English 201 Home | Research Site Index | Latest update: 07 November 2001
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Information Competency |  |
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FAIR USE
Know the
"Fair Use" Doctrine of Copyright Law.
Scholarship requires the citation of sources because citation is "fair
use." Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act establishes the fair use standard
as it "exempts limited uses of materials from infringement liabilities"
(see <http://www.cetus.org/fair4.html>).
Fair Use applies to use of copyrighted material for teaching, research, and
scholarship; the fair use doctrine protects the right of researchers to information needed
to carry out their research. Imagine: if all information were owned, and if all
owners restricted access to (or charged fees for use of) that information, then how
severely curtailed would be the development of knowledge in all areas--humanities,
sciences, medicine, technology. All areas of research would come to a slow and murky
halt.
CETUS--which stands for "Consortium for Educational Technology for University Systems" (comprised of California State University, State University of New York, and the City University of New York) has put together several pages of information about copyright law in The CETUS Site; one entitled "Fair Use of Copyrighted Works: A Crucial Element in Educating America" lists the following principles in favor of the fair use doctrine:
- Higher education's legitimate right to use copyrighted works must be protected.
- Freedom of access to information, regardless of its format, is essential for the creative and learning processes.
- Higher education's right of fair use in the electronic era must continue unencumbered by terms of licenses or transaction fees.
- Higher education has an obligation to educate its constituencies about intellectual properties and about the lawful uses of copyrighted material.
Understand that copyright law and the fair use doctrine reflect a capitalist system of thinking and an individualist ideology that is not as welcome in Asian regions as it is in the United States and Europe. In regions influenced by Confucian thinking, the community is more important than the individual. Indeed, as you will recall from our study of Confucianism, a person's self is defined as the node of social relationships. In Confucian society, a person without a good network of social relations and without humanheartedness in those relations is not considered quite a complete human being. In short, a person IS a community. You will also recall that in Confucian terms, social order is a function of a sense of community forged by the Web of Memory--shared texts, memorized and repeated in relevant contexts allowing everyone to share in the same history, the same language constructs. For such a culture, notions of privatizing the great works, or private ownership of words and sayings, is difficult to grasp. Rules of ownership of words and ideas, rules of documentation of sources--these are much more welcome and easy to grasp for Americans, who prize individuality and live comfortably in a culture valuing private property and perhaps even obsessed with buying, selling, and OWNING stuff. In such a culture, it is easy to see why snippets of language can be said to be OWNED as PRIVATE PROPERTY and that appropriation of this property without permission may be considered a CRIME of THEFT or FRAUD.
Violations of plagiarism rules and copyright law are based on this idea that words and ideas may be owned by those who hold the copyright on those words and ideas. In American society, borrowing without attribution or failure to give credit where credit is due is considered unfair--or worse: fraud, theft.
See "Cite your Sources" by Dr. George F. Corliss, Professor of math and computer science at Marquette University, for a brief explanation of reasons for citing sources. Top of page
Introduce,
punctuate, and document all quotations. To show your understanding
of fair use and copyright rules, don't hesitate to borrow other people's words when they
help you to make your point. But be sure to introduce quotations, punctuate and
document them according to the conventions of your field, provide attribution to share
information about the source and the context, and check the quotation that it is
EXACT--word for word, punctuation mark for punctuation mark.
Use quotations when someone else has said something so convincingly or beautifully that you could not put it as well in your own words. Use quotations, but avoid stringing together a series of quotations and calling it your own writing. Avoid cutting and pasting other people's work, reorganizing a bit, and then calling the result your paper. It's not your paper; it's your notes, a collage or pastiche of quotations, a "sampling" of the work of others. As in the music industry, sampling is not the equivalent of writing a paper based on research; sampling is a notetaking stage and sampling without citation is plagiarism.
When you find a passage that you want to include in your paper because you can't say it as well yourself, or you want the authority's words to add weight to your argument, do the following:
- Introduce your quotation by identifying the author and providing the relevant information about the author to explain why your reader should believe what he or she says about your topic. Such an introduction can also serve to make your writing flow more smoothly. See the Website on "Attribution" for more explanation and for examples.
- Format the quotation using the conventions:
- If the quoted material is a poem, use the original poetic form, retaining the line lengths and spacing of the original.
- If the quotation is less than three lines of prose, integrate it into your paragraph with quotation marks at the beginning and ending of the quotation.
- If your quoted passage goes over 3 lines of prose, set off the quotation by indenting about 10 spaces from the left-hand margin for the whole quotation. When you indent a long quotation, you don't need to use the quotation marks, because the indentation itself tells your reader that this is a direct, word-for-word quotation.
- Provide an in-text or parenthetical citation after the quotation (usually at least the page number goes here), and include the full citation in a Works Cited List at the end of your paper.
