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Dear All,
College writing often involves integrating information from published sources into your own writing in order to add credibility and authority--this process is essential to research and the production of new knowledge.
For who are concerned with writing a report, research or proposal for such topic of your concern, as many students, you will be doughty in your writing: Where to begin? What to write? What to include? How to document it? The questions seem endless. There are a number of pitfalls to avoid when writing a research essay. Being aware of these dangers and knowing where to get help are the first steps in writing a successful paper.
In general, Common Errors in Research Essay writing that we should avoid. And in correspondence, there will be some of suggested solutions to overcome those situations you have to think about:
1- Choosing too large a topic - Choose as small a topic to establish structure, organization, and focus. A standard3 part thesis contains:
n statement of topic
n your position on it
n basic parts of your argument (blueprint or plan of development)
- Once you have a thesis, creating even a basic outline will help you stay on topic and adequately develop your ideas.
2- Not planning the process – By leaving it too late, starting the process several weeks in advance, or collecting research material too early. Use the1/3 time plan:
n 1/3 of time to research and prepare
n 1/3 of time for drafting
n 1/3 of time for revising, and editing
- Before collecting a lot of research material, it is valuable to do a bit of background reading from your textbook in order to define and refine your topic.
3- Not following instructors’ specifications – to avoid this, do the following:
n Conforming to instructor specifications is good!
n Use the marking key or written instructions as a revision checklist.
n Be specified by your instructor.
4- Trying to use all the sources you found – Even if you use your own words, if you obtained the information or ideas you arepresenting from a source, you must document the source when:
-a- Information: If a piece of information isn’t common knowledge (factual information), you need to provide a source.
-b- Ideas: An author’s ideas may include not only points made and conclusions drawn, but, for instance, a specific method or theory, the arrangement of material, or a list of steps in a process or characteristics of a medical condition.
n If a source provided any of these, i.e. information or ideas, you need to acknowledge the source.
n Select only those sources that directly apply to your paper.
n How many? Check with your instructor and/or assignment
n Journal articles are easier to use than full length books.
n Not all sources are credible; use the databases recommended for your program.
5- Using too many quotes- quotes arethe author's specific word or words:
= Only use quotes when a summary will corrupt or lessen the idea.
= You must place those words within quotation marks and credit the source.
= Use quotes for authority, eloquence, and control.
= How many quotes you use? Use only1 –2 / page and try to keep them short.
= The remaining information should be summarized or paraphrased.
6- Using quotes or paraphrases to make your points
= You make the point: use quotes and summaries to support your ideas.
= You can use direct quotations of phrases from the original within your paraphrase, and that you don’t need to change or put quotation marks around shared language
= Avoid the “necklace” paper: don’t string together a series of direct quotations or paraphrases.
= In fact, avoid paraphrasing because the idea is to summarize your research. If you are restating someone else’s work or ideas, you have to be very careful you don’t overdo it or that your instructors will accept paraphrased research.
= Be selective. Unless your assignment is to do a formal or “literal” paraphrase,* you usually don’t need to paraphrase an entire passage; instead, choose and summarize the material that helps you make a point in your paper.
7- Skipping the revising process
= When reading a passage, try first to understand it as a whole, rather than pausing to write down specific ideas or phrases.
= If the idea doesn’t fit, take it out.
= If you have a hole in your ideas, fill it.
8- Not checking your documentation – So, Down to spacing, periods, brackets, ...the works!
9- Skipping the editing process:
n Look for and fix your common grammar and mechanics errors.
n Use your grammar checker, but make your own decisions.
n Run the spell checker - - this is a no-brainer! Double-check for homonyms which the spell checker won’t locate as errors.
n Make sure your final version is a clean copy.
10- Plagiarizing and other forms of academic dishonesty- When you write, you often need to integrate material from published sources into your own writing, and avoid Plagiarism is "to steal and pass off (the ideas and words of another) as one's own" or to "present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source."By teaching you how to properly integrate information from published sources into your own writing can be done as follows:
n Think of what “your own words” would be if you were telling someone who’s unfamiliar with your subject (your mother, your brother, a friend) what the original source said.
n Describing the kinds of material you must document; All information you got from your sources except common knowledge in the field must be credited – in text and on your reference page.
n This means that you should have4 –5 in text citations per paragraph.
n Don’t rely on only one source per paragraph.
n If you can find it on the Internet, so can your instructor!
n The work must be your own and must be the first time it’s submitted for grading.
n Illustrate unsuccessful and successful paraphrases; and offer advice on how to paraphrase
n Provide guidelines for using direct quotations.
11- Not backing up your documents:
- We all learn this one sooner or later – failure to back up your documents in more than one place can mean you may lose all evidence of your work.
- Not asking for advice
- Ask a friend with strong writing skills for feedback on your draft, but don’t expect friends or family to take responsibility for editing your work.
- Make an appointment with a writing instructor in Learning Services for some advice during the organizational or draft phases of your work.
12- Results Misinterpretation:
= Addressing possible confounders is an important element for proper interpretation of results.
= However, it is often impossible to rule out entirely the influence of confounders.
= Care must be taken not to misinterpret the results of an evaluation and to avoid exaggerated or unwarranted claims of effectiveness. This will inevitably lead to loss of credibility.
= Any potential confounders should be openly acknowledged in the analysis of the evaluation results.
= It is important to state all results in a clear and unambiguous way so that they are easy to interpret.
13- Common Knowledge – You do not need to cite a source for material considered common knowledge:
a- General common knowledge: is factual information considered to be in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of military, political, literary, and other historical events. In general, factual information contained in multiple standard reference works can usually be considered to be in the public domain.
b- Field-specific common knowledge is “common” only within a particular field or specialty. It may include facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to readers within that discipline. For instance, you may not need to cite a reference to Piaget’s developmental stages in a paper for an education class or give a source for your description of a commonly used method in a biology report–but you must be sure that this information is so widely known within that field that it will be shared by your readers.
- If in doubt, be cautious and cite the source. And in the case of both general and field-specific common knowledge, if you use the exact words of the reference source, you must use quotation marks and credit the source.
Have a nice day,
Lubna Al-Sharif
Avoid plagiarism- Highly unprofessional
Avoiding "references" which are irrelvant to your research
Avoid trying to make reasrch thesis unecessarily long when not required
A Research writer's major concern should be one's thorough knowledge of the subject.
One should have taken a literary tour of the primary and secondary sources.
One should scrupulously avoid plagiarism and acknowledge all his sources as this is concerned with 'Scholarly Honesty'.
A Research writer must open avenues for further research.
A Research writer must welcome questions and must be able to clarify the doubts.
A Research writer must have the courage to accept responsibility for what he/ she has said/ written and must welcome criticism.
Dr.R.Gandhi Subramanian
You should know how to write scholarly. These will help you to avoid the plagiarism. In addition, this allows you to have coherence in your ideas and structure which increase the acceptability of your proposal and improve the opportunities of publication
