Mark's General Comments on Proposals

I am in the middle of reviewing your proposals. Some of you will receive your proposals back today. Others will be returned to you over the next week. Please examine my comments make the necessary revisions and return them to me as soon as possible.

Below you will find some general comments based on issues that I have seen in a number of different proposals. Please review them and pay attention to those comments that are relevant to your proposal. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me,

Mark
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Designing Questions

• Most of you have made a good start but many of you will need to do some research on what makes a good question (e.g., dealing with desirability bias). Each question (or sometimes a set of related questions) needs a little argument explaining what is trying to accomplish and why you have a reasonable expectation that it will accomplish that purpose. If it all possible use questions that have already been tested and used (don’t forget to get permission).

Writing paragraphs

• Please see my blog post on this subject http://keepingtrackoftheworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/writing-paragraphs/

Ethical Review

• Play close attention to respect for persons, concern for welfare and justice. Pay specific attention to the requirements of informed consent (TCPS2, 30). Don’t say you will “try” to be ethical. Say you will be ethical and explain what specific actions you will take to do this. You must base this section on the Tri-Council Policy Statement.

Theological Rationale

• A theological rationale needs to be more than just a list of bible verses on the topic you are covering. You need to develop a biblical argument for why your particular project makes sense. Take another look at Dr. Boers lecture for guidance.

Formatting and Style

• You must consult Turabian for every assignment to assure that you conform to its requirements. It will feel like a pain now but it will save you much grief when you write your thesis in the future. Pay close attention to comments about grammar, punctuation, etc. Concerns will be noted in some places but apply to your entire document.

Making claims

• In an academic paper you cannot make claims based on your own authority. Nor can you just say that you are assuming something and leave it at that. Each claim you make has to be supported with a citation or a logical argument which defends the claim.

Other Comments

• Pay close attention to the requirements of assignments. While I have been lenient about length your other professors will not be. We have also counselled your advisors to return assignment that are too long. Brevity of writing is an exercise in clarity of thinking. Furthermore, outside of Tyndale, most of you will be writing for popular rather academic audiences which have very short attention spans for reading.
• Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions regarding my comments. At the doctoral level professor comments on papers are an invitation to conversation. They are intended to be read, attended to and dialogued about.

Dragon Dictate Speech Recognition Software

Dragon Dictate Speech Recognition Software

This could be good for capturing quotes from books. Could read them in. Could also use if I captured student comments re plagiarism and needed to transcribe.

MyTyndale - Where's the Library?!

Why, when I log into MyTyndale doesn't the library jump out at me? Oh, there it is teeny-tiny print at top -- top of page was hidden I had to scroll up to see it.

The main dilemma I have right now is figuring out how to comply with the Tyndale action research measure-before-and-measure-after requirement. 

I've got all kinds of ideas for research I could do, and all kinds of ideas for actions I could take. My problem is I haven't a single idea for research-action-research.

Here's an idea. My theory could be that Christian institutions need, as a duty, to have the scaffolding in place to promote integrity and inhibit plagiarism. I could "observe" that TTC has little in this area. My remedy could be things like Honor Chapels, updated syllabi, etc. My post observation could be that these are now installed and TTC is now more aligned with the "ought" of scaffolding. But, this is a pretty obvious measure. I suppose I could look for evidences that the scaffolding has actually had an effect?

What I Would Do If There Were No A/R Project?

1. I would not spend endless hours researching plagiarism root causes, etc.

2. I would identify plagiarism solutions, create a list of them and then seek to match them to TTC. Cultural issues here become things like the fact that TTC is not as developed in terms of academic infrastructure as western institutions -- just look at their website as an illustration of this. Library is thinner, academic boots-on-the ground resources are thinner. As well as Less of a commitment to western ways (of thinking and doing).

3. I would seek to implement some of these ideas.  Off the top of my head these ideas would include:

a) beef-up Prospectus to include sufficient statements on academic integrity and plagiarism

b) beef-up syllabi with anti-plagiarism statements and link to Prospectus guidelines

c) beef-up website with same

d) institute an annual "Honor Chapel" that stresses academic integrity, 10X, etc.

e) modify syllabi to include, as appropriate, an early in-class opinion essay to capture student's writing style, level and vocabulary; minimize take-home assignments, e.g., in-class vs. take-home exam, etc.

f) a plagiarism competency quiz

g) How to detect plagiarism handbook for faculty

This would be a "common-sense" approach rather than wrapped in academic theory justifications.

4. I would perhaps survey at the end to see what results if any were obtained.

My main point here is one of academic sufficiency or ???. IOW, the academy has a responsibility to communicate expectations clearly, reinforce these expectations, set the bar clearly whether or not these actions do anything to mitigate actual plagiarism.

