Course
Wayne State University
College of Lifelong Learning
Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Winter 2003 semester
Bullet1.gif (242 bytes)Creativity: Building the New, ISP 5660, 3 cr or 
   4 cr
 Bullet1.gif (242 bytes)Creativity Directed Study, AGS 3440, 3 cr or
   4 cr


                         Instructor
David R. Bowen
2311 A/AB
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
Schedule (link not working yet)		 Daytime tel: (313) 577-1498
Evening tel: (248) 549-8518
At Ford: 313-390-2155
FAX: (313) 577-8585
Home Page:
    http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen
Email: d.r.bowen@wayne.edu
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Last updated: 1/11/03
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Syllabus, ISP 5660 and AGS 3340
Creativity: Building the New

Contents:

Content and Overall Schedule. For detailed assignments and schedules, see the "Assignments" page on the course web site.

ISP 5660; main Creativity course. If you are only taking one of these courses (ISP 5660 and AGS 3340), it should be this one.
Three credit course:

  1. Week 1. What do we mean by Creativity?
    1. There is an initial class meeting to demonstrate the web site and computer conference, and to go over the assignments and content of the course. Also, for those wishing to participate, there is an online
    2. There is an initial description of Creativity offered in the web page, "What is Creativity?" (see the link from the course "jump page"). This is a common although not universal description. There is no black-and-white definition of creativity that everyone agrees to.
    3. Students develop their own working description, and describe at least one creative person they know, both through postings in the computer conference.
    4. Participation in the computer conference continues throughout the semester.
  2. Weeks 2 - 6. A survey of Creativity
    1. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in Creativity, reports on a study of ninety-one twentieth-century creators. the study is based on in-depth interviews. This technique allows a more uniform analysis than one based, for example, on historical sources, or on autobiographical writings, which are not uniform for person to person. On the other hand, the sample cannot be as selective as a case-study approach, and we cannot be as sure of the judgment of history about the creativity of the participants. However, the uniform interview approach and the large sample size allow firm conclusions to be drawn about common elements. Csikszentmihalyi also breaks the sample down into broad domains of creative activity, and finds that while there are common elements across fields, there are also consistent differences.
    2. Csikszentmihalyi also adopts what he calls a Systems View of creativity. This recognizes a dilemma for creativity researchers; they often cannot independently understand what it is about a particular development that makes it creative, particularly in a field that is far from their own area of expertise. Therefore, they must rely on people in that field to evaluate the creative nature of a development. In some fields, such as Physics, there is a relatively precise, numerical standard for which creative theory explains facts better. Hence it is easier to measure what is a change, and which changes are successful. Csikszentmihalyi remarks that in his own field, Psychology, there are no such clear metrics, and different schools of thought will not agree. So, the nature of the field influences how changes can be evaluated, or even detected or perceived.
    3. Also, Creativity applies its conclusions as to how we can make our own lives more creative, and even why we might want to.
    4. Essay 1 is due.
  3. Weeks 7 - 10. Corporate Creativity, or creativity in the business world.
    1. In their book Corporate Creativity, the authors Robinson and Stern give many case studies of creativity and innovation in the business world. The Creativity here ranges from minor innovations ("little c" creativity) to the creation of whole new industries ("big C" creativity), in contrast to Gardner's focus on "big C" creativity. While the conclusions are often startling from a business perspective, they are generally consistent with Gardner's conclusions from his case study approach.
    2. Essay 2 is due.
  4. Weeks 11 - 15: Methods in Creativity, and a study of highly creative people, people who changed our culture
    1. Howard Gardner, in Creating Minds, starts out with a survey of methods that have been applied to the study of Creativity. Whatever method of study a researcher uses, s/he usually relies on experts in that field of work to assess the creativity of specific people and products.
    2. The largest part of Creating Minds is a series of case studies of creative individuals of the modern era. Gardner also draws conclusions from these case studies about the general nature of creating and creativity. Again, these conclusions are common within the field, although not universal. Elsewhere, Gardner writes that were he to choose a second rank of creative individuals, or to focus more on individual works instead of careers, there would be disagreements over how creative his choices really were.
    3. Essay 3 is due.

