<p>Below is a list of all the sections of my english thesis paper where the teacher THINKS I should cite/put into my own words/include a source. The thing is, ALL of these sections are written by ME. These are MY words, my scientific analysis, and most of all, my own explanations. I doubt my teacher can find any proof that I copied these sections from books/internet sources. But it would suck if she typed in some of the lines on google, came across this thread on CC, and think that I copied from this post. What do you guys think I should do? I really worked hard on this paper, and I don’t want to change any of it. When I read it to myself, everything seems to flow really well. Please post your thoughts.</p>
<p>
^^^The teacher wrote “not your words - use quotation marks!”
^^^The teacher wrote “source?”
^^^The teacher wrote “source?”
^^^The teacher wrote “source?” and “your word?” for TEDIOUS.
^^^The teacher wrote “source?”
^^^The teacher wrote “source?” and “not your words - use quotation marks!”
^^^The teacher wrote “source?”</p>
<p>This paper is incomplete. I only finished the first 10 of 15 required pages. But at the end, the teacher wrote “An interesting topic! *You must make sure to cite all your sources in the paper. Use quotation marks or write the author and page #. Do not simply copy information.”</p>
<p>Once again, I did not copy ANY information in my paper. I quoted/cited ALL copied information/ideas.</p>
<p>Wow…that sucks is all I can say. I hate when teachers just assume that kids are too stupid to come up with stuff on their own. Did you talk to your teacher about this?</p>
<p>This phenomenom is similar to the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons which states that the electrons will always occupy the lowest energy level of an atom to remain stable.</p>
<p>Not everyone knows this, so you do need to cite it.</p>
<p>The general rule I learned is that if something isn’t common knowledge, cite it. Talk to your teacher and tell her that you learned all this before and thought that it was common knowledge. </p>
<p>I hate when teachers do that. It only seals my belief that they have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about. Whatever is my usual thought, unless they just really tick me off.</p>
<p>No, I didn’t talk to my teacher yet. I got my paper back today, and we were taking a test. So I didn’t bother to look at it until I got home. By the way, I used the word TEDIOUS and she thinks I copied that from somewhere. But seriously, I learned this word in 5th grade when my 5th grade teacher gave us vocabulary to study every week. This was one of the few words I actually remembered too!</p>
<p>You wrote a scientific themed paper for your English thesis is what you did. For example, the Pauli Exclusion Principle is cool, but it does not pertain to English. Maybe your professor, asides from being ridiculous, just does not know what you are speaking of? </p>
<p>But, the thing is, that your professor should have ran parts of your thesis through Google. So, your professor is a lazy bone (as we say in the South, sometimes). Your lazy bone professor would rather assume things than be an adult with their grading. See, you can run anything through Google in order to make sure the paper is on the up and up. </p>
<p>So, I wonder! Maybe you can explain things to your professor or ask them what it is they want exactly. I am at a loss with this and hope someone else can help you more.</p>
<p>You do need to provide sources. Like you’re first paragraph about the lightning striking the copper wire. Unless you conducted the experiment, you probably got it from a source. Even if you paraphrased it, you need to mention where you got the information. Usually you cite a source with parentheses enclosing the author name and year of publication of the study at the end of the sentence (e.g., (Williams et al. 2005)). The format of the citation does vary depending on the field of study.</p>
<p>BTW, are you an international or is your instructor an international?</p>
<p>fudgemaster -
No, we both are not internationals. By the way, I made up those claims in hopes of filling up 15 pages. I didn’t really paraphrase the ideas from any source. Should I just look in textbooks/other sources with information close enough to confirm my claims? I wrote those things off the top of my head; I’m not even sure if they are scientifically accurate. My English teacher is reading this paper; I doubt she’ll verify the validity of my claims. LOLOLOL.</p>
<p>Let me get this straight…you “made up those claims” and you’re wondering why your prof wrote “Source?” 6 times? Now I’m totally with you on tedious but you need to cite all your claims. Use real sources (no Wikipedia) to reference those statements and she won’t doubt the validity of your work. Even if you don’t directly quote or copy something, you have to cite the fundamental elements. It’s a fact of life for any research related paper.</p>