"Students have an obligation to be shining lights of moral example, but so does the Christian institution. How does an institution "let its light shine" with regards to the issue of plagiarism? By "getting its house in order" and making sure that it has the infrastructure in place to equip students to avoid plagiarism.

Equipping the saints for the work of ministry / Equipping the students for the work of the academy.

How does one equip students?

1. By communicating expectations clearly.
2. By reinforcing these communications.
3. By forewarning of penalties. And sticking to them.
4. By explaining "why".
5. By measuring student competencies and attitudes.
6. By wrapping plagiarism inside inside institutional and personal honour.

Citing Kindle and E-books

1. http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2011/02/08/08readwriteweb-kindle-updates-software-adds-real-page-numb-72603.html?ref=technology


Kindle Updates Software, Adds Real Page Numbers and Public Notes
By AUDREY WATTERS of ReadWriteWeb
Published: February 8, 2011


2. Wake up, citation styles!
2 Comments · Posted by Chad in eBooks, Libraries/Info Sci, Ramblings, Tech

Everyone, including the New York Times, seems to be hailing Amazon’s decision to add page numbers to the Kindle.

3. Citing the Kindle. Scholarly Kitchen.

4. How Should You Cite from Kindle? Storied Kitchen.

Finding a Book at Tyndale Library

I'm going to give myself the easiest task possible. Simply log into the Tyndale library site and look up a book. Here goes.

Select Tyndale Library Services. 

Select OnTRAC.

Paste in Standing in the Shadow of Giants : Plagiarists, Authors, Collaborators.

Go.

"Could not retrieve search results." Does this mean "not found"? My first failure.

It booted me into "Advanced Search". Why? And why is the Search button so far over to the bottom right -- I have to scroll down to even see it.

For the search on Howard Rebecca Moore ALL OF THESE within AUTHOR NAME

the system returned Things for boys to make and do / Emily Bone, Rebecca Gilpin and Leonie Prat

So, the search doesn't even work properly.

How do I get back to where I was? Click "Search". 

Takes me to a new screen.

I'll try entering "plagiarists" within... what does "Title Keyword" mean? Same as word in "Title"?

"Search resulted in no hits."

Well, that's different from "Could not retrieve search results." I wonder if these two phrases are supposed to mean the same thing? Who knows?

"Your session will end in two minutes".

I'll try a simple search on Plagiarism. Bingo. I'll select 8 books. Add to List. I tried this. It asked for my Patron Code. I guess a patron is a hoity-toity user. I'll try emailing to see what it emails. Seemed to work. OK, I've emailed it; how do I get back to where I was? I have no idea. Search? No, got a blank search screen. Why is this interface so unintuitive, so difficult to use? Am I being punished for clicking Send EMail, and now I can't get back to where I was? Maybe it kept my search. Click My Searches. Nope. Click My List? OK, at least my list is intact -- but my search is, apparently, "gone". Now, what do I do if I want to get one of these books -- there's no Tyndale "Call No.".  I'll try clicking on one. Ah. There's the call number. This site would be so much better if the list included the call numbers. Then, you could just call it up and go down the list and get your books.

Checking my email of search results. Huge amounts of white space and not well-formatted. Oh well, at least the data is there. "Holdings Education Stacks". Hmm. That probably means they're over at the other building.

"Your session will end in two minutes".

OK. I got MyList in OnTRAC. I wonder if this list is only in OnTRAC, or if it is for all searches? MyAccount certainly seems more general than OnTRAC. If it's an OnTRAC List, it would be clearer if it said so.

* * *

Searching for books was pretty hit-and-miss. I think I'll search for journal articles. Search for "plagiarism instrument" within Education within 360.

"No clustered results are available. Please select another tab above or refine your search."

What is a clustered result??!! Same as "nothing found"? Same as "no hits"? 

Please select another tab -- what does this mean? Ah, the search defaulted to search within Titles. I'll go back and make it broader. Hmm. I got some "clustered results". Now I know what a cluster is.

OK, I've found some articles. I've clicked on their boxes. Now what do I do? Add to list? There is no list option here. Is there no way to save these search results??!!  I'll try clicking on one. Gale Research. I can "Bookmark" this. Probably a bookmark within Gale Research only. What an incomprehensible process!!!!

Zotero seems to be on the job, though. If only I knew how to use it!

I see there's a download tab with a floppy disc symbol. That's reassuring. I click download.

"Note:While the data elements for the following citations have been formatted to meet the latest citation standards set forth by the respective agencies, these citations provide the available publication data for the document cited and should only serve as a guide and not as a replacement for the latest guidebooks -- or those required by your instructor. Please refer to the provided examples for proper formatting."

What does this 360 Link do?!