Citation Standards
Your essays are expected to meet strict citation standards. These are imposed because, in the recent past, too many essays have come across my desk that contain plagiarism. Some of the cases are probably inadvertent but others were too flagrant to be the result of ignorance.
The basic standard: Every use of another author’s words or ideas must be cited. Exceptions primarily include the use of reference sources for regularly used known constants (such as the specific gravity of a standardized fluid). When in doubt about whether to cite, it is better to cite than not.
In planning your essays, it is often very helpful to discuss your ideas with others, including your classmates and teachers. If someone makes a general suggestion, it does not have to be cited. However, if someone gives you a key bit of information that you use for support in your essay, then it has to be cited. Nevertheless, depending on the material, it may be attributed to your source or you might instead look it up in a different source. For example, if you are told about a newspaper article that provides key facts for your case study, then you might just cite the article rather than your informant. In a professional context, if you cite the article you should also give a “Thank you” in the citation to the person who drew it to your attention.
Much of the plagiarism that I have recently seen comes from the Internet. It is so easy to cut and paste that some people seem to do it without thinking (or even reading what they paste). For this reason, any key words or thoughts in your work that are also found on the web will arouse my suspicion. The burden will be on the person who submits the writing to prove that they did not copy it from the web without giving the source a proper citation.
One way to meet the burden is to do a web search of your key thoughts and words. If they are also on the web, then indicate this in a citation. That is, give two citations, one for print media and one for web. Or, better, rethink your position. Is there a better way of stating it? Perhaps the web also contains criticisms of the position. Respond to the criticisms. That is, use the web to add to the thoroughness of your essay. And, cite the sources.
A typical philosophy paper is about one or more philosophers and the positions that are advocated or disputed. The discussion must be about both the positions and the evidence used to support and criticize them. On the web, you will find a great deal of commentary about philosophers and the conclusions that they draw. Use the commentary to help you read the original texts. In your essay, discuss the original and defend your views by quoting the philosopher's own words. Quotations from/and citations to the commentary are therefore usually irrelevant to the goal of a philosophy paper. The major exception would be for a paper whose topic is commentators who disagree about what the philosophers mean.
How to cite the web: A proper citation has to be more than a link or web address. You need to also indicate the title of the page as well as the date and time that it was visited. Also indicate the browser (including its version number) as web sites might be updated at any time and may appear differently in different browsers.
For example: My home page address is http://academic.csuohio.edu/polen/home/. As a courtesy to my readers in an electronic format, I do not just list it but make it a link, http://academic.csuohio.edu/polen/home/.
I might cite it as:
Nelson Pole’s Home Page, http://academic.csuohio.edu/polen/home/, Title: Nelson Pole, Visited: July 1, 2009 at 9:45 AM with Mozilla Firefox v.3.5.
In 2007 my home address, like most other CSU addresses, was different. This is one of the reasons why you need to carefully date all web citations.
Consider a citation to a site that I operate at CSU, The LogicCoach Help Site at http://academic.csuohio.edu/polen/LC10_WebHelp/ If you click on the link to Basic Concepts that is found on the home page, then a new page opens that is about Arguments. However, the address in the browser bar does not change! So, if you quote the Argument page and use the above address in the citation, your reader may not be able to find your source. Instead, you need to explain how to get from the page that you cite to the source that you are quoting.
Definition of Argument, http://academic.csuohio.edu/polen/LC10_WebHelp/, Title: LogicCoach Help Site, Visited: June 28, 2009 at 9:30 AM with Internet Explorer, 8.0. (Click on Chapter 1, Basic Concepts)
On the other hand, on some browsers, at the bottom, you may be able to see the actual address even if it does not show in the browser bar. If so, you could write a direct citation.
Definition of Argument, http://academic.csuohio.edu/polen/LC10_WebHelp/1/11arg.htm, Title: LogicCoach Help Site, Visited: June 28, 2009 at 9:30 AM with Internet Explorer, 8.0.
A related concern is that a page may require a paid subscription to access. You might not be aware of this if you access the page on someone else’s computer.