was discovered to have fabricated up to half of his published work. Glass forged quotations, sources, and other details of what he’d presented as news stories. The discovery of these acts of plagiarism devastated Glass’s journalism career and reputation. He has not worked in journalism since.
Blair's Long History of Fraud
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Critical-Thinking Questions 1. How do you think Blair's professional career has been
affected by his plagiarism? 2. Have you ever been tempted to plagiarize another
person's work? If so, what steps did you take to avoid doing so?
The instances of plagiarism in the Highlight: Plagiarism in the Popular Media feature box are unambiguous. However, it’s not always easy to determine if an action constitutes plagiarism. More nuanced cases may be open to debate. Consider the following scenario. Given what you have learned about the various forms of plagiarism in this chapter, do you think this incident constitutes plagiarism or not?
In 2014, HBO debuted a show called True Detective. On the show, some lines of dialogue were nearly or exactly the same as those spoken by characters in the novels of Thomas Ligotti. When asked about this matter, the author of True Detective—Nic Pizzolatto—confessed that he was highly influenced by Ligotti’s work but denied any accusations of plagiarism, saying that any similarities throughout the series were a result of his own internalization of Ligotti’s themes and ideas. On the one hand, Pizzolatto does not seem to have been hiding anything, since he had discussed Ligotti’s influence on his writing before ever being accused of plagiarizing him. On the other hand, Pizzolatto used exact lines from Ligotti’s work without giving credit to him in the show for writing them. Consider this: Where does this leave Pizzolatto? Could he have unintentionally plagiarized as a result of “internalizing” Ligotti’s ideas? And if so, what should the punishment be for such a transgression? What should he have done differently?
Quick Tip!
Accessing Resources for Academic Integrity
Blair's Long History of Fraud From Title:
The Jayson Blair Story: Favoritism and Plagiar... (https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx? wID=100753&xtid=32499)
0:000:00 / 1:16 / 1:16 1x1x
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For more on what is considered plagiarism, as well as types of plagiarism, see this guide: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/plagiarism (https://apastyle.apa.org/style- grammar-guidelines/citations/plagiarism) .
For a guide to citation basics for avoiding plagiarism, see Basic Principles of Citation: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles (https://apastyle.apa.org/style- grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles) .
Section 2.3 Knowledge Check Quiz
1. “Nitrogen is an element with the atomic number 7” is a concept that is considered __________. A. common knowledge B. an original idea that requires a citation C. plagiarized information
2. While writing a research paper on fungal diseases in bats, Declan invents a citation to a research article that does not actually exist. This behavior is known as __________.
A. plagiarism B. facilitating academic dishonesty C. fabrication
3. Which of the following statements about plagiarism is TRUE? A. Copying another’s research published on the Internet is not considered plagiarism. B. Accidental plagiarism is not considered plagiarism. C. Copying another’s research published on the Internet and accidental plagiarism are both
considered plagiarism.
Answers 1 (A), 2 (C), 3 (C)
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5.3 How Do I Maintain Academic Integrity While Incorporating Research?
Your Road Map to Success: Section 5.3
Learning Outcome 5.3: Demonstrate an understanding of how copyright law and the concepts of public domain, fair use, and open access are all foundational to appropriate citation when quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing information.
Why is this important?
Having an understanding of copyright law and intellectual property can keep you out of legal trouble online and in school, as well as prevent other people from stealing your ideas and work. For example, Yolanda has been blogging about her family life ever since she had her first child. Since the blog has been gaining in popularity, she realizes she needs to be more careful about the images she posts. Although it is legal for her to post the family pictures she takes, she needs to consider who else might be using them and in what context. She also realizes she shouldn’t be using images from other websites without first getting permission from the owners—just as she wouldn’t want her family photos to be used on other websites without her knowledge.
How does this relate to your success in this course?
Mastering this learning outcome will help you maintain your academic integrity and avoid violating your school’s policies on academic dishonesty.
Chapter 1 briefly introduced the ACRL threshold concept information has value. Information can be considered a commodity, a method of education, a way to influence, and a means of understanding the world around you. Let’s take a closer look at how information can be considered a commodity.
