4. What is considered plagiarism? Obviously plagiarism: Buying, stealing, or borrowing a paper (including from the web) Hiring someone to write your paper for you Copying large sections of text from a source without quotation marks or proper citation Also plagiarism: Using a source too closely when paraphrasing Building on someone else’s words or ideas without citing their work (spoken or written)
5. What needs to be cited?: A Brief List Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials When you reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or other media
6. It’s a fact. What did I steal? Here are three examples of the same information, written in three distinct ways: "Mohandas Gandi had become active in the movement for Indian self-rule before World War I. By the time of World War I, the Indian people had already begun to refer to him as India's ‘Great Soul,’ or Mahatma" (World History, Spielvogel, 2003). "As Gandhi launched satyagraha movements in India, he inspired millions. His followers called him Mahatma, or ‘Great Soul’ (World History, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1997). "Gandhi, now increasingly known as India's ‘Great Soul’ (Mahatma), organized mass protests to achieve his aims, but in 1919 they got out of hand and led to violence and British reprisals" (World History, Duiker and Spielvogel, 2001). You can steal the style of writing, which is often how teachers figure out that a student has plagiarized.
7. The Bottom Line Document any words, ideas, or other productions that originate somewhere outside of you.
8. Common Knowledge You do not need to cite information that is considered “common knowledge” or is a generally accepted fact. Generally, something does not need to be cited if it is a fact that can be found in at least 3 reliable sources. Examples: The sky is blue. Approximately 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. The Pythagorean theorem is a2 + b2 = c2. “Common knowledge” applies to specific, brief facts.
9. Personal Experiences You do not need to cite when you are writing your own experiences, your own observations, your own insights, your own thoughts, or your own conclusions on a subject.
10. Citations Any use of the work of another must be cited. Simply sticking a website address at the end of your work is the bare minimum, but is not enough. There are several types of in-text citation, but we will talk here about MLA format. Example: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (Dickens 1). How to write a citation: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/ How to format Works Cited: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/06/
11. How do you use someone else’s work? There are 3 ways to use the work of someone else: Quoting Paraphrasing Summarizing Because we want you to build your own understanding of the information through an assignment, most of your use of another person’s work will be in summaries.
12. Quoting Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author. To emphasize, when you quote, you must use quotation marks and provide a citation.
13. Paraphrasing Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly. Paraphrasing is a useful skill because the mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to grasp the full meaning of the original.
14. 6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.
15. Summarizing Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.
16. Let’s Compare: The Original Passage Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
17. A legitimate paraphrase: In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).
18. An acceptable summary: Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).
19. A plagiarized version: Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes. Why is this version unacceptable?
20. Do I need a citation? Last summer, my family and I traveled to Chicago, which was quite different from the rural area I grew up in. We saw the dinosaur Sue at the Field Museum, and ate pizza at Gino's East. Americans want to create a more perfect union; they also want to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for everybody. I find it ridiculous that 57% of high school students think their teachers assign too much homework.
21. Do I need a citation? You use some information from a source without ever quoting it directly. You want to begin your paper with a story that one of your classmates told you about her experiences in Bosnia. The quote you want to use is too long, so you leave out a few phrases. You really like a phrase that someone else made up, so you use it. You have no other way of expressing the exact meaning of a text without using the original source word-for-word.
22. Encyclopedias as a Source Encyclopedias are tempting to use as sources. After all, they have lots of information, right? But you just can’t be sure that they are correct – they are written by people who know just a little bit about a topic. You are better off going to a more scholarly source written by an expert. Encyclopedias include Wikipedia, Encarta, answers.com, and more. Can’t find a good source? Ask your teacher!
23. Search Engines Why can’t I cite Google as my source? Because it (and Yahoo!, Bing, etc.) doesn’t publish the information, individual websites do. Please visit one of these two websites for more explanation as to what a search engine does: http://www.howstuffworks.com/search-engine.htm http://commoncraft.com/search (also contains tips for searching more effectively)
