Journal Part 2: Plagiarism

My answers from the Prudue OWL assignment:

1.  I think this writing is okay, because the person is stating facts about his or herself.
2.  I would put a reference as to how I came to the conclusion stated.
3.  I would rewrite the sentence: "I find it ridiculous that 57% (my source) of high school students think their teachers assign too much homework.
4.  I am not sure what to do with this one, because the thought is credited to Martin Luther King within the paragraph. So to be on the safe side, I would do a brief cite at the end of the paragraph.
5.  This one is okay.  The citation at the end gave credit to the quoted parts of the answer.
6.  I would give this answer a brief citation and reword it by stating that, "King writes to his fellow clergy....." Then I would cite it at the end.
7.  The writer acknowledges the information paraphrased by Kara, so it is fine as written.
8.  This one is common knowledge, so needs no citation.

That was a lot of information I wish I would have had 20 years ago when I first went to college.  Not having been a confident writer, I was never sure how to decide if I should cite information.  Now,  I am much more enlightened.  As I write papers, I will refer to my notes on when I have to cite.  There are 5 must cites: direct quotations, paraphrasing someone's ideas or thoughts, arguable assertions, statistical information, and graphics.  The maybes I will ask myself if it is common knowledge or can I find it in a number of textbooks or encyclopedias? If the answer is yes, then I don't have to cite it. I can cite the source if I want the reader to see the source.  This seems pretty simple if you are diligent in your note-taking and organized while writing your paper (or other tasks that you are using the info for).  If I am in doubt of having to cite a source, I would ask a librarian or my instructor. If neither are available, I would cite it just to be safe.