Reference no: EM131809784

FIRST PART:

Overfamiliarity with an idea can lead you to accept the information as true without questioning it. Have you ever spilled salt and then had to throw a pinch of it over your left shoulder?

Are you afraid that whistling in the dark will cause bad things to happen? Have you ever wondered where superstitious behaviors originated and why they are present today? When you begin to ask why, you have started the critical-thinking process.

To extend that mode of thinking beyond the exploration of superstitions, critical thinking as part of scholarly work allows you to separate "truth" from existing opinions and biases.

In the following Assignment, you will examine the process of critical thinking by identifying your beliefs, your factual knowledge, and how you can separate the two.

To Prepare for this Assignment:

Review the reading in this week's Learning Resources.

The Assignment (1-page):

Write a short paragraph that would be considered an opinion. Write a second paragraph that would be considered a fact. Explain the differences between the two paragraphs.

Explain how a reader would know if one statement is opinion and the other factual. Provide support in the research literature for the factual statement.

SECOND PART:

As you have progressed through this course, you have learned the importance of developing your scholarly voice, you have learned about critical thinking, you have practiced paraphrasing, and you are beginning to understand the importance of crediting the sources of ideas and of presenting the literature in your own words.

You are still at the early stages of mastering these many skills. Luckily, Walden provides resources and tools to help you along the way.

For this Assignment, you will familiarize yourself with a tool that can aid you in avoiding plagiarism: Turnitin.

To prepare for this Assignment:

Review the web page "How to Read a Turnitin Report" in this week's Learning Resources.

Locate the Turnitin report from your Week 2 Assignment.

Review the Similarity Index and the Match Overview.

Review the matches in detail.

The Assignment (1-2 pages):

Describe the Turnitin report for your Assignment from Week 2:

Provide the Similarity Index.

List the source that constitutes the highest match with your written work.

Explain why a high Similarity Index might not necessarily indicate plagiarism and why a low Similarity Index does not necessarily indicate a lack of plagiarism.