ISP 5660 four-credit course. The four-credit course follows the schedule above, and in addition: weeks 2 - 15. Work on a personal interest in the area of Creativity

  1. During the semester, students will choose a fourth book with the approval of the Instructor, and read this fourth book. A list of pre-approved choices for the fourth book is given below, but books outside this list of your own choice can also be used, with the approval of the Instructor.
  2. Students will choose a final topic for Essay 4, with the approval of the Instructor.
  3. Essay 4 is due at the end classes (on the day of the Final).

.ISP 5660 Textbooks

All textbooks below are required, and numbers 2 and 3 are in at the WSU Barnes and Noble Campus Bookstore (#1 will come in soon), although there are many other places where you can buy them. WARNING: do not try to buy the first book, Creativity, online, since the slow delivery time can seriously delay your being able to start the reading.

  1. Alan G. Robinson & Sam Stern, Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen, pub. Berrett-Koehler Publishers (San Francisco) 1997 (paperback if available). ISBN (hardbound) 1-57675-009-4
  2. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity (paper), Harper Perennial / Harper Collins, New York NY, 1997. ISBN 0-06-092820-4
  3. Howard Gardner, Creating Minds, pub. Basic Books 1993 (paperback). ISBN 0-465-01454-2
  4. For the four credit course only, students will choose a fourth textbook, subject to the Instructor's approval. A  list of pre-approved choices is given below, but you must notify the Instructor of your choice in any case.

Directed Study course, AGS 3340. This course may only be taken with the main Creativity course, ISP 5660.

This course parallels ISP 5660 with additional readings. Here, grades are based on quizzes and exams instead of Essays.

For the three-credit AGS 3340, there are Quiz 1 and Quiz 2, open-book take-home quizzes, distributed to students via the course web site, and an in-person open-book Final Exam during the Final Exam period.

For the four-credit AGS 3340, there is an additional emailed open-book take-home Midterm Exam.

AGS 3340 Textbooks

All textbooks below are required, and the first three are in at the WSU Barnes and Noble Campus Bookstore, although there are many other places where you can buy them. WARNING: do not try to buy the first book, The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company, online, since the slow delivery time can seriously delay your being able to start the reading.

  1. David Packard, The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company, HarperCollins 1995 (paperback). ISBN 0887308171
  2. Peter F. Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, pub. HarperCollins 1985 (paperback). ISBN 0887306187
  3. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience, HarperCollins 1991 (paperback). ISBN 0-06-092043-2
  4. For the four credit course only, students will choose a fourth textbook, subject to the Instructor's approval. A  list of pre-approved choices is given below, but you must notify the Instructor of your choice in any case.

Pre-approved choices for fourth book for four-credit courses. You can choose any of the books in the list below as your fourth book on either of the Creativity courses (ISP 5660 and AGS 3340), and just inform the Instructor of your choice. If you choose a book not on the list below, you must get the Instructor's approval first. No book can count for more than one of the Creativity courses. For example, Flow is assigned for the three-credit AGS 3340, so if you are taking AGS 3340, you cannot choose it as the fourth book for ISP 5660.