The monetary value we place on certain types of information designates them as a commodity. Think of how much money you spend on the purchase of books, movies, magazines, newspapers, and cable subscriptions, not to mention Internet access. Society recognizes the amount of time, thought, and resources that go into the creation of information and places a monetary value on this process. Now think about the information you consume online. Much of it seems free to access; however, the hidden cost of doing so includes your exposure to advertising and the access you provide to your personal information, such as your browsing habits, which we discussed in Chapter 3. It’s clear, then, that all information has value. Students who are developing their abilities in the information has value threshold concept
respect the intellectual work of others by crediting the source of original ideas through proper attribution and citation; understand that intellectual property is a legal and social construct that varies by culture; articulate the purpose and distinguishing characteristics of copyright, fair use, open access, and public domain; understand how the commercial use of their personal information and online interactions affects the information they receive and the information they produce or disseminate online; and make informed choices regarding their online actions in full awareness of issues related to privacy and the commercial use of personal information.
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Copyright Rules and Exceptions
Critical-Thinking Questions 1. List three things you cannot do under copyright law. 2. What are some exceptions to copyright rules?
Copyright, Public Domain, Fair Use, and Open Access
The concept of intellectual property helps ensure that society respects the value of original creations. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (n.d.), intellectual property “refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce” (para. 1). Work that is considered an author’s intellectual property is covered by copyright, a patent, or trademark. Each of these ensures that creators are able to earn recognition for their valuable innovations and contributions to society. The exact laws associated with intellectual property vary from country to country. Let’s take a closer look at copyright.
Copyright Living in the digital age offers new challenges when it comes to the access and use of information, particularly the ease with which information can be copied and shared in ways that disregard its value. This is where copyright comes in. Copyright is a series of laws and guidelines set forth by a country to protect the original works of an author. It essentially provides that the author of a work is the sole owner of the right to publish or otherwise reproduce that work. Copyright applies to the following (note that this list is not exhaustive):
text (for example, in books, journal articles, reports, webpages) images (for example, photographs, artistic works, graphs) video and moving images (for example, films, videos, television commercials) audio recordings (for example, music recordings, radio programs, podcasts) computer programs pictorial, graphic, or sculpted works architectural works
It makes no difference whether these materials are unpublished, self-published, published by a traditional publisher, or published online. Once they are created in a fixed form, they are all covered by copyright, whether or not the author has registered the work with the U.S. Copyright Office. However, authors often grant their publisher the right to reproduce their work as part of their publishing contract.
Given the definition of intellectual property, you might think that copyright law covers everything produced. However, quite a bit of information does not qualify for copyright protection. Here is some information not covered by copyright:
facts ideas, concepts, and principles
Copyright Rules and Exceptions From Title:
Introduction to Information Literacy (https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx? wID=100753&xtid=116779)
0:000:00 / 1:45 / 1:45 1x1x
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noncreative works (phone books, URLs, maps, computer algorithms, and so on) the listed ingredients and basic steps in individual recipes works not created in a tangible form
When using a work for academic purposes, such as a research paper, you will typically not need to request permission. When in doubt, however, it’s best to request permission from the author or copyright holder first. The following sections cover options that fall outside the guidelines of copyright law. They are public domain, fair use, and open access.
Public Domain Works that have never been or are no longer covered by copyright law belong in the public domain. Permission is not needed to use materials in the public domain. However, you must still cite the material appropriately according to the reference format required for your paper or project. This helps ensure that your audience can track the source for your information for themselves. Works that are in the public domain include works that were first published as follows:
before 1925 from 1925 to 1977 without a copyright notice placed on copies of the work from 1925 to 1963 with a copyright notice, but the copyright was not renewed from 1978 to March 1, 1989, without a copyright notice and without copyright registration within the first 5 years of publication
Fair Use According to the American Library Association (2013), fair use “allows for the use of copyrighted works for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, or research” (para. 2). The goal behind fair use is to promote creativity for the benefit of society. Although fair use of a work means that you will not need to seek the author’s permission to use the work, you still need to give credit to the author through a citation.
