9.6: Case Study- Scholarly Research
Case Study: Scholarly Research
Jazmin has to write a paper for her English class on a topic of her choice. In the directions, her professor states that students must find five articles for the paper and two of them must be scholarly. Jazmin is not really sure what her instructor means by scholarly articles. She googles "cancer," and an overwhelming number of results show up. Jazmin picks one of the first websites in her results. The website is claiming that people should not treat cancer with chemotherapy, and instead they should use an herbal supplement for treatment. The website sells the herbal supplement directly on their site, and there are ads for numerous other supplements they sell too. Jazmin remembers from class that she should look for an author of the website, but she can't seem to find any information about the author. Jazmin cuts and pastes many paragraphs from the website into her paper. She remembers her instructor saying something about citing sources using MLA format, but since she isn't sure how to use MLA format, she just includes the website address at the end of the paper. When Jazmin gets her paper back, she sees many notes from her professor. Jazmin did not meet the requirements of the assignment, and the source she used is not credible. Her instructor also wants to meet with her to discuss plagiarism in the paper.
1. Why do you think the source Jazmin used is not credible?
2. What aspects of the assignment was Jazmin missing?
3. Where might be a better place for her to search for sources?
4. Why do you think she was accused of plagiarism?
5. What resources could Jazmin use to help her in the future?