Course material will not count towards literature. While it may meet the definition for scholarly literature, you are required to find, select, and incorporate outside sources not provided in the course.

While legal documents may be useful in formulating your argument, they do not meet the definition for scholarly literature in this course.

While other outside sources may be used, at least two sources (one in support of your position, one in support of the opposition) must be scholarly literature that fits the definition above

Any other outside sources must be from quality sources (eg. The New York Times, Psychology Today). These, however, do not count towards the requirement for literature.

Information from subpar sources will be totally disregarded (eg. Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post).

Citing Literature

Students are required to cite their sources using EITHER APA1, AMA2 or Chicago3 format. This includes in-text citations.

For APA, in-text citations follow the format (Author(s), Year)

For AMA, the citations should follow the main bullet point above. You can see how each number corresponds to a source. However, DO NOT use links, as I did. Provide a full citation containing the information listed below.

For Chicago, in-text citations follow the format (Author(s) Year)

This means, at the minimum, you must have:

the author(s) name

the year of publication

the publisher (book), university (thesis) or journal title (journal articles)

the title of the scholarly work.

If you are unable to find ALL of this information, it is not appropriate literature.

Failure to provide ALL of this information will result in your source being disregarded as an inappropriate source and no points will be awarded for the use of literature.

In the past students have used citation generators. This is ill-advised as they almost always produce citations with missing information or formatting errors. Please only use the resources below or a manual produced by the AMA or APA.

1. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

2. http://www.lib.jmu.edu/citation/amaguide.pdf

3. https ://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01 /

Finding and Selecting Literature

All UF students have access a wide array of journal and publications via the UF Libraries

On-Campus Access:

For students on campus, the UF internet will connect you automatically to most online journals. I’d suggest searching for journal articles via Google Scholar, which is an excellent resource for finding appropriate journal articles. If, for any reason, you are not automatically be directed to the article from Google Scholar, follow the instructions below:

Go to http://cms.uflib.ufl.edu /

On the right side of the screen is a box with four tabs. OneSearch is automatically selected. Click the "Databases & Journals" tab.

Enter the title of the journal of interest below "Title begins with" and hit "Search"

You will be given a variety of options. Look at the year for each article and select an option that includes that year.

You should be taken to an outside database, such as "Oxford Journals”, "FLVC Wiley-Blackwell Titles" or one of the many others

Search the article title, or search using key words to find an article, in the search bar provided by each respective site. You should now have access to your journal article.

Finding and Selecting Literature:

Off-Campus Access:

I highly recommend using Google Scholar to find journals and article of interest. You will have access to their abstracts, which should help you decide if they will be useful to you. To find the entire journal article or to search through the journal, follow the instructions below:

Go to http:// www.uflib.ufl.edu / ufproxy.html

Enter your GatorLink and password

Under "Health Center Library" select "e-Journals“

Enter the title of the journal of interest after "Title begins with" and hit "Search"

You will be given a variety of options. Look at the year for each article and select an option that includes that year.

You should be taken to an outside database, such as "Oxford Journals”, "FLVC Wiley-Blackwell Titles" or one of the many others

Search the article title, or search using key words to find an article, in the search bar provided by each respective site. You should now have access to your journal article.

You will lose points for literature if…

Failure to use literature appropriately can result in up to a 14 points

You do not use literature that meets the requirements discussed in the first section

You do not use proper citations including at least the author(s) name(s), the year the article or book was published, the publisher (book) or journal title (journal articles), and the title of the scholarly work.

You do not use proper in-text citations

You only pull information that was provided to you in the course

Content and Quality

The Original Post

Original Post: Expressing your Opinion

10 point response: Explains position on the issue supported by literature without use of biased language.

The student should state their point clearly and concisely, in a manner consistent with a thesis statement1, that leaves no doubt as to the poster’s opinion on the topic provided.