  1. The HP Way. Hewlett Packard has been very successful, a market leader, and consistently innovative.
  2. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Peter Drucker is one of the foremost business "gurus." Here, he speaks forcefully for the need for innovation, gives many case histories, and describes methods for innovation. He argues against the idea of innovators as risk-takers. "Big C" creativity, he argues, the type that creates a whole new product, is unreliable for business purposes.
  3. The Nature of Creativity, Cambridge University Press 1988. Research papers on creativity. Apparently out of print, but can be found in large libraries.. A survey of academic approaches to creativity. The contributions of society are analyzed.
  4. John Kao, Jamming. pub. HarperCollins, 1996. A quick tour of management and business techniques to foster creativity and innovation. Makes use of analogy to "jamming" by jazz musicians.
  5. Daniel Goleman et al., The Creative Spirit, pub. by Dutton and Penguin USA 1992. Companion to a PBS series on creativity. A survey of creativity in art and culture, children and business.
  6. Rollo May, The Courage to Create, pub W.W. Norton & Co 1994 (first published in 1975). Rollo May is a psychoanalyst who is also an artist, and here he describes artistic and cultural creativity from both perspectives. A large part of the courage here is making a full commitment to a domain of endeavor.
  7. Tom Peters, Liberation Management, pub Fawcett Columbine 1992. I haven't read this one yet, but Tom Peters is another business "guru." The book advocates "Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties" (the quote here is the subtitle). Something like this was implemented by Chrysler to develop the Viper supercar in record time. But this way-out thinking may also have gone too far, perhaps contributing to the "stock market bubble," for example. At this point, I don't know whether or not this is correct.
  8. Robert Lutz, Guts pub Wiley 1998. A Chrysler VP (now at General Motors) given a lot of credit for innovation and creativity in the automobile industry, tells what he did and how he did it. An iconoclastic and passionate presentation.
  9. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow pub. Harper and Row 1990. Presents Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" as optimal experience. Based on extensive research on everyday lives of a large number of people.
  10. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow pub. Basic Books 1997. A detailed experimental study of how people find meaning in everyday lives. Also, how to increase the level of creativity or "flow" in your own life. An excellent choice if you want to pursue your personal creativity.
  11. Ed Frank Barron et al., Creators on Creating pub. Tarcher/Putnam 1997. Individual creators, classical to contemporary, tell their own stories of how they create. Also has an extensive introduction on the nature of creativity and creativity research.
  12. Ed. Margaret A. Boden, Dimensions of Creativity, pub MIT Press 1994. A cognitive approach, seeking to understand the creative process in some detail.
  13. Ed. Steven M. Smith, Thomas B. Ward and Ronald A. Finke, The Creative Cognition Approach, pub MIT Press 1995. Also takes a cognitive approach.
  14. Teresa Amabile, Creativity in Context, pub Westview Press (Perseus) 1996. The negative effects of external motivation on creativity, and creative businexx environments.
  15. Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, Basic Books 2002. On often-cited description of how creative people create opportunities for creativity, innovation and growth in urban areas.

Again, you can definitely go outside of this list. If you do, you need my approval, and I will want more than an author, title, publisher and date of publication. Give me a paragraph to read about the content, say from a book review. You can find books and this information in libraries, or at amazon.com, or other places. If you have a particular interest, you can ask me for help in finding a suitable book.

Instructor and Office Hours

The Instructor is David Bowen / Department of Interdisciplinary Studies / Science and Technology Division.

Office: 2311 A/AB Building
5700 Cass Avenue
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan     48202
Telephone: (313) 577-1498 (WSU)
(248) 549-8518 (Evenings)
(313) 390-2155 (Ford Motor Company
(313) 577-8585 (FAX at WSU)
Email: d.r.bowen@wayne.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays 3:30 - 4:30 PM in my office, 5 - 6 PM in the classroom, other times by arrangement. But call or email any time -- really.

The ISP 5660 course grade will be calculated as follows:

15%
  • Conference postings. Rated on five-line minimum length and on content. Due dates for specific postings in the list below are given in the table in the assignment schedule.
  • Postings on "Introduce Yourself," "What about Creativity is interesting to you," and "Creative people we know."
  • Minimum of 9 conference postings early in the semester
  • (Posting of draft paper topic
  • Comments on at least 3 other paper topics
  • Revised posting on "Creative people we know"
  • Minimum of 33 conference postings during the semester
  • Responses to reading questions. the Instructor
  • Note descriptions of title, content and location of postings on the Assignment Schedule
10%
  • Weekly course reports. One per week, rain or shine.
  • For four-credit course, choice of fourth book and essay topics on time
  • Attendance at required course meetings
  • Online citizenship
75%
  • Three or Four Essays (depending on the credit hours you are taking)

AGS 3340 Grading

Three credits:
  • 25% each Quiz
  • 50% Final Exam
Four credits:
  • 10% Choice of fourth book on time
  • 15% each Quiz
  • 30% Midterm and Final Exams

Grading Scale

Letter

Numerical

 Description

A

90-100

 Excellent

B

80-89

 Good

C

70-79

 Fair

D

60-69

 Poor but passing

E

0-59

 Failure

W

----

 Official withdrawal

X

----

 Insufficient work turned in to decide on a grade

I

----

 Incomplete. Must be able to finish course without attending classes, must have completed a substantial part of the written assignments, must have agreement with Instructor for completion date.

The "-" range for a grade is the lower three points, and gets averaged at the middle. For example, A- is 90 to 92 and gets averaged as 91. The "+" for a grade is the top three points, and gets averaged at the middle. For example, B+ is 87 to 89 and gets averaged as 88. A grade of 100 is an A+. Note that the highest grade recognized by the University is A.

