The Crime of Plagiarism
1. Not using QUOTATION marks to
identify a direct quote from your
source. ALWAYS use quotation marks
around quotes taken from your text which
are word for word. Only use direct
quotes when it is important for the reader
to know the exact words that the author
used. You also need to cite the source of
your information immediately after your
direct quote.
The Crime of Plagiarism
2. Not CITING the source of
your information when using
ideas and information taken
from the text. Even if you put
the information in your own
words, you must still cite your
source.
The Crime of Plagiarism
3. Not PARAPHRASING
correctly. Just changing one or
two words in a sentence from
your source is not acceptable,
even if you cite it. You must use
your own sentence structure and
ideas.
The Crime of Plagiarism
4. Use of others’ WORKS and
IDEAS as one’s OWN. The most
obvious form of plagiarism is turning
in work that you did not complete at
all, but that you “borrowed” from
another and turned it in as your own.
Just changing the name and some
words does not make it yours.
Avoiding Plagiarism
• CITE the important
information from each
source that you want to use
or will use in your paper so
that you know exactly where
information was gathered.
Avoiding Plagiarism
• Try initially writing your paper
WITHOUT any notes. Sit down and
organize your paper, writing only what
you remember from the sources you
have read. Then go back and insert all
the specifics and notes you need to,
with documentation. Try reading the
information on a group of note cards
and then writing the paragraph without
looking at them to make sure you are
paraphrasing correctly.
Avoiding Plagiarism
• If you have any
information that contains
a NUMERICAL figure,
make sure that you
document it. As a rule,
numbers are not common
knowledge.
Avoiding Plagiarism
• Do not try to write as
PROFESSIONAL as the
sources you are using.
Use coherent language
and avoid long technical
terms whose meaning you
do not know.
Avoiding Plagiarism
What is “professional” about this writing?
“The camp was comprised of stone and
wooden barracks as well as individual
homes that were requisitioned from
Germans. Though the U.S. Army originally
opened the camp on May 1, 1945, primarily
to house 3,000 Hungarian Jews, the camp
housed many non-Jewish concentration
camp survivors until July 1945” (“Feldafing”
1).
What is a thesis statement?
• A thesis statement is an
opinion-based sentence that
names the topic of your
paper. It is the last sentence
in your introduction.
A thesis statement must do
three things:
• Take a position
• Be supportable with
research
• Be expressed in one
sentence
Weak
Drug addiction is a big problem.
Strong
Drug addiction has caused a
huge increase in violent crimes.
Weak
Home and schools.
Strong
Parents need to participate more
in the education of their children.
Weak
I want to share some thoughts
with you about the space
program.
Strong
The space program is a waste of
money.
Never use first (I, me,
we, my, mine, our) or
second (you, your)
person in your final
thesis statement. Its too
informal.
Write a belief statement about
your topic:
• I believe….
Example: I believe that the
SAT tests should be
eliminated.
Now add a fact to the belief
statement
• I believe….because….
Example: I believe that the SAT
tests should be eliminated
because they cannot predict
success in college.
Finally, take away your “I
believe” statement and you have
your thesis!
Example: SAT tests should be
eliminated because they cannot
predict success in college.
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
Definition of Paraphrasing: A
restatement of a text or passage in
another form or other words.
• Include ALL of the ideas mentioned in the
original passage
• Follow the ORIGINAL order of ideas
• Keep the length approximately the SAME as
the original
• Do not add your own thoughts or views
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
Definition of Summary: Presenting the
substance in a condensed form by
reducing to its main points
• Include only the MAIN points of the original
passage
• Do NOT worry about following the original order
of ideas
• Keep the length to between ¼ and ½ of the
length of the original
• Do not add your own thoughts or ideas
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
Original Text:
“Australian cuisine has the most diverse range, quality, and
inventiveness than many others in the world. Australia is also well
known for its fresh ingredients such as seafood, local fruits, beef and
lamb, as well as its world class cheeses” (“Food” 1)
Paraphrased Text: Which parts of this paraphrasing are too close to the
original?
Australian food is considered to have a wide range and is best known
for its quality and uniqueness when compared to many others in the
world. They are also famous for their fresh ingredients, such as
seafood, local fruits, beef and lamb, as well as its world class
cheeses.