You achieve two goals when you follow the techniques for incorporating quotations: (1) you move smoothly from the source of information to your own thoughts, and (2) you give your reader adequate notice of the appropriateness and relevance of the quotation--in other words, you answer the key question, "So what?" A well-introduced quotation identifies the author and tells the relation between the quotation and the previous statement.
Here's a list of possible language to use in introducing quotations:
- Jane Doe writes that ">>>"
- According to Jane Doe, "..."
- As Jane Doe goes on to explain, "..."
- Characterized by John Doe, the society is "..."
- As one critic points out, "..."
- John Doe believes that "..."
- Jane Doe claims that "..."
- In the words of John Doe, "..."
A list of possible verbs for use in the introduction of quotations follows. Double-check meanings before using them to make sure they are appropriate to the given context:
acknowledges, adds, admits, affirms, agrees, argues, asserts, believes, claims, comments, compares, confirms, contends, declares, demonstrates, denies, disputes, emphasizes, endorses, grants, illustrates, implies, insists, notes, observes, points out, reasons, refutes, rejects, reports, responds, states, suggests, thinks, underlines, writes
See also the APEx formula for introducing, using, and interpreting quotations. Top of page
Paraphrase
using your own style, and cite your source. Even when you change some of the
wording of a passage you are borrowing, you need to cite your source. Also, be sure
you haven't simply changed a few words; the best kind of paraphrase is one that converts
the information to your own vocabulary AND syntax.
The example below on the
difference between quoting and
paraphrasing comes from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) Writing Center
(reprinted by permission). This example provides two incorrect ways of paraphrasing the source
paragraph in the table below (word-for-word plagiarism and "The Mosaic"), and
then provides a model of a legitimate paraphrase.
Word-for-word Plagiarism: Non-analytic thought is considered very important to the practice of science by Princeton physicist historian Thomas Kuhn who claims that major breakthroughs happen only when scientists finally concede that some physical phenomena defy explanation by extending the logic of old theories. One idea which served nicely for many centuries but then became too cumbersome was the belief that the sun and planets revolved around the earth. This was held prior to 1500 until Copernicus invented a new reality: the earth and planets move around the sun. Explanation: The emphasized words are directly copied from the source [and there is no parenthetical, in-text citation showing that these are someone else's words, the words of someone named Hoover]. Notice that the writer has not only "borrowed" Hoover's ideas with no acknowledgment, he or she has maintained the author's method of expression and sentence structure. Even if the student-writer had acknowledged Hoover as the source of these IDEAS, this passage would still be plagiarized because much of its exact wording comes from Hoover with no quotation marks to indicate that the language is Hoover's. It's not that using a single phrase such as "prior to 1500" without quotation marks constitutes plagiarism; it's the repeated use of exact wording and sentence structure without any quotation marks. If, for example, you used just that one phrase without quotation marks--a phrase whose language isn't particularly distinctive--and acknowledged the source of the ideas, that would be fine. If quotation marks were placed around all material directly taken from Hoover, this paragraph would be so cluttered as to be unreadable. If you like the ideas and the wording of the original this much, if it is important to your paper, and if it is stated more concisely in the original than it would be in your paraphrase or summary, then quote the original. The Mosaic. Intuition plays an important role in scientific progress. Thomas Kuhn believes that nonanalytical thought allows scientists to break through the logic of old theories to formulate new paradigms to explain a new reality. Copernicus' invention of one such model (a reversal of the Ptolemaic view which reigned prior to 1500) claimed that the earth and planets rotate around the sun. Explanation. Note the emphasized phrases which have been borrowed from the original and shifted around. Hoover's structure has been modified to a certain extent by the writer, but numerous key phrases have been retained without quotation marks, and [again!] the source has not been credited. Even though this borrowing is not as obvious as that in the example of word-for-word plagiarism, it is equally unacceptable.
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Try Professor Kathleen
Rippberger's Paraphrasing Tutorial.
For more general information about the paraphrase, see this short explanation at The Puzzling Paraphrase by Sharon Cogdill, English professor at St. Cloud University in Minnesota.
Introduce summaries,
and cite your source. When you want to provide your reader with an idea of the
content of a whole article or book, but don't want to take more than a few sentences or a
paragraph of writing to do this, you are doing the work called
"summarizing." A summary is a digest: it reduces the content to the main
idea and main supporting points; all the details used to support, illustrate, and explain
the thesis or main idea are left out--all that's left is the gist, the kernel of the
idea. A summary can digest a 20,000-word text to a 50-word paragraph. As you
can see, a lot is left out in a summary.
