Transformational language - people with disabilities

This is a useful handout that I had accessed on SAMHSA on the correct language to use when talking about people with disabilities and would share with my Introduction of Psychology classes.  However, it is no longer available on SAMHSA so I wanted to share it here:

SAMHSA’s Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health (ADS Center)  http://www.promoteacceptance.samhsa.gov/publications/TransformationalLanguage.aspx (no longer available on this website) Guidance on Transformational Language “Words have power. They have the power to teach, the power to wound, the power to shape the way people think, feel, and act toward others.”  —Otto Wahl Transformation in services and supports for adults, and children and youth with behavioral health problems, requires a complementary transformation in the language we use to describe the people we serve. Quite literally, we should seek to employ “people first” language, prefacing our descriptions of the people we serve as people first, such as, people with mental health or substance use problems or challenges rather than mentally ill people or addicts. None of us should be defined by our problems or diagnoses, or by a single aspect of who we are; we are people first and foremost.  The following list contains examples of transformational language. Transformational Language Outdated Language Tom has a mental health or substance use problem or challenge. Tom is mentally ill/emotionally disturbed/insane/crazy. Dick has a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. He experiences mood swings. Dick is (a) bipolar. Jess experiences symptoms of psychosis. He hears voices. Jess is (a) psychotic. Susie is a person who receives help/ treatment for mental health or substance use problems. She is a recipient of behavioral health services. Susie is a patient. Harry is a person with co-occurring mental health and substance use problems. Harry is mentally ill chemically abusing (MICA). Jane is a person with a disability. Jane is disabled/handicapped. Bonnie is a child without disabilities. Bonnie is normal/healthy. Rebecca has a brain injury. Rebecca is brain injured/damaged. Ralph has asked for accessible parking/hotel room. Ralph has asked for handicapped parking/hotel room.

Evaluating internet sources for academic work

Internet Source Evaluation:  A Checklist - In order to write a paper that provides strong evidence for the point that you are making in your thesis, you must choose the best sources available. Using the following checklist, let's look at some ways to evaluate Internet sources for an academic paper.

·       Relevance: Does the website provide information that you need? Does it answer questions that your research poses? The website should not just be another source to put on your list. The sources you choose should provide important information that can be used in your writing.

·       Author: It is helpful to know who the author is when evaluating a website.

  Is the author of the website identified? Sometimes, the "author" is the organization that posted the site and no one person is given credit. You then have to consider the credibility of the organization before dismissing the website as useless or deciding it is your best source.

  Does the author/s have credentials in the field about which s/he is writing? In other words, if you have to choose between a ten-year-old girl's Internet website about George Lucas' novels and movie series, Star Wars, or a well-known literary scholar's journal article published on the Internet about Star Wars and the hero's journey, you would choose the journal article written by the literary scholar.

·       Credibility: This aspect of source evaluation is especially important for Internet sites. Is there contact information for the publisher/author of the website? Does the contact email address or other contact information work? If there is a link to the author's email address, can you email the author and get a response? If any of these questions is not answered with a "yes," then this website may not be not credible and you should not use it for college or employment-related research.

·       Publication date: Is there a clear publication date? Has the website been updated in the last year? Information is considered more reliable if the publication date is recent and if the web page itself has been updated recently or frequently. For some fields of study, like biology, the publication date is extremely important since new research is published frequently in the sciences.

·       Audience: For whom was the information written? The answer might be for specialists in the field, for amateurs, or for children. If you are writing for an academic or professional audience, the information needs to be more detailed, accurate, and sophisticated than if the website is providing information for a fan club or a private audience. For example, a person's homepage usually does not have strong enough proofs for most academic essays, and many teachers will not accept these as valid sources. Make sure that the material is appropriate in level of depth and breadth for the academic topic you are researching.

·       Length: Is the website or web page very short? A one-page website might not provide enough information for you to fully understand the topic presented. Is the web page or website detailed enough to provide the breadth and depth of information about your subject that you need? Does the shorter website make up for brevity by linking you to other, more helpful websites? If it does, this website might be considered a good portal to other sources and, therefore, might be appropriate to bookmark for later reference or even to cite if you actually use it for your writing.

·       Website Type Identifier: Every website has a URL, which is its address. The ending is comprised of three letters (.xxx) that indicate what type of organization is publishing the website itself. From these letters, web users get important clues about the nature of the sites' content. Here are some of the most common endings:

  .gov (government)

  .edu (educational)

  .com (commercial or personal)

  .net (network or portal opening; sometimes a personal website)

  .org (non-profit organization)

  .mil (military)

  Every one of these website types is published by people with their own purpose. You should keep the author (or group) in mind as you read the information on any site. For example, you might get different information about an election on a .gov site than you might on a.edu site.

