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Subject:RE: (Possibly OT) Can I quote you? From:"Diane L. Fixx" <dianefixx -at- vtlink -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 2 May 2002 12:24:53 -0400
** I know that this is coming a little late, but I thought it might be
helpful. **
From posting by Keith Cronin
<snip>
I guess more than an ethics question, it's an issue of
legitimacy: are opinions stated in an Internet bulletin board
"quotable" as academic research? What do you think?
<snip>
When posting to a discussion list, you are taking the chance that you
will be quoted. At the same time, when quoting from a discussion list,
you are taking a chance that the material may or may not be accurate.
Every person on this list may have a different idea on how something
"should" or "shouldn't" be done. As a student, I use this list as a
guide for where to go when I come to a dead end on my research. The
guidance and help that we can get is wonderful, but when writing an
academic paper, you need to verify any information that is given as a
'fact'.
I am currently working on a paper about Ethics in Technical
Communication. This discussion list has been a great reference! For my
paper on ethics, I have quoted from this list, since ethics and morals
seem to be based largely on opinion and the consensus of a group.
If you quote from a discussion list, you need give credit to the author
of the posting. Even if you are not using a direct quote from the list,
but are summarizing the information and putting it into a paper, you
need to include the posting in your bibliography. Not citing your
source can be seen as a violation of the ethical standards at most
universities.
Two places to look:
1) The "Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications" gives an
example of how to properly site a message from a discussion list or a
direct email on page 27 of the second edition.
2) The "Chicago Manual of Style - 14th edition" also covers electronic
bulletin board/discussion list postings. A great is example is in
section 15.424 example number 4.
Hope this helps.
Diane Fixx
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