NOTE 1: If you want to drop a course, you should withdraw officially using an official Drop/Add form. If you simply stop attending, you are supposed to receive a grade of "X", or possibly "I" if you have completed most of the work. You cannot graduate with these grades on your records, so you will have to retake the courses.

NOTE 2: I will allow you to redo assignments and turn in missing work after the course is over. Such work will not appear in your regular grade, but it will be taken into account in a Change of Grade, and it will eventually appear on your official transcript. The University will allow me to file a Change of Grade up to one calendar year after the end of the semester in which you took the course. For this course, that is through the end of the Winter 2000 semester. I will not accept major assignments during the last month of this period. If you are redoing an assignment, the original assignment with my comments and grades must be turned in along with the redone assignment.

Course information form

Fill out the Course Information Form on the course web site, hopefully tonight (1/10) but no later than Friday January 17. You access the form using your first name, last name (as they are registered with the University) and your password. I have set your initial password to your AccessID. If you do not know your AccessID, I have them here tonight. If you say that you are registered for the three credit version, when in fact you are registered for the four credit version, or vice versa, that will create problems for you and me at the end of the semester. The telephone numbers should be current and valid. The email address you give should be for an account that you check regularly. If you do not yet have an email account, put "none" for the address, update the form when you do have an account set up, and email me that you have updated the form..

Email Account

You will need an email account for this course. If you do not have one, you can go to any of the following world wide web locations and sign up for a free email account:

Comments on specific email and Internet Service Providers:

You will also need world wide web access to take this course. This can be from a home computer, a WSU lab computer, a computer at your local library, or any other site with world wide web access.

On-line Grade Reports

There will be a link on the course web site for on-line grade reports. These reports will let you look at your line in my grade book. This feature has been very popular with most students, and is the earliest way that you can find out about your grades for assignments and for the course. This is available by default. If you want to turn the online grade reports off, contact me.

To get an on-line grade report, you will enter your first and last names, and your password.

Course passwords

You will have several IDs and passwords for this course:

  1. Your UserID and password for your Internet Service Provider
  2. Your UserID and password for the computer conference
  3. Your password for on-line grade reports, if enabled

It can be a problem to keep all of these straight. Be aware that you can choose #2 and #3 to match #1, if you want. Ask me for details.

Important Dates

Dates of major assignments and evaluations, ISP 5660:

* Friday, February 14 Essay 1 due
* Friday, March 7 Essay 2 due
* Friday, April 18 Essay 3 due
* Friday, April 25 Essay 4 due (four-credit course only)

Dates of major assignments and evaluations, AGS 3340:

* Friday, February 7 Open-book Quiz 1 via email
* Friday, February 28 Open-book Midterm via email (four-credit course only)
* Friday, March 28 Open-book Quiz 2 via email
* Friday, April 25 In-class open-book Final Exam

NOTE: Near the end of the semester, in the event that some of your work is incomplete, or appears to be incomplete, it is important that I can get in touch with you. Make sure that my information for your telephone number(s) and email address are up to date!

Other important dates:

Assignment Schedule:

