Wes Bruning's thoughts on Research Papers

Research papers are intended for the student to learn new information. The key operating word here, is "learn."

For our purposes, simply copying and pasting paragraphs from the Internet is not acceptable, even if the copied text is properly identified and footnoted (see links to Plagiarism on my CCC homepage). Again the key word is “learn.”

Research papers will clearly illustrate that the student has gained new knowledge. The sources of this knowledge may be from the course text, other books or printed material or the Internet. In my definition of research, reminiscing past experiences, television shows, movies, radio programs, commercial jingles, etc., are not valid research sources. The exception the previous statement is those sources that are documented in a retrievable form. That is, the source material is available for review.

Research papers should have a minimum of five (5) references. This does not include encyclopedias and dictionaries. All sources must be cited according to either MLA or APA standards. The CCC library has standard reference guides for student use. The APA website is http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html and a guide for the MLA standard can be found at http://webster.commnet.edu/mla/index.shtml . These are just two of the numerous web resources available (search www.google.com for many more).

When using web-based sources it is very easy to copy and paste text. However, in the mechanical act of copying and pasting, it is not necessary to even read the text being copied. No learning takes place. Only when the student reads the text, compares the text with other relevant text, thinks about it, combines the various ideas into a coherent thought then expresses that thought verbally does learning take place. (Or rather, the opportunity for learning takes place).

Research papers submitted to me will have a relatively small portion of cut and paste content. As an arbitrary figure, I will state that any submitted research paper that contains over 15% of the content as quotes (i.e. copied text enclosed in quotes (“…“) with documented sources) will receive a two (2) letter grade deduction from what the paper would have been had the threshold not been exceeded. I will count words (using MS Word’s word count) to enforce this rule.

Papers submitted with plagiarized content will receive an “F” grade. Any student submitting two (2) plagiarized assignments will receive an “F” in the course. Refer to the CCC student handbook for disciplinary options regarding plagiarism and cheating.