To determine whether your use of a work qualifies as fair use, consider four criteria: your purpose for using the work, the nature of the work, how much of the work you want to use, and the effect your use will have on the market (see Figure 5.9). These four criteria can help you determine whether the material you use for an academic paper will fall under an educational fair use. As long as you do not use a substantive portion of the work (the law does not define what precise amount constitutes a substantive portion) and it is factual and/or published, you are most likely covered under fair use. However, if you took that paper and posted it to a website or blog, your paper could violate the standards of fair use, in which case you would have infringed on the author’s copyright. Also keep in mind that only a court can make an actual determination of fair use. However, when you apply the four fair-use criteria, you are using the same criteria a judge would consider in a court of law. If you need further help deciding whether your use of a work qualifies as fair use, try consulting this Fair Use Evaluator (http://librarycopyright.net/resources/fairuse (http://librarycopyright.net/resources/fairuse) ).
Figure 5.9: The fair-use four
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Student Profile: Andy
Andy’s boss tasked him with creating a PowerPoint presentation for an internal company meeting sharing the products and services offered by the company. Andy decided to enrich the presentation by adding some images he located on various websites to the slides. Since the presentation was for internal use only, Andy didn’t bother requesting permission to use the images or cite them. After the presentation, which was a huge success, Andy posted the PowerPoint to his own website. Not only will this promote his company, it will also display his creative skills to a wider audience.
Did Andy’s actions violate copyright? Most likely, his use of the images does not constitute fair use, since the images were unaltered reproductions, are creative works, and are being used commercially. Also, there’s a good chance that the copyright holder’s business model depends on licensing these images.
Open Access Open access is the free and unrestricted access to information on the Internet. In the academic world, open access specifically refers to the free and unrestricted access to digital scholarly/peer-reviewed journal articles and research. Open access to these resources helps advance the scholarly conversation by increasing the number of people within a field or discipline who are able to view recent research and innovation. As discussed in Chapter 2, open access can also encourage the publishing of negative studies and help reduce publication bias. However, many publishers are against the open-access model. Publishers often hold the copyright of the works their authors produce and choose to
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Tero Versalainen/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Online purchases, web searches, and more can challenge your privacy, since cookies can track your searches and even personal information. While you research online, remember to clear your cookies and cache, and avoid letting your browser or computer retain passwords.
restrict access unless it is purchased. Open access can significantly reduce their revenue by making previously pricey journal access available for free.
Authors who wish to share their work broadly are therefore exploring alternatives to traditional publishing, such as open access and Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/ (http://creativecommons.org/) ). Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that provides modified copyright licenses that allow creators to decide how the public can use their information. At the same time, academic libraries are seeking to renegotiate their subscriptions to large databases and journal publishers to include open-access models. Following the lead of European plans that require open access to academic studies, many universities are pushing back against the current publishing model that is expensive and restrictive (Ellis, 2019).
Quite a few websites, such as YouTube, Google Images, and Flicker, now allow you to filter your search results to only those that fall within Creative Commons. You can search these sites on the Creative Commons website.
Privacy Issues
In the digital age, the amount of privacy we can expect as we consume digital information can vary and is often unclear. Often, a simple Google search on a person’s name can reveal phone number, age, address, and a list of possible relatives—not to mention any Facebook groups the person may belong to or websites they have posted to. Moreover, certain types of cookies, known as tracking cookies, can record your browsing habits, allowing your Internet browser and affiliated advertisers to use the information to tailor your Internet experience in ways you may not be aware of. Being information literate means protecting your private and personal information, along with the information of others. Fortunately, certain laws and strategies can help.
Let’s take a quick look at three privacy laws relevant to you.
The Privacy Act of 1974 prevents government agencies from disclosing your personal information without your written consent. For more information on this act, check out the U.S. Department of Justice website (https://www.justice.gov/opcl/overview-privacy-act- 1974-2015-edition (https://www.justice.gov/opcl/overview- privacy-act-1974-2015-edition) ). In 1996 the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was passed to protect your medical information. One goal of this act is to make it easier to protect the confidentiality and security of your health care information. Check out the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website (https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/ (https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/) ) for more information. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects the privacy of your student education records by preventing school employees from disclosing your personal information. It also ensures that your school records cannot be shared without your consent. For more
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information on this law, see the U.S. Department of Education website (https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index. html (https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html) ).
