Citation and Avoiding Plagiarism

To me and any academics, plagiarism is the worst academic crime you can commit. Plagiarism is taking someone else's ideas and using them as your own. To avoid plagiarism, we have to cite our sources. This is also known as referencing sources, or providing a bibliography. Now, in our first draft, citations are not a top priority, but we can save ourselves time by providing links to our sources in our first draft. For example, look at my example confirmation.

Actually, this supposition stems from a famous scenario from philosopher John Searle in the 1980s. He proposed that an Englishman with no knowledge of Chinese, if locked in a room with an instruction manual for reading and writing Chinese characters, could successfully interpret and respond to messages passed under the door to him from a native Chinese speaker on the outside of the room.

I linked to the article (From Stanford, a reliable academic source) and provided the name of the philosopher. Now everyone knows that this Chinese Room example is not my original work, and no one will think I am trying to take credit for someone else's work. Add links like this:

(Highlight the text you want to link to (1), then click the blue link button in the formatting bar (2), then enter the URL of your source (3), then click Ok)

Later in the quarter we will use APA citations. If you want to get a head start, look here.

Classical Argument Outline Example

Please tag or label this post as "classical argument outline".

This is the outline for your 1st draft of your persuasive essay. This is in the classical argument format. If you need more information on the classical argument, check out the sample classical argument or the classical argument PDF. 

1. The introduction, which warms up the audience, establishes goodwill and rapport with the readers, and announces the general theme or thesis of the argument.

I will start by describing the situation everyone is already familiar with: Computers are powerful and are becoming more and more powerful. Then I will shift attention to how these current computing powers are not as powerful as the pile of gray matter in each of our heads. I will end with my thesis, "The human brain is the most powerful computation tool in the Universe." 

2. The narration, which summarizes relevant background material, provides any information the audience needs to know about the environment and circumstances that produce the argument, and set up the stakes-what’s at risk in this question. In academic writing, this often takes the form of a literature review.

I will summarize the research I've done and provide an explanation for how I will quantify or measure the power of the brain in comparison to other computational tools. I will give a brief history of the evolution of computational tools, from the abacus to Big Blue, the famous chess playing computer. 

3. The confirmation,which lays out in a logical order (usually strongest to weakest or most obvious to most subtle) the claims that support the thesis, providing evidence for each claim.

I will start by examining how computers lack autonomy and therefore any achievement of a computer is really a human achievement. I will examine the ironic list of accomplishments of humans compared to that of computers. I will describe a set of problems that computers can't solve that humans can. I will examine the mathematical comparison between the computational power of the most powerful computers versus the human brain.

4. The refutation and concession, which looks at opposing viewpoints to the writer’s claims, anticipating objections from the audience, and allowing as much of the opposing viewpoints as possible without weakening the thesis.

I will concede that certain tasks computers obviously excel at, but in such a limited set of conditions that it doesn't matter. I will use the metaphor of a professional swimmer that can only excel on sunny days with 78% humidity and 22.3 degree water temperature in a room with no windows and a coach that has to micromanage every decision of the swimmer. 

5. The summation, which provides a strong conclusion, amplifying the force of the argument,  and showing the readers that this solution is the best at meeting the circumstances.

I will close with a summary of my previous points, then a brief consideration of the unquantifiable abilities of the human brain, like emotions and creativity that demonstrate a nuanced level of intelligence that computers have not even started to approach. I will end with a reaffirmation of my original thesis.