Dear Habermas Logo A Jeanne Site

Pass? or Prepared? Rudiger Appel's Figurine and Link to his site.

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: June 16, 2000
E-Mail jeanne
E-Mail Susan

On Plagiarism and Interpreting Data

This Pass or Prepared? is brought to you, courtesy of the Social Science Research Institute Council, from their Workshop on Wednesday, June 14, 2000. Earl Babbie, whose name many of you will recognize from discussions on methods and statistics, has written an essay on plagiarism.

Based on Earl Babbie's essay, answer the following questions:

Click on any question number to see jeanne's answer to that question.

  1. Is plagiarism an issue in methods and statistics?

  2. Dowdall, Logio, Babbie, and Halley, state in their textbook interpretation that if Lambda is 0.132, for abortion and religious affiliation, then "Knowing a person's religious affilitation, . . . allows us to predict their attitude on abortion 13 percent more accurately." (Adventures in Criminal Justice Research, Pine Forge Press, 1999. At p.231.)

    Suppose that my teacher does not want me to copy the interpretation. If I wrote:

    Lambda is 0.132. That means that using a person's religious affiliation to predict their attitude on abortion would give a 13 percent more accurate prediction.

    would this be acceptable?

    Figurine by Rudiger Appel. Notice that you can see three effects in the animation. Either the Variation on the Kandinsky figurine appears to turn in a clockwise direction, or in a counterclockwise direction, or it appears to open and close. Can you see all three effects? Try. Fascinated? Link to Appel's site and then link to the background he provides. Scroll down until you find a link to background.