Failure to address the topic will result in a loss of twenty points for both content sections of the rubric

The student must use professional, unbiased language. This means forming a response using literature, not a response based upon personal experience. While your personal experience will undoubtedly shape your perspective, the discussion post is not the place to discuss it. Your responses should be purely academic, and must use at least one article to support your point.

1. http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/thesis-statements/

Original Post: Discussing the Opposing Opinion

10 point response: Explains opposing position supported by literature and addresses why this is not the best fit.

A strong argument must acknowledge the opposition’s opinions

The student should state the opposition's position (eg. "Some people may argue that…"), use literature to support this point of view (eg. "This is supported by x article, which states…"), and then rebuff it (eg. "While this may be the case, what proponents of this fail to understand is…").

A strong argument should be able to find holes in the opposition’s argument

At least one piece of literature should be used to support the opposing opinion’s point of view

Content and Quality

Responses

Reply Post Content

5 point response: Student acknowledges original poster's opinion and provides literature further supporting or opposing this opinion

Each response must acknowledge the poster’s opinion and provide literature that further supports or opposes the opinion.

Students must provide new information that furthers the discussion. No points will be awarded for repeating facts, figures or statements that were covered in either student’s original post.

While the same literature used in the original post may be cited, new information must be pulled from it

Students are expected to discuss the information in the post, either by pointing out a flaw, or adding further support. This is not the space to critique your peers, or offer suggestions for improvement. It is an opportunity to respond to their thoughts in a way that furthers discussion.

Word Count

Original Post and Responses

Word Count

Original post: 500 words

The original post must be at least 500. In the past, students have had some discrepancies with their word processing programs. The grader is not responsible for these discrepancies. Make sure your post is 500 words or more.

Responses: 250

Each response must be 250 words long. Salutations, such as "Hi Rachel" and critiques such as "I really liked how you used outside sources" are not appropriate for the discussion posts and will not be counted as a part of your discussion response.

Total: 1000 words

Citations and the "Works Cited" section do not count towards the final word count

If more than 10% of your writing is direct quotations or rephrasing of another student’s work, the grader reserves the right to withhold points for word count.

Grammar, Spelling and Synthesis

Grammar and Spelling

5 points: Spelling and Grammar is appropriate for an undergraduate at the University of Florida.

Word processing programs are not fool-proof or completely accurate. They will not catch every error.

Proofreading can help significantly decrease grammar and spelling errors

While this class is not an English class, it is still important to be able to argue and communicate ideas in a clear, professional manner. Students are expected to have an understanding of basic spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and formatting.

Common errors are listed in the next slide. More than three singular errors will result in a deduction of two points and more than seven will result in a deduction of all five points.

Fatal errors will result in the loss of all five points and are listed in the following slide

Errors

Common Errors:

Each misspelled word

Each sentence fragment

Each run-on sentence

Each improperly capitalized word

A single nonsensical sentence (more than one becomes a fatal error)

Each error in verb tense or subject/verb agreement

Each sentence that ends a preposition

Each error in citation formatting

Each error in punctuation (especially failure to utilize commas)

Fatal Errors:

Unprofessional language, including, but not limited to, swearing in a post, political rants, or the use of highly biased language will result in a loss of all five points

Failure to separate posts into paragraphs

Errors so significant that they impair understanding of the post, such as multiple rambling or nonsensical statements

Major synthesis errors, such as the use of “stand-alone” quotations (see slide 21)

What is Synthesis?

Synthesis is incorporating the work of others into your own writing in a way that enriches and strengthens it.

Failure to synthesize is a form of plagiarism in which another writer’s work is used without appropriately discussing or connecting the information to your work.

Common violations include:

Using large quotations to avoid writing and to make meeting the word limit easier

Using stand alone quotations

You can avoid this by putting the work into your own words or by using only small quotations that are less than a sentence long.

Stand Alone Quotes

A stand-alone quote is one that looks like this:

Grading a discussion post with stand alone quotes is very difficult. “There is no prevailing journal or author that is a leader in reporting on knowledge synthesis methods...This may lend itself to inconsistencies and variations in methods making it challenging for researchers and research users to locate and appraise these articles” (Perrier, Lightfoot, Kealey, Straus & Tricco, 2016). It irritates the grader and is lazy writing.

