PSY 301 Week 2 Assignment

Academic voice is a way of writing that allows one to speak straightforward and professional. “You use the academic voice because your opinion is based on thinking; in your paper you’re revealing your thought process to your reader” (Academic Voice). It is important to avoid using the word “you,” informal language, abbreviations, and contractions, to use evidence to support evidence on the topic, and make sure to use accurate words. Plagiarism occurs when a person takes other persons words and uses them as their own words. “This includes taking information from web pages, articles, books, blogs, or any other source, and not giving credit to the original author” (Plagiarism Guide). When something is being cited it is important to cite in the paper as well as at the end of the paper. To avoid any type of plagiarizing there are things to be aware of such as placing quotations correctly, using the proper formatting style, and do not use assignments form previous students, this includes paying for others work online. It is something that tends to happen often whether it is on accident or on purpose. It is extremely important to make sure that every source that is used is cited properly. There are various ways to cite including APA, MLA, and and guidelines for each.

In the rewritten passage I have seen quite a few errors. There is plagiarizing in the first sentence, even though the sentence is in quotations it does not have a source at the end of the sentence so we are aware of where it came from. In the second sentence of the passage there needs to be quotations around the sentence as well, just because a few words are changed doesn’t make it their own words. The last sentence has quotations, but does not cite at the end where the information quoted came from. Another thing is there are no references listed at the end of the passage.

“The correlational method can be very useful, but it must be used with caution” (Feenstra, J., 2013). Being aware of a variable can help speculate another variable, but it does not necessarily mean that one caused the other even though the possibility is there. Further research will need to be done to have the actual truth of the correlations. For example, with a positive correlation could be to use height and weight. Taller people tend to be heavier. These two have a correlation, but that does not mean that taller people are the cause of being heavier, or that being heavier is due to being taller. “Cum hoc propter hoc-correleation does not imply causation” (Feenstra, J., 2013).

It is of great importance to utilize academic writing within my program and intended career. Features that will be relevant to use would be having a serious tone, clear processes of reasoning, being explorative, and having evidence. I want to get into mental health counseling or grief counseling and these things will be important because I will be working with people daily with different situations. When you counsel someone sometimes you have to dig and explore to get to the problem, have reasons why things are the way they are, and be serious at the same time. For me the most difficult form of plagiarism to avoid was the “re-tweet.” This means that a paper would include proper citing but relies too closely on the text’s original wording or source. To fix this I need to remember to put quotations around the things I am quoting, and citing at the end of the sentence. Using more of my own words, rather than citing the entire sources useful information will definitely help.

References

Academic Voice. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/finding-your-voice/finding-your-voice-academic-voice/

Feenstra, J. (2013). Introduction to social psychology [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/

Plagiarism Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://writingcenter.ashford.edu/plagiarism-guide