Protecting your digital information becomes increasingly important the more you use the Internet. As we explored in Section 3.3, the Internet browser you use will track your browsing habits, as will third-party websites. This tracking can result in personalized advertisements that follow you as you browse, as well as search engine results that are filtered to echo your usual browsing habits or to privilege the search engine’s top advertisers. Your personal information can also be bought and sold commercially. This access to your information is often disclosed in the privacy terms that you must agree to when you download any programs or apps. Because the policies are lengthy and written in legalese, most users agree without reading them.
The following strategies can help protect your privacy.
Clear out your cache and cookies regularly (see Chapter 3). Consider installing antispyware software on your computer. This software will scan your computer and detect whether any spyware, virus, or other security risk has gained access to it. Limit how much of your information companies can share with other companies. For more on limiting sharing, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website on privacy (https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0222-privacy-choices-your-personal-financial-information (https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0222-privacy-choices-your-personal-financial-information) ).
The ICE Method for Crediting Outside Sources
When including outside sources in your writing, follow the ICE method:
I: Introduce
C: Cite
E: Explain
As you’ll see, you’ll use this method when you’re inserting direct quotations as well as when you’re paraphrasing or summarizing someone else’s ideas.
Introduce the Source Introduce the source by giving your readers any information that would be useful to know: Who said it? Where did this idea come from? When was it said? Remember that providing context is important so that your readers understand why the source is relevant to your work. Here are some examples of how to introduce a source.
In her review of Toyin Ojih Odutola’s art, Zadie Smith (2020) observes . . .
Natalie Diaz (2020), celebrated poet and member of the Gila River Indian Tribe, contends . . .
In the textbook Introduction to Physical Anthropology, Lynn Kilgore (2017) states . . .
After introducing the quotation, be sure that you use a signal verb to indicate that the source’s words are next. In the examples here, you can see that “observes,” “contends,” and “states” are used to signal the source’s words. Common signal verbs include the following.
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acknowledges advises agrees analyzes answers argues asserts assumes believes charges claims considers criticizes declares describes disagrees
discusses explains emphasizes expresses holds implies interprets leaves us with lists objects observes offers opposes points to presents proposes
recognizes regards remarks replies reports responds reveals says states suggests supports tells us thinks wants to wishes wonders
Cite the Source Recall from Chapter 1 that when you cite sources, you include the author’s or authors’ last names; date of publication; and for direct quotations, the page number on which the quoted passage appears. If there is no page number, use a paragraph number when available to indicate the location of the quotation.
Quick Tip!
Taking Notes for References
Every academic discipline requires that you submit a bibliography or reference page with your paper. Recording this information in your notes will help you avoid committing plagiarism. Depending on the style you are using, different pieces of information will be needed to complete your references. Here are some key items to include in your notes when using APA Style.
If your resource is a book, make note of the author, title, publisher, date, and city of publication or URL for ebooks. For articles, make note of the author, article title, journal title, series number, volume number, and date of the publication. DOIs or URLs should also be noted for electronic articles. When using a URL, look for a permalink, permanent link, or stable URL rather than copying the URL from your browser’s address bar. For websites, make note of the author, title of the document, title of the complete work, name of the website, date of publication or last revision, URL, and date that you accessed the site. To cite a lecture, video, film, radio program, or other less usual source, consult a style manual to find out what information you will need to complete your bibliography or works cited page.
Precisely how do you insert this required information into your writing? You have two options. The first is to include the full or last names of the authors directly in a sentence and the year of publication in parentheses following the
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names. If directly quoting, include the page number where the quotation can be found at the end of your sentence. Here are some examples.
Roxane Gay (2020) points out that . . .
Roxane Gay (2020) insists, “The disparities that normally fracture our culture are becoming even more pronounced as we decide, collectively, what we choose to save—what deserves to be saved” (para. 9).
Your second option is to include all of the required information in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Here are two examples.
Some argue that the distrust of experts and science has led to the spread of false information (Niedringhaus, 2018).
