Accidental Discovery

While looking up figs and embedded citations, I came across this list of plagiarists. It makes me want to find out what was the lifted part in their work, you know? Mr. Purrington shows the reasons in his explanation of plagiarism (see #5 in the article)

colinpurrington.com

2 Ways to Paraphrase using In-Text Citation

In-text citation is including a small bit of a whole citation along with information that has been paraphrased so the reader can use that piece of source and find the whole citation on the reference page for further reading. It can be done in 2 ways: embedding and referencing.

For example, let's use a book. This is the full citation using Son of Citation Machine:  Van Allsburg, C. (1993). The sweetest fig. Boston, MA: HMH Publishers for Young Readers.

Embedded citing is done when the source is part of the paraphrasing such as According to Van Allsburg (1993), figs can be magical and eating them changes a person's life.  See? The source for the book is part of the paraphrased information.

In a referenced citing, the paraphrasing information would read Figs can be magical and eating them changes a person's life (Van Allsburg, 1993). With referencing the in-text citing happens after the paraphrasing is stated. Notice how the in-text citation comes before the period.

Embedded....citation is part of the paraphrasing
Referenced....citation comes after the paraphrasing

Making Notes

Research revolves around questions and the answers that spring from them. The process of taking notes is actually Making notes...reading information, and summarizing it in original words. Index cards are used for notes, and now spreadsheets. Sources are given a code and that code is used for each note made from that source. This is done for two reasons: to keep order and to avoid plagiarism. A note is anything that answers the question.

Sources and notes can be coded on  a spreadsheet, which makes it easy to cut and paste notes into a paper later on IF THE NOTES WERE PARAPHRASED AND IN-TEXT CITED as the notes were made. Notice how my source was coded with a capital A, and all my example notes are linked to their sources with the same code: A-1 (for the first note), A-2 (for the second note), and so on.

Citation machine expedites the process of preparing the citation and in-text citation. Make sure to use APA format!

readingteacherct.blogspot.com

Active Voice in the Fig Orchard

Active voice is a way of writing that is direct and to-the-point. It is clear and free from unnecessary words that do nothing to clarify the meaning of a sentence. Unlike other ways to write taught in English classes, such as narrative and expository, active voice is used in scientific writing. Examples of writing converted to active voice:

In the research for figgy pudding, you can easily see that puddings are made the way you make fruitcakes. Your oven setting is the same, your ingredients are similar, but the container you use is different.

Active voice: In the research for figgy pudding, it appears to be made much like fruitcakes. Ingredients and oven settings are similar, but the baking container is different.

Differences: you's are deleted, number of words went from 36 to 26, the meaning is clearer and more direct.

talentmechanic.wordpress.com