Not all summaries of the same text will come out alike. That's because summaries are influenced by the summarizer's particular spin on the text, her values and ideology, her ability to glean the main idea and restate it clearly. Summaries of a single work will differ because people differ in how they read and perceive and write. Top of page
Recognize
and avoid all forms of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a term referring
to a violation of fair use, copyright, and intellectual property principles and
regulations. The MiraCosta College statement on plagiarism is as follows:
- The faculty at MiraCosta College believes that academic honesty is a cornerstone of the educational community. To this end, the faculty wishes to assist students in defining acceptable standards of academic honesty as they pertain to students' written work. //It is important for students to acknowledge sources that are employed when writing papers. Plagiarism - to use as one's own work the work or ideas of another - is a form of academic dishonesty.
- Plagiarism may be any one of the following: a) verbatim copying without proper documentation, b) paraphrasing without proper documentation, c) patching together a quilt-work paper from diverse sources without proper recognition of those sources, and d) unacknowledged appropriation of information or ideas from someone else.
- The punishment for plagiarism may range from a verbal admonition or lowered grade, to exclusion from the class. Cases which in the judgment of the instructor may warrant removal of the offending student from class will be referred to the appropriate disciplinary authority. // If students have any questions about these definitions or about a piece of writing they are preparing, it is better to ask their instructor for clarification than to risk unintentional plagiarism. (Reference accessed 25 April 1999 from the WWW: <http://www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/instruction/handbook/section5.htm>)
A wide variety of practices sometimes passes for research, but these practices are violations of the principles of and regulations governing Fair Use. At this level of college work, a researcher should be aware that plagiarism, even in the most minor of cases, may result not only in public humiliation but also in serious academic consequences ("F" on an assignment, "F" in a class, academic probation, expulsion from college). The following is a list ranging from the most serious to the least serious type of plagiarism:
- Wholesale lifting. Taking another person's paper and calling it your own is fraud of the most flagrant kind. Whether the paper is "borrowed" from a friend, bought from a paper-selling agency, or "found"--if you sign that you have constructed a paper that you have only bought or found, you have committed a crime. BAD IDEA--VERY BAD IDEA. For more information about wholesale stealing, see the plagiarism sites below.
- Partial lifting. Taking a piece of another person's work and calling it your own is a violation of the rules of fair use. BAD IDEA--VERY BAD IDEA. Minimally you need to give the person credit; rules governing use of quotations or set-off or tabulated text to show the words come directly from another source will be needed. Revisit the Information Competency Tutorial sections on how to incorporate other peoples words and ideas. For more information about partial stealing, see the plagiarism sites below.
- Inadequate or falsified documentation. Failure to document your sources completely or accurately with the information called for in the style guide you are following constitutes plagiarism. Sometimes failure to keep careful notes during the research process results in your having something to cite, without the necessary back-up information. Commonly, beginners forget to write down page numbers, and then when it's time to write the paper, they invent them rather than return to the sources to find the accurate information. Sometimes, they take down a great quotation and forget entirely to write down who said it and where! Then, when it comes time to write the paper, desperate to include the great passage, they make up something that sounds plausible for the in-text citation and the Works Cited List. This is a BAD IDEA, a VERY BAD IDEA. DON'T DO IT. Don't even think about it. Deliberate falsifying of any source information is a kind of fraud or forgery. It's better to have inadequate rather than false information: better to make a note of the source being unknown (or your notes being inadequate), or not to use the information at all, rather than to defraud your reader. Reread the section on documentation--providing attribution and citing sources.
- Improper or illegitimate paraphrasing. Re-read the section on paraphrasing to ensure that what you write is your own vocabulary and syntax. If not, use the original quotation.
- Quoting out of context. Quoting out of context is a form of fraud. Sometimes this happens inadvertently, sometimes because of sloppy research method (or no method at all), sometimes from conscious intent to falsify information. Whatever the motive, be sure you include the context of the quotation and be wary of ellipses when you are quoting in your paper.
- Mistakes (e.g., errors of misunderstanding, miscopying, typos). Sometimes, even when the appropriate attribution and citation are provided--a quotation, paraphrase, or summary is not accurate because of some mistake in understanding the original, in copying the passage, or in typing the research paper. Such mistakes may have the effect of falsifying information. These are inadvertent errors; in responsible journalism organizations, fact-checkers and copy editors are hired to ensure that a manuscript has been scoured to clean up these kinds of mistakes. They are not always caught, and sometimes the results are unfortunate. [More to come--with examples. . . .]
How to avoid plagiarism? Take this advice from Marion Foerster, Public Services Librarian at MiraCosta College:
In order to fully comprehend what constitutes a research paper, it is important to understand what research is. Good research is both creative and personal. It starts with questions that you ask about your subject. These questions you ask will be your own and how you go about finding the answers will be a uniquely individual process. In this way you will bring yourself and your mind into the research process. Your paper will end up conveying your point of view, which will add creativity and passion to your subject. Giving your paper a "voice" will also help you to avoid plagiarism. (Reference to the Foerster's WWW Library Research Website accessed on 25 April 1999 at <http://www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/library/researchpage/definitions.html>).
