How to avoid plagiarism: paraphrasing
EXAMPLE 1: CAPTURING STUDENTS' FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF WRITING IN THE ACADEMIC SETTING
TASK DESCRIPTION:
​Consider the following questions and write a text of 300-400 words.
An online dictionary may be used.
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Questions:
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If you had to start work on your bachelor thesis next week, how would you approach this task?
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Can you describe the writing process?
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How would you structure your work?
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What sources would you use?
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What overall challenges do you envisage in writing your thesis?
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What aspects of writing do you think you might not be able to manage?
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What support would you expect from your supervisor?
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How much contact with your supervisor would you consider helpful?
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STUDENT REPLY
I would probably start by looking for field of interest which I want my bachelor thesis to take part in. After roughly finding the topic I would then sit together with my supervisor to formulate the exact title of my bachelor thesis/ what I am going to write about. In general I think of my academic supervisor as the person to guide me if I have questions and to confirm that I’m going in the right direction with my work. Therefore I think that especially in the early stages more help in needed, than in the middle of my bachelor thesis, where I might just want to confirm one or two things, and at the end again to make sure everything was done right.
Now I would start collecting info material/sources to create the general knowledge about my bachelor thesis topic. I consider looking for books and ebooks in our library, as well as looking on the internet if i can find any books or even other bachelor theses regarding my topic. If that topic however is closely connected to one of our professor’s subjects, I would also ask him for literatur tipps/information.
Structuring my paper considering my current knowledge first of all I would introduce the topic and why i picked it. Then I would get more into detail what I am exactly going to examine in my bachelor thesis/ what is the overall goal to find out. I would then structure the information needed to examine this into different topics (e.g culture, economics, industry...). These
topics I would then give detailed information about from the sources I’ve picked. After that all that is left is the analysis of my bachelor thesis/ the conclusion. Lastly you obviously want to make sure to indicate all your sources with footnotes and to make sure your list of references is correct and complete.
I think that I first need to get a basic knowledge before I can even think about starting. Secondly I think the source/information collection is the crucial point of the whole bachelor thesis and also takes much time/effort. And lastly I think for me it will be most difficult to manage that exact time/ effort thing since I tend to be very lazy sometimes.