According to one article, “the rise of fake news correlates with an increasing distrust of experts” (Niedringhaus, 2018, p. 98).
Notice in the preceding example that quotation marks always have a beginning and end, occurring immediately before the first word of the quotation and immediately after the last word. With the exception of block quotes, periods are always placed after the end-of-sentence parentheses, as in (p. 132). This placement ensures that the citation remains inside the sentence to which it corresponds.
Explain the Relevance After introducing and citing the passage, you will need to explain the significance: How does this author’s idea relate to your thesis? How does this data support your paragraph’s main idea? What are you trying to show here? It is your responsibility as the writer to express your ideas clearly by interpreting the information for your readers and identifying its significance. This step is what ties your evidence to your idea and is essential to bringing the reader’s focus back to the point you are trying to make. Remember, this is your essay, so make your own ideas central to the writing.
Here is an example of the ICE method at work in a paragraph from a student’s paper:
In the beginning stages, the juvenile justice system operated according to a paternalistic philosophy.1 This can be understood through the published words of Judge Julian Mack, who had a hand in the establishment of the juvenile justice system. In 1909 he stated2 that this system should treat juveniles “as a wise and merciful father handles his own child” (as cited in Scott & Steinberg, 2008, p. 16).3 Judge Mack viewed juveniles as children first. He envisioned a system that would protect and give treatment to these young offenders so that they could become productive adults and saw no place for criminal responsibility and punishment within this system.4
Key:
1. Background 2. Introduction of source and context on why he is an authority on this topic 3. Quoted material along with citation 4. Explanation of the quotation. As seen here, aim for an explanation that is longer than the quotation itself by
carefully unpacking the ideas contained within the quotation.
With an understanding of intellectual property and the responsible uses of it fresh in his mind, Irwin goes back to his paper and revisits his use of his sources. First, he makes sure that each thought that was not his own is cited. He also checks to make sure that he has used the ICE method to integrate his sources into his paper.
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Next Irwin reconsiders the way he’s presented his evidence. He wants his own ideas to be central, with his sources providing the necessary support. He realizes that quotations are helpful in validating some of his ideas but that paraphrases and summaries will help strengthen and balance his essay.
Quoting
When presenting your research, quoting passages from your sources can be an effective way to present your findings and add support to your claims. The following are some suggestions for including direct quotations in your academic papers.
Quote only the good stuff. Remember: Less is more. Don’t pad your essay with other people’s ideas. You should not use quotations as fillers to make your page count. If a quotation doesn’t add substance to your essay, don’t use it. On the other hand, if a quotation backs up a point you’ve made, especially if it does so in language so skillful that you couldn’t possibly change it, use it! Finally, avoid using any quotation you don’t understand. The ICE method requires that you explain it, so understanding it is essential. Keep quotations short, ideally about one to two sentences. When possible, trim the quotation to a few key words or a phrase essential to getting the idea across. If you must include a quotation that is more than 40 words long, “block the quotation” by starting it on a new line and indenting it. Here’s an example.
In the graphic novel Killing and Dying, Tomine’s (2018) mother begins by describing the flight back to California:
On our previous flight, in the opposite direction, you slept and squirmed on top of my legs. What a surprise when the airline told me you were too old for that now, and I was required to purchase a seat for you. (p. 76)
Note: When you block a quotation, place the period or other closing punctuation at the end of the final sentence instead of after the parenthetical citation. For in-text citations within your paper that are not block quotes, the citation is part of the sentence, and the period follows the parenthesis.
Make sure you copy quotations correctly. Misspellings and use of incorrect grammar or punctuation affect your own credibility as a writer. A missed word here or there can also change the meaning of the quotation. Accuracy indicates care for your work and ensures that the message is received as intended. Use brackets when you alter a word or phrase from the quotation. For example: Di Domenico and Visentin (2020) conclude, “To date, these new [deepfake and cheap fake] techniques are utilized predominantly in politics, to discredit politicians or political organizations” (p. 414). The words inserted in this case are only there to clarify the sentence. Avoid inserting or omitting words that change the quotation’s meaning in any way. Use an ellipsis when you omit words or phrases from the quotation. Use an ellipsis (three periods in a row) when you omit any portion of a sentence. For example: Calvin Baker (2020) asserts that “our problem is not race . . . it is the calculus of integration” (p. 11). Avoid starting or ending a paragraph with a quotation. You should begin and conclude paragraphs with your own ideas. The first sentence of a paragraph—which is known as the topic sentence or assertion— should support the focus of the essay. In turn, the quotation supports the topic sentence. The last sentence of the paragraph should be part of your analysis of the quotation or a restatement of your paragraph’s main idea.