Week Friday Meeting Reading assignments, due on the date shown Other assignments
1 1/10 Yes Initial class meeting  
2 1/17 No ISP 5660: Creativity, Chapters 1 through 4. Poincaré web page.
AGS 3340: The HP Way, Introduction through Chapter 3		 ISP 5660: Three postings, (i) "Introduce Yourself", (ii) "What about creativity is most interesting to me", (iii) "Creative people we know."
Fill out Course Information Form online.
Complete the first part of the File Test (download file, add your name, rename file, email file to me as an attachment).
3 1/24 Yes ISP 5660: Creativity, Chapters 5 through 9. Web page on objective characteristics.
AGS 3340: The HP Way, through Chapter 5		  
4 1/31 No ISP 5660: Creativity, Chapters 10 through 12. Web page on comparison of readings.
AGS 3340: The HP Way, through Chapter 8		 ISP 5660: For four-credit course. choice of fourth book due.
5 2/7 No ISP 5660: Creativity, Chapter 13 through Appendix B. Web page on Amabile Chapter 4.
AGS 3340: The HP Way, through Chapter 11		 AGS 3340: Open-book Quiz 1 via email
6 2/14 No ISP 5660: Corporate Creativity, Introduction through Chapter 4.
AGS 3340:  The HP Way, to end, including all three Appendices 		 ISP 5660: Essay 1 on Creativity. For four-credit course, choice of fourth book approved by Instructor.
7 2/21 Yes ISP 5660: Corporate Creativity, Chapters 5 through 8. Web page on Amabile Chapter 8.
AGS 3340: Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Part I		 ISP 5660: Minimum of 9 conference postings by this date. 
8 2/28 No ISP 5660: Corporate Creativity, Chapters 9 through 12.
AGS 3340: Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Part II 		 ISP 5660: For four-credit course, post draft topic for Essay 4 as a conference message. 
AGS 3340 (four-credit course only): Open-book Midterm via email
9 3/7 No ISP 5660: Creating Minds, Chapters 5 through 8. Web page on Dequin excerpt.
AGS 3340: Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Part III and Conclusion 		 ISP 5660: Essay 2 on Corporate Creativity
10 3/14 No Spring recess March 11 through March 16  
11 3/21 No ISP 5660: Creating Minds, Part I (Chapters 1 and 2)
AGS 3340: Flow, Preface through Chapter 3		  
12 3/28 No ISP 5660: Creating Minds, Chapters 3 and 4. Legendre web page.
AGS 3340: Flow, through Chapter 5		 ISP 5660: Final topic for Essay 4 due
AGS 3340: open-book Quiz 2 via email
13 4/4 No ISP 5660: Creating Minds, Interlude 1 and Chapters 5 and 6
AGS 3340: Flow, through Chapter 7		  
14 4/11 Yes ISP 5660: Creating Minds, Chapter 7, Interlude 2 and Chapter 8. Web page: How Controversial?
AGS 3340: Flow, through Chapter 9		  
15 4/18 No ISP 5660: Finish Creating Minds, through Epilogue
AGS 3340: Flow, through Chapter 10		 ISP 5660: Essay 3 on Creating Minds
16 4/25 No ISP 5660: No assignment
AGS 3340: Review for Final		 ISP 5660: Essay 4
AGS 3340: in-class open-book Final Exam

Late Assignments:

With some exceptions, I will accept late assignments with no reduction in credit. However, ISP 5660 Essays 1 and 2, and the AGS 3340 Quizzes and Midterm must be in no later than 4/18 in order to count in the regular course grade (they will be accepted after these dates for a change of grade after the regular grades. The file test and the three initial postings will not be accepted after 2/7. Here are the assignments that will not be accepted after their due dates:

NOTE: You should never just stop working on a WSU course; nothing but bad can happen to you. The single exception is a serious (life threatening) illnes or other health situation, for you or a close relative. In this case, you should ask about a Medical Withdrawal. But otherwise, if circumstances pile up and you simply cannot finish, you should always discuss the situation with the Instructor.

Class Meetings.

All class meetings will be on Friday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, and on campus.

Even though most class meetings are not required if you are up to date with your assignments, the class meetings are still recommended. Agendas will be posted on the course web site, and updated to show what actually occurred during the class. Whether or not you attend a meeting, you will be responsible for the material in the updated agendas.

Assignment descriptions:

Essays. Essays are to be four to six pages, double-spaced, 10- or 12-point font, top and bottom margins one inch, right and left margins one-and-one-half inch, or the equivalent. Essay topics will be posted on a separate web page. There will be approximately five topic choices for each essay; choose one. A creative work is also acceptable for the Essay 4. In this case, a preliminary description is also required. A contribution to the web site for this course is also an acceptable alternative. Call or email the Instructor to work out a project.

The essays should be written for a general reader, say a magazine reader or a newspaper reader. Specifically, the essay should not be written "to" the Instructor. A general reader will not be interested in whether or not the essay was written for a particular course, or to fill a particular assignment, so these aspects of the assignment should not be mentioned in the essay. If you cannot get interested in your Essay, pretend that you are.

The essay should have the following parts, in this order:

A cover page is not necessary, but the header is necessary.

Essays will be graded on the following basis:

NOTE: The essay form counts for a major part of the essay grade. You should read the description of the form carefully, and clear up any questions or doubts you may have about it, before starting to write an essay. The requirements for the Introduction and Conclusion mean that you should have written a draft or an outline or at least thought through your content before you begin to write the final version.