 Of these website endings, the most common is the .com ending. Some people believe that .com websites are the least credible and scholarly websites available because the writers may have a "for profit" agenda or motive. This is because almost anyone can get a .com website, while .gov, .edu, or .org websites are only given out to certain groups. Yet, many .com websites have a lot of research and thought in them. Some actually are the search engines that will lead you to your ultimate research goals (like altavista.com). Thus, not all commercial sites lack credibility. In fact, the best researchers may have preferences in types of websites, but they understand that each site should be evaluated on the basis of the bias and agenda of the authors.

·       Source Type: Frankly, one of the weaknesses of the Internet is that anyone at all can create and post a web page. That weakness is also one of the Internet's greatest strengths, however. The Internet allows many people research ideas and to voice their thoughts. Therefore, when your source is a website, you must evaluate it thoroughly: Is this site an example of the Internet's weaknesses or strengths? Ask yourself all of the questions in the checklist above and answer them honestly. The website you have found may have wonderful content, but no author; yet, if the posting organization is the "author," and the organization itself is credible, then the site may be credible. 

        Tip: In order to use an Internet source with confidence, you will want to be sure that the source meets most of the criteria in this checklist. (Source:  Smarthinking Writer's Handbook/Using the Internet Wisely; http://services.smarthinking.com/static/Document_Library/docs/writeman/contents.cfm)

Academic honesty; plagiarism, documentation

Iowa Central Community College
https://www.iowacentral.edu/tritonpass/triton_pass.asp

Smarthinking Writer's Handbook Chapter 3, Lesson 15 Documentation

Objective This lesson provides an introduction to the use of documentation in written assignments. It is designed to teach students the differences and logic underlying MLA and APA documentation. Introduction In America, anyone who writes an academic or professional paper and borrows information from another source must give credit to that particular source. The information that a writer borrows can include quotations, summaries, paraphrases, and any fact that is not common knowledge; therefore, any of these types of information must be clearly documented. By giving credit to the source, the writer also provides readers with enough information that they can find the cited source if they choose to do so. Different academic disciplines favor different styles for citing sources and writing bibliographies. The Modern Language Association (MLA) style is the style you will most likely use for your English courses or courses in the Humanities. The American Psychological Association (APA) style is the style you will most likely use for courses in social sciences. When do you need to document Idea: You're reading an article as you gather information for a research paper. You happen upon a great idea. You don't necessarily want to use a direction quotation from the article; you just like the idea. Remember: even if you use an idea that belongs to another author, you need to document. Using someone else's idea without citing that source is considered plagiarism. Direct Quotation: Any time you use an author's exact words, you need to let your reader know that those words belong to someone else. So, when you use a sentence or phrase that belongs to someone else, you should put the other person's words inside quotation marks. You'll also need to include a signal phrase and an in-text (or parenthetical) citation (explained below). Paraphrase: When you take an author's words and put them into your own words, it's called "paraphrasing." As is true with referring to an idea that belongs to someone else, when you paraphrase, you need to document. In other words, you'll want to let your reader know where you're getting this information that you're paraphrasing. Why document? You want and need to document for a number of reasons, including: Show people where your information is coming from Your readers might want to know more about your topic. If you document properly, a reader can go to your sources to get even more information about a subject that you refer to in your essay. So, documenting serves as a road map for people who want to do additional research-- beyond what you present in your writing project. Avoid plagiarism If you don't document, you run the risk of being accused of plagiarism. Plagiarism is presenting ideas and words as your own when they do not actually belong to you. Researched writing is about bringing ideas and information together in one place. However, if you don't make it clear that some of your information comes from sources beyond your own experience and knowledge, you are misrepresenting. Most schools have strict consequences for plagiarism. If you're writing for a nonacademic audience and you plagiarize, it's likely you'll lose your credibility. Give your essay or writing project authority When you refer to credible sources, you give your text weight. If you refer to experts in the field about which you are writing, your readers are more likely to take your work seriously. Styles of Documentation As stated in the introduction to this lesson, you will use different styles of documentation for different academic disciplines. In this lesson, we'll cover two styles that are commonly used in humanities courses (MLA Style) and social sciences courses (APA Style). Documenting a source in an essay is often a two-step process. You'll learn more about the specific steps in the sections to follow...