This article focuses on the book Doing Honest Work in College. The discussion centers on tips and ideas gleaned from the book, and how these new learnings can impact how a student studies, performs academically, and lives their life in general. Consideration is given to time management and identifying priorities.
¶ … Honest Work in College
Basic Information From the Book
Preparing a Citation. When a source has provided data, theory, or authoritative opinion, a citation must be provided. In every case, when the concept or content is not original though, it is important to cite both the actual quotations used and the paraphrases. In addition, if conversations with authorities or professors, for instance, emails, or interviews or other similar forms of communication are a source of information, conceptualization, or thought, then citations are required. When you refer to a particular source frequently, multiple citations must be used. Alternately, fewer citations may be applied if the reader can understand from a clarifying statement in the writing that a particular resource has been used to address a particular topic. Note that citations are not needed for facts that are commonly known by the audience for which the writing is intended.
Avoid Plagiarism. Lipson offers three basic principles of academic honesty that, if a student abides by them, can eliminate the chance of any misunderstandings about sourcing material, avoiding accusations of plagiarism and any resulting academic penalties, and insure that the research and writing conducted by a student is more thoughtful, which has important implications for optimizing comprehension of the content and application of knowledge. The principles of academic honesty are as follows: 1) "When you say you did the work yourself, you actually did it." 2) "When you rely on others' work, you cite it. When you use their words, you quote them openly and accurately, and you cite them, too." And, 3) "When you present research materials, you present them fairly and truthfully. That's true whether the research involves data, documents, or the writings of other scholars." (Lipson, ).
Achieve Real Academic Success. An integral relationship exists between academic success and academic integrity. Academic integrity matters because following processes that result in academic integrity also increase the probability that an academic success will be achieved. In addition, academic integrity is a cornerstone of the entire academic system, which is based on honor and authentic representation of one's own scholarly work and how it connects with the work of other scholars. Scholarly work is a form of intellectual property and, as such, these bodies of information are governed by conventional rules of copyright and other legal protections.
What Was Beneficial About The Book? The tips provided by Lipson on taking notes and pulling information directly from the Internet was particularly helpful. It is easy to get in a hurry when conducting research on the Internet, and just copy and paste information onto a notes page without labeling the excerpts. This bad habit means creates more work in the end because it then becomes necessary to go back over the notes, find the URLs on the computer (hopefully only one computer has been used), browse to and reopen the original webpages. Matching the content with the correct source information can be so difficult -- after the fact -- that some good resource information may have to be discarded due to an inability to relocate the original content on the web. The basic tips that Lipson provides on using the Internet for research include the following: 1) Screen the quality of the content found on the Internet -- don't assume accuracy or authority; 2) Don't rely on dragging and dropping content; instead, summarize content in your own words; 3) Have and consistently use a system (like Q-Notes) to mark any content that has been dragged and dropped; 4) Be sure to copy the website URLs and document database information numbers (doi) for later reference. This will greatly facilitate eventual location of websites that have been accessed and from which content will likely be cited. And, 5) Expand the search beyond the immediate search topic and look for resources beyond web content, like scholarly articles, books, and multimedia.
What About The Book Was Not Beneficial? The one thing that kept coming to mind as I read the book was, "What strategies could I use to make better use of my time while researching and writing?" The reason that I thought of this is because the actual researching component of writing a paper can quickly become overwhelming -- and time consuming. Access to information on the Internet can be so easy that a large amount of information accumulates, and it becomes difficult to keep moving forward on the research and evaluate the quality and relevance of the information, all at the same time. Then add to those time and task demands, the need to keep excellent track of the source and citation information. It is a substantial undertaking. Considering all this, I was left wondering what approaches or skills might help with the sorting and evaluation of information, and leave me feeling on top of the process with a clear way forward.
What Insight Did You Gain About Yourself From Reading The Book? I learned that I don't take the time to evaluation the information I access and read; instead, I just scoop up the information as I navigate the web, and so I end up with more information than I can reasonably process in any great depth. I believe this approach causes me to short-cut -- or at least -- postpone the deeper thinking that I will eventually need to carry out in order to achieve academic success.
What Did You Learn From The Author That You Could Apply To Your Own Life? A number of dynamics support academic integrity: 1) Not taking on more than what one can reasonably do; 2) allowing enough time to adequately process and think about the writing and research as one progresses through the work; 3) Valuing academic integrity and the quality of one's work sufficiently to create and sustain the conditions that enable and support this orientation.
Personal Priorities in School. My priorities for schools are to:
1. Impose rationale processes and discipline on my thinking.
2. Learn to write really well, and use my skills to communicate important ideas and persuade people to do good things.
3. Take and complete some especially difficult courses.
4. Get good grades that reflect my effort and the confidence of my family on my capabilities.
5. Make good use of my time so that I can still enjoy time with family and friends.
6. Get enough sleep and eat nutritious food: I am in this for the long haul.
7. Figure out personal time management systems for different aspects of my life. [Note to self: Refer to the publications by David Allen on Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity. See below.]
What steps are you going to take to better manage your time?
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