AMCRambler
Diamond Member
Was thinking about some things and I remembered this happening and wanted to see what you guys thought. I took a history class in college and we had to write a paper on a historical figure regarding or subject chosen from a list the professor compiled. Mine was on Andrew Jackson in regards to something he was famous for. Can't quite remember what it was now, but it doesn't matter.
Anyway, so I wrote the paper, used parenthetical documentation and a works cited page for all the sources I used, or so I thought. After we handed our papers in, the following the professor came to class extremely pissed. He said nearly everyone in the class was a bunch of plagiarists, didn't cite their sources, were stealing other people?s ideas, etc. I was kind of shocked when he told me I was one. I asked him where I didn't cite a source, and he showed me the first paragraph of my essay where I gave a summary of where Jackson grew up, date of birth, where he went to school, there were a few other things but I can't remember them now. I told him I put the source I used for these basic facts in my works cited page and showed it to him. He said that it had to be parenthetically documented or footnoted or I was plagiarizing.
Now I'd been writing papers for 10 years documenting them the same way I had done this one without any complaints from a professor or teacher so I told him so, I even had a copy of the MLA handbook I used to refer to from time to time to make sure I was documenting an electronic or other source correctly. And suddenly this butthead is telling me he can have me thrown out of the school for my paper? As far as I understood inline documentation, you only need to document with a footnote or parenthetically if you are using an exact quote, or you are using an idea (even if rephrased) from another person. Factual information is public knowledge, date of birth, mothers name, etc. I didn't think you would need to cite this inline. So I wanted to get your thoughts, was the dude just friggin nuts? I think so since he said the whole class was plagiarizing. If it was one or two people, yeah maybe I could think I was screwing up. But everybody? I call BS!
Edit: Paragraphs added cry babies
Edit: Spelling corrected, grammar revised, anal retention engaged!
Anyway, so I wrote the paper, used parenthetical documentation and a works cited page for all the sources I used, or so I thought. After we handed our papers in, the following the professor came to class extremely pissed. He said nearly everyone in the class was a bunch of plagiarists, didn't cite their sources, were stealing other people?s ideas, etc. I was kind of shocked when he told me I was one. I asked him where I didn't cite a source, and he showed me the first paragraph of my essay where I gave a summary of where Jackson grew up, date of birth, where he went to school, there were a few other things but I can't remember them now. I told him I put the source I used for these basic facts in my works cited page and showed it to him. He said that it had to be parenthetically documented or footnoted or I was plagiarizing.
Now I'd been writing papers for 10 years documenting them the same way I had done this one without any complaints from a professor or teacher so I told him so, I even had a copy of the MLA handbook I used to refer to from time to time to make sure I was documenting an electronic or other source correctly. And suddenly this butthead is telling me he can have me thrown out of the school for my paper? As far as I understood inline documentation, you only need to document with a footnote or parenthetically if you are using an exact quote, or you are using an idea (even if rephrased) from another person. Factual information is public knowledge, date of birth, mothers name, etc. I didn't think you would need to cite this inline. So I wanted to get your thoughts, was the dude just friggin nuts? I think so since he said the whole class was plagiarizing. If it was one or two people, yeah maybe I could think I was screwing up. But everybody? I call BS!
Edit: Paragraphs added cry babies
Edit: Spelling corrected, grammar revised, anal retention engaged!