You need to synthesize. You need to discuss how what you’re quoting relates to your larger point. For instance, this particular quote is completely irrelevant to this message when written like this. You cannot put information in haphazardly without addressing why it is relevant.

Review more here: https://cincinnatistatewritingcenter.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/direct-quotations-stand-alone-quotations/

Stand Alone Quotes

A better way for me to do this would be to write:

Many students had difficulty understanding how to properly synthesize their work. This understandable given that a review of research on proper synthetization strategies found that there is no author or journal that is recognized as the chief authority on knowledge synthesis (Perrier et al., 2016).

Notice how no quotations were used. Because I put the work into my own words, it’s been appropriately synthesized, and they are unnecessary. A good rule of thumb for quotes is that if it's a unique phrase, or longer than three words pulled directly from the source, it should be in quotes.

Alternately, I could have written:

Many students had difficulty understanding how to properly synthesize their work. This understandable as “There is no prevailing journal or author that is a leader in reporting on knowledge synthesis methods...” (Perrier et al., 2016). Given the absence of such journals or authors, it is imperative that students review my instructions on how to synthesize in this course.

When I do this way, the quote reads as a portion of the larger text, and the statement preceding and following it make it clear why the quote was included.

Any quote that is not connected to your discussion, any quote that stands alone in your paper, can and will result in an elimination of all grammar points.

Perrier, L., Lightfoot, D., Kealey, M. R., Straus, S. E., & Tricco, A. C. (2016). Knowledge synthesis research: a bibliometric analysis. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

"Netiquette" and Decorum

Given the online nature of this class, many students feel comfortable expressing their opinion. While this is to be encouraged, student may only express their opinions in a respectful, professional way.

Avoid blanket statements (eg. "drug addicts are selfish" or "people choose what they want to look like") as they can be offensive and are often incapable of being supported.

Any post that attacks, belittles or demeans other students will result in a zero on the pertinent section(s). There are no exceptions to this.

Any post that is not professional or academic in nature will face a severe point deduction

Plagiarism

Plagiarism: Honor Code Violation

Students who submit assignments without proper citations (Violation 3.A.1), that copy in whole or part from other sources (Violation 3.A.2), or that reuse information from previous submissions (for instance, using the same sentence or paragraph in multiple responses to peers which is in violation of 3.B.1) are breaking the UF Honor Code.

If you are unfamiliar with the University's Honor Code, please brush up on it1 as any violations will result in a zero on the assignment, and potentially being referred to the honor court, which can lead to expulsion from the university.

1. https://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/process/student-conduct-honor-code/

Plagiarism and Citations

Discussion posts require outside research. As such, they require citations. Failure to cite is plagiarism.

Students are required to cite their sources using either APA1 or AMA2 format. This includes in-text citations.

Direct quotes should not be used, except in small part (less than a sentence, limiting any direct quoting to a short phrase or figures) and information should be synthesized, put in your own words and cited within the text appropriately.

If you choose to use APA citation, make sure to include a Works Cited section at the bottom of your essay. If you have any questions about citations please feel free to message me. Furthermore, students cannot reproduce their own work. Your responses are required to be unique, reference new ideas in each, and personalized to each essay. DO NOT copy and paste your own work, as it is against the Honor Code.

1. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

2. http://www.lib.jmu.edu/citation/amaguide.pdf

Plagiarism – Summary

Failure to use in-text citations, even if a works cited section is provided, will result in your discussion post being treated as if no outside support was used

Failure to synthesize is plagiarism and will result in a zero

Failure to cite is plagiarism and will result in a zero

Failure to use quotations and appropriate in-text citations to mark direct quotes is plagiarism and will result in a zero

Failure to use original thought is plagiarism and will result in a zero

Reusing facts, figures, and ideas is self-plagiarism and will result in a zero