Paraphrasing
We have all watched a film or read a novel that we wanted to tell others about. When you are describing it, you most likely say what
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MangoStar_Studio/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Paraphrasing ideas or translating information from a helpful graph from your research is often necessary for your paper. To avoid plagiarizing, read and understand the material. Then type it out in your own words and compare, and don’t forget to cite.
happened, how it happened, and why it happened in your own words. This is paraphrasing—using your own words to express someone else’s message or ideas.
When you paraphrase in writing, the ideas and meaning of the original source must be maintained; the main ideas need to come through, but the wording must be your own. And of course, you need to give credit to the author by citing your source. As we have mentioned, you don’t want to overuse quotes in your paper. Paraphrasing is a great alternative. To paraphrase correctly, you need to fully understand the original passage so that you can write about it in your own words.
Guidelines for Paraphrasing How do you paraphrase a source?
Read the original passage several times or until you are sure you understand it. Put the original aside and try to write the main ideas in your own words. Say what the source says, but no more, and try to reproduce the source’s emphasis. Look closely at unfamiliar words, observing the exact sense in which the writer uses the words. Avoid words or phrases that match the original too closely. If the wording of the paraphrase is too close to the wording of the original, then it can be considered plagiarism. If you choose to use exact words or phrases from the original source in your paraphrased version, surround them with quotation marks. Try to keep your paraphrased version near the same length as the original text (for example, if the paragraph you are paraphrasing is five sentences long, try to make your paraphrased paragraph five sentences as well). Even when you paraphrase, you must give credit to the original author. In your citation, you may include page numbers if available, although this is not required.
When Is Paraphrasing Useful? You should paraphrase when
you want to express the author’s idea but not necessarily the author’s language; you want to clarify an author’s ideas for the readers or for yourself; you want an alternative to quoting; you want to integrate information from charts, graphs, tables, lectures, and so on; or you need an authority on the topic or want to support your ideas.
Examples of Good Paraphrasing Paraphrasing can be done with individual sentences or entire paragraphs. Here are some examples.
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Original sentence: “She was an unlikely pioneer, a diminutive and shy woman, whose soft voice and large glasses hid an intellect and attitude that, as one colleague put it, was ‘tough as nails’” (Totenberg, 2020, para. 17).
Paraphrased version: Ginsburg was small and quiet, her unassuming appearance masking her determination and intellect (Totenberg, 2020).
Original sentence: “Nesting mother turtles need the cover of darkness to climb up the beach, and hatchlings are thought to navigate to the sea by the light of the moon” (Sherlock, 2020, para. 16).
Paraphrased version: Darkness is necessary for mother sea turtles to nest on beaches, and moonlight is important for hatchlings to find their way back to the sea (Sherlock, 2020).
As you can see in the examples, the essence and meaning of the paraphrased versions and the original sentences are similar. You can apply these same methods to paraphrasing longer texts as well, as seen in the following example.
Original paragraphs:
The September jobs numbers, released by the Labor Department on Friday, confirmed what economists and experts had feared: The recession unleashed by the pandemic is sidelining hundreds of thousands of women and wiping out the hard-fought gains they made in the workplace over the past few years.
While the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 7.9 percent in September, far below the record high of nearly 15 percent in April, a large part of that drop was driven not so much by economic growth—though there were some job gains—but by hundreds of thousands of people leaving the job market altogether. (Gupta, 2020, paras. 1–2)
Paraphrased version:
Alisha Gupta (2020) points out how the recent drop in the unemployment rate, seen from April to September, is not just the result of added jobs and an improving economy but also a result of individuals choosing to leave the workforce, many of them women, whose “hard-fought gains . . . in the workplace” (para. 1) will now be lost.