Read through the following Websites to get familiar with what plagiarism is (many students are surprised to learn that their practices have been edging on plagiarism), how it's detected, and how to avoid it:
- Anti-Plagiarism Strategies (Southern California College)
- Cut and Paste Plagiarism (UIUC)
- Definition at Virginia Tech
- Plagiarism (University of Northern British Columbia)
- Plagiarism and Anti-Plagiarism (Rutgers University)
- Puzzling Paraphrase
- Quoting and Paraphrasing
- Sites to Help You Curb Cheating (Mining Co.)
- Statement on Plagiarism (Arthur C. Banks, Jr., of Capital Technical-Community College in Hartford, Connecticut--scroll down to the topic in the Table of Contents
- Strategies to Stop Plagiarism (Pepperdine University)
- The Web and Plagiarism (Global Learning Resources, Inc.)
[Coming soon: Plagiarism stories and cheating Websites. Yes, I've been to "The House of Cheat," and I'm acquainted with "School Sucks"--and many more paper mills. . . .] Top of page
Use the APEx Formula.
APEx is an abbreviation for the following procedure:
Assertion+Passage (quoted, paraphrased, or summarized) in support of the assertion+Explanation and/or Example.
Assertion. First, make a claim or assertion about your topic that is related to the information embedded in the quotation, paraphrase, or summary you wish to use in this section of your paper.
Passage. Second, bring in the passage: (1) introduce it by providing attribution (naming and identifying the credentials of the source); (2) cite the passage itself--word for word if you are quoting it, in a re-organized and different style if you are paraphrasing the content, or a in a summary form if you are digesting a long passage into a shorter one; and (3) cite your source with a parenthetical citation.
Explanation. Third, explain the meaning of the passage you have cited. Interpret it in relation to your thesis. Tell how it supports or illustrates the assertion you made at the beginning of this APEx section. Show the implications of the passage in light of your topic and thesis.
APEx EXAMPLE: The example below comes from a paper on the value of the in-person or face-to-face encounter in a world increasingly mediated by technological separators which function to help us communicate with or learn from one another (television, radio, telephone, Internet). You've already read about this topic and passage as an example of attribution:
[Assertion] There is no question that human presence cannot be replicated in cyberspace or via sound or microwave. There is something about being face to face which permits a communication impossible otherwise. [Passage: the passage begins with its introduction here and continues to the quotation below] This something is what Walter Ong--scholar of language and orality, and University Professor of Humanities & Professor of Humanities in Psychiatry at St. Louis University, MO. in his later years of work--calls "primary orality." In his classic 1982 text, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, Ong makes the following clarification:
Primary orality fosters personality structures that in certain ways are more communal and externalized, and less introspective than those common among literates. Oral communication unites people in groups. Writing and reading are solitary activities that throw the psyche back on itself. A teacher speaking to a class which he [or she] feels and which feels itself as a close-knit group, finds that if the class is asked to pick up its textbooks and read a given passage, the unity of the group vanishes as each person enters into his or her private lifeworld. (69)
[Explanation] If primary orality fosters personalities that engage in positive social interchange, then perhaps we are depriving our children today of that rich experience when we buy them the televisions, stereos, and computers which we hope to lead to their development as human beings? Could this deprivation be the source of our twentieth-century angst? Was it the solipsistic egoism of those violent video games, supplanting the private space for the common ground, that led those two boys to kill their classmates in Colorado just a few days ago? Perhaps one helpful, and at least harmless, corrective would be to encourage oral, communal storytelling both at home and in school--as a restorative and supplement to the reading, writing, and technological activities which we expect our twenty-first century children to be engaged in. I can imagine someone telling the Navajo Creation Story, bit by bit, over days or weeks, to his or her friends and family as a way of gathering them together in the web of the storytelling. They are there together to hear and participate in the telling, maybe even to add new content that brings the story alive. It's the only way they can get this knowledge, through a communal storytelling event, in real time and place, where they hear the story and at the same time sense and value each other's full physical presence. While most, probably all, students will have some degree of literacy--it might be possible to create more of a sense of community if we supplemented, or even replaced, our reading assignments (reports, documentation, research, etc.) with storytelling sessions. It would be wise to hire a storyteller to help build community. We may find, however, that it is difficult to teach orality to literates.
When you follow the APEx formula, you can be better assured of making the research your own. APEx helps you find an original perspective and encourages you to use your own words and thinking to explain what you have learned. In this way, you are constructing meaning: you are CREATING and TRANSFORMING information, not just regurgitating it or transferring it from one place to another. APEx helps ensure that in the process of your work as a researcher, you make for yourself an opportunity to create new knowledge and understanding both for yourself and for others. Top of page
Gloria
Floren, Letters Department, MiraCosta College, One Barnard Drive, Oceanside, California
92056. U.S.A. |
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