Activities for Chapter 4

Activity 4A

Using sources effectively in your academic research writing can be complex, which means so is the issue of plagiarism. Write in response to the following and then discuss in class: What do you know about plagiarism? What have been your experiences with this issue? Have you ever plagiarized (intentionally or unintentionally)—or do you know someone who did? What happened and why? Why is it such a serious offense in college? In what non-college discourse communities/contexts is “plagiarism” an accepted practice? Can you think of some examples? What’s the difference? What tips do you have for using and attributing sources effectively in your college writing—for not plagiarizing?

Activity 4B

Find out what formats are used in your academic major and your future field or profession. Or, find any documents that serve as formatting or style guides for writing at your workplace. Examine the rules for the particular format you found as well as some sample texts/genres. What does the format show about the discourse communities—what they value, how they view reality, etc.?

Activity 4C

Use the Purdue OWL (or another resource) to complete the following chart comparing some features of MLA and APA format. You might work as a class in groups and share the information, such as through a shared document file. After the chart is complete, discuss what each format shows about the academic discourse communities that use them. For example, what might English value as compared to the Social Sciences and vice versa based on how they cite sources, set up reports, etc.?

Activity 4D

This activity, adapted from author Philip Gerard’s chapter in the book Now Write! edited by Sherry Ellis, invites you to “examine the very nature and reliability of the evidence” you are using on a writing project you are currently working on. “Using any sources you need: Try to prove one fact beyond a shadow of a doubt. The fact should be significant enough to matter for some reason related to the writing” (91). This could be whether or not an event occurred, the date something happened, etc. Gerard adds, “Remember: an interview relies on memory and is not in itself sufficient proof. Contemporaneous accounts—newspaper stories, diary entries—are more likely to be reliable, but even they can be mistaken or deliberately falsified. So rather than take a single person’s word as proof, you need to discover [public] records, other witnesses, souvenirs, photographs—enough evidence that a reasonable person could agree that your ‘fact’ is true” (91). Present the sources you found and explain why you believe they are accurate. Then, respond to the following questions: “How ‘hard’ are facts, and at what point do you accept evidence for a fact as incontrovertible? Is it ever possible to be 100 percent sure of a thing? And how do we write ‘nonfiction’ based on such a shifting, elusive reality?” (92).

Activity 4E

Also in the Now Write! book, teacher and writer Rebecca Blevins Faery writes that the “real work of nonfiction writing. . .is curiosity satisfied by engaging deeply with a subject” (95). This activity is adapted from a writing exercise she calls an “investigative essay.” Choose a writing project that you are working on, ideally in which the subject is interesting to you, you want to learn more, and you believe you have something to say or question. To begin, research “enough about your subject that you can write about it with authority” (95). Then, probably different from the genre called for in your writing project—instead perhaps as a prewriting activity—write a separate “investigative essay”: “your voice, your perspective, your persona must be evident in the piece, and, as in the more strictly personal essay, your lived experience can be included in the piece” (96). Therefore, this investigative essay should not be thought of as a “research paper,” but instead a more creative and personal exploration of the topic based on the research you conducted so far and your personal perspective and experience. This activity can help you identify and deepen your personal connection to what you are writing, so that you can then approach the genre called for in the writing project and your rhetorical situation creatively and with authority. Faery claims, “You may sometimes be asked to write without using [the pronoun ‘I’], but making your authority, and above all your investment in what you write, evident in your work will always be recognized and appreciated” (96).