Naming your Essay files

In this course, you will turn your Essays in as word-processing files attached to email messages. If two people use the same file name, then the file that is turned in second will replace the file that is turned in first. Also, as the Instructor, I want the file name to tell me about the person and the assignment. Therefore, make up the names for your homework files with the following parts, in order:

So for example, since my middle initial is "R" and I use Microsoft Word, the file name for my Essay 2 would be drb2cw3.doc

When I grade the assignments, I will add a "g" to the end of the filename and return it as an email attachment. So I would return my graded Essay with the file name drb2cw3g.doc

Why Essays?
The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies likes essay assignments because:

We will go over the essay assignments in more detail during the next class.

Computer Conference assignments

NOTE 1: This does NOT mean that you have to log on to the computer conference twice or three times a week. You can make multiple postings during a single session.

NOTE 2: "Under the appropriate topic" means that you must be able to find an existing message on the left-hand (yellow) side, pull up the message, and respond to it, either as "Reply" or "Reply/Quote."

NOTE 3: Postings for the Creativity class will not be counted if they are under another conference such as "The General Conference" or "Nissani 2030 Chat Room".

NOTE 4: Postings must make use of the following techniques for helping your readers establish a context:

Here is a summary of the required computer conferencing skills for this course:

  1. Log in to computer conferencing system
  2. Read NewMessages
  3. Reply to new messages, including
    1. changing the Topic of the message to reflect what is new in your Reply
    2. Using Reply/Quote to establish the context for your Reply, but editing the original message to focus the context
  4. Posting a message under the appropriate specific Main topic and subtopic
  5. Using "Mark All Conferences Read" to keep your list of New Messages down to a reasonable size
  6. Finding a message in the list of all messages (new plus old)
    1. using the list
    2. using Search

We will learn from each other. I encourage you to quote each other's postings in your Essays.

Online Citizenship

Online citizenship is: helping others online, keeping your temper online if you feel you are attacked, not talking about another person but about yourself (e.g. not "you are wrong" but "here is what I think is right"), not "hijacking" the conference, keeping your messages reasonably brief, and not quoting a whole lot of another's message, especially if your reply is only about one aspect, and doing your part in keeping the conference organized.

Weekly Course Reports

Each week, you will send me a Course Report, describing your status and progress in this course. I will post a format and method for these reports on the course web site. These are the way that I will keep in touch with how you feel the course is working out for you, and whether or not we need to discuss how things are going. These reports will not be optional; filing one each week is part of your grade for the course. "There are many valid excuses for being late with an assignment, but there is no acceptable excuse for missing a weekly class report."

Changes to Syllabus

A course Syllabus is like a contract, but it is different in that the Syllabus is often changed during the semester (I once scheduled an exam for Thanksgiving Day!). For a face-to-face class, changes are simply announced in class. For an online class, you should always be sure where changes will be made officially. Here, official changes to the Syllabus will be announced in the course computer conference, and will also be made to the online version of the Syllabus.

What you should do in these courses on a regular basis:

What you should do to get started:

PLAGIARISM

Putting this topic at the end does not imply that I think it is unimportant, but instead that I think it applies to everything in this course. In academic work, plagiarism is treated as a serious breaking of the rules. Plagiarism basically means passing off someone else's work as your own. It does not matter whether this is done on purpose or by accident, by commission or omission, from one source or from many sources; it is still plagiarism, and it is still serious. The most obvious form of plagiarism is "copying" - using another author's words, without a hint that they are not yours. Changing one or two words in a sentence still results in plagiarism. On the other hand, using quotation marks and a reference to the source is OK, since you are not passing off the work as yours. Such references can even add to an impression that you have read the assignments!  References to opinions can also be used to strengthen your arguments, since a reference makes clear that someone else feels the same way that you do.

In this course, work that contains any plagiarism will be ignored, as if it were never turned in. In order to receive credit for the assignment, another topic must be chosen, and the work completely rewritten. The assignment will also be counted as late. Note that at the end of the course, there may not be enough time to redo the work, or even to notify you, before grades are due. Therefore, plagiarism near the end of the semester can have a particularly serious effect on your grade.

If you have any doubt about what plagiarism is, make sure to ask the instructor. To be safe, make sure that you give credit to any authors you borrow from.