This version is properly paraphrased because it
introduces the source, reproduces the source’s main ideas, avoids matching the original too closely, encloses a key word or phrase from the original source within quotation marks, and includes a parenthetical citation in correct APA format.
Summarizing
Another good skill to help you incorporate research into your writing is summarizing. Summarizing is taking larger selections of text and reducing them to their basic essentials—the key ideas and main points that are worth noting. Think of a summary as the general idea in brief form.
As with directly quoting and paraphrasing, summarizing requires you to cite your sources properly to maintain academic integrity. Moreover, a summary should not change the meaning of the original source. A good summary should distill the purpose and main points of the original source. In the case of an annotated bibliography summary, however, a citation is not needed, since the summary accompanies a complete reference.
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Components of a Good Summary Follow these components of a good summary.
Write in the present tense. Make sure to include the author and title of the work. For example:
In A More Perfect Union, Calvin Baker (2020) . . .
In Stephen King’s 1977 horror novel The Shining, . . .
In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” . . .
Be concise: A summary should not be equal in length to the original text. Include two to three main points of the text or work. Include the conclusion or the final findings of the work. If you must use the author’s words, enclose them in quotation marks. Don’t insert your own opinions, ideas, or interpretations into the summary. The purpose of writing a summary is to accurately represent what the author wanted to say, not to provide a critique. Follow the summary with a citation of the source.
When Is a Summary Useful? You should summarize when
you want to give an overview of a source’s main ideas or points, you can express a source’s ideas or points in fewer words than the original text, you need to give a brief synopsis of more than one source, or you want an authority on the topic to support your ideas.
Developing an annotated bibliography will require that you summarize all of your sources. The skills you apply to your annotation summaries can also be applied to any summaries you incorporate into your other written assignments.
Examples of Good and Bad Summaries When you summarize, be careful that you do not put your own spin on what you write. This is important because the goal of a summary is to be as brief and accurate as possible.
For example, here is an example of a bad summary about Pixar’s popular movie Finding Nemo:
So there’s a film in which a man’s wife is brutally murdered by a serial killer and his son is left physically disabled. In a twist of events, the son is kidnapped and kept in a tank while his father chases the kidnapper thousands of miles with the help of a mentally challenged woman. Finding Nemo is quite the thriller.
This is an example of a bad summary because it is misleading. It also contains opinion and twists the events of the story into something it is not. Pixar’s Finding Nemo is not a thriller or horror story as described in the preceding example; it is an animated children’s movie about fish.
Here is a stronger summary of Finding Nemo:
Pixar’s Finding Nemo is a story about Marlin, a clown fish, who is overly cautious with his son Nemo, who has a damaged fin. When Nemo swims too close to the surface to prove himself, he is caught by a diver,
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and a horrified Marlin must set out to find him. A blue reef fish named Dory, who has a really short memory, joins Marlin, and together they encounter a host of ocean dangers. Meanwhile, Nemo plots his escape from a dentist’s fish tank where he is being held. In the end, Marlin and his son Nemo are reunited, and they both learn about trust and what it means to be a family. (Unkrich & Stanton, 2003)
This summary is stronger because
it is accurate and factual, it states the main characters and events of the story, it reveals the important plot points without giving too many details, and it shares the conclusion and moral of the story without twisting the meaning.
This is also an effective summary because
it states the producer, year, and title of the work; it is clear and understandable to readers; and it includes a parenthetical citation in correct APA format.
Section 5.3 Knowledge Check Quiz
1. For a work to be considered a person’s intellectual property, it must be __________. A. recognized as a valuable literary or artistic contribution to society B. an intangible creation of that person’s mind, such as a theory or an idea C. created by that person in a tangible form
2. In the ICE method for crediting outside sources, what does the “ICE” stand for? A. Introduce, Create, and Exemplify the source B. Introduce, Credit, and Explain the source C. Introduce, Cite, and Explain the source
3. The distillation of a larger written work into its key ideas and main points is known as a written __________.
A. paraphrase B. summary C. quotation
Answers 1 (C), 2 (C), 3 (B)