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
Original Text:
“Australian cuisine has the most diverse range, quality, and
inventiveness than many others in the world. Australia is also well
known for its fresh ingredients such as seafood, local fruits, beef and
lamb, as well as its world class cheeses” (“Food” 1)
Summarized Text: What could be added to make this a more effective
summary?
Food in Australia is world famous for its wide range and unique
flavors.
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
“Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly
conflict for over seven years. At least
500,000 people have been killed; more
than 2.7 million innocent civilians have
been forced to flee their homes and now
live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan
or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad;
and more than 3.5 million men, women,
and children are completely reliant on
international aid for survival” (“Darfur
Primer” 1).
Book Entries:
For a Book Entry with an AUTHOR, you
need to find the following information
and put it in this order:
Author’s LAST Name, Author’s FIRST Name.
Title of Book. Publishing City: Publisher,
Year Published. Medium.
If the book does not have an AUTHOR,
you begin with the TITLE.
Book Entries:
If you have TWO authors for a book, put them
in ALPHABETICAL order by their LAST name,
putting the first person in order by LAST name
then FIRST name, and put the other person in
order by FIRST name then LAST name.
If you have more than TWO authors for a book,
list only the first person ALPHABETICALLY,
then write the LATIN phrase ET AL, which
means AND ALL THE REST.
Brochures are documented just like a BOOK
without an AUTHOR.
Website Entries:
For a website without an AUTHOR, you need to find the
following information and put it in this order:
“Title of WEBSITE.” Publisher/Sponsor. (if none, use n.p.)
Day Month Year that the website was created or last
updated. Medium. Day Month Year that you accessed
the site.
The second date you put in the bibliographic entry is the
date you FOUND the website and/or PRINTED it.
If you can find an AUTHOR for the website, you use the
author’s LAST name and then his/her FIRST name, just like a
BOOK entry.
Website Entries:
The title of the website is usually printed in
the UPPER LEFT- hand corner of the page.
The website address is usually printed in
the LOWER LEFT- hand corner of the page.
The date you accessed the website is
usually printed in the LOWER RIGHT- hand
corner of the page.
This is why it is important to print from the
INTERNET since you won’t get this information if
you cut and paste into a WORD document.
Bibliography Cards
General Info. About Works Cited:
The Works Cited page is the LAST
page of your research paper. It does
NOT count in the required page
numbers for the paper.
The Works Cited page is
NUMBERED in the upper RIGHT hand
corner of the page, just like all of the
other pages in your paper.
General Info. About Works Cited:
• The title of the page, WORKS CITED, is
centered at the top of the page.
• Everything on the page is DOUBLESPACED, never more than that.
• Entries on a Works Cited page are called
BIBLIOGRAPHIC entries, which means
“Biblio”- BOOK and “graphic”-WRITING.
•  The entries on the Works Cited page are in
ALPHABETICAL order.
General Info. About Works Cited:
When you alphabetize, you alphabetize by the
FIRST word of the bibliographic entry, unless it
begins with the three English articles, A , AN ,
and THE. You ignore these words and
alphabetize by the FIRST word in the title.

• You do not INDENT the first line of a
bibliographic entry, but you do indent the
SECOND line of a bibliographic entry. It is the
opposite of a PARAGRAPH in an essay where
you indent the FIRST line.
General Info. About Works Cited:
• All of your SOURCES must be
DOCUMENTED in your paper, so be
sure to put only the sources you
used on your Works Cited page.
• Every PERIOD, COMMA, and
COLON are very important, so do
not get careless when you create
your entries.
Parenthetical Documentation
What is Parenthetical Documentation?
Parenthetical Documentation is giving credit to
your SOURCES in your research paper, even
on information you PARAPHRASED or
SUMMARIZED.
How often should I document?
Every TIME you use information from a source,
you should document.
Parenthetical Documentation
How much of my paper should be documented?
You do not have to document your TOPIC or
TRANSITION sentence because you wrote them.
The rest of every body paragraph must be from a
SOURCE, and must be documented.
How do you document?
To document, you put important information in
PARENTHESIS after the information you have
QUOTED, PARAPHRASED, or SUMMARIZED.
Parenthetical Documentation
What if a paragraph is in my own words
and from only one source?
If an entire paragraph came from the
same SOURCE, and you PARAPHRASE
or SUMMARIZE the entire paragraph,
you only have document ONCE at the
end of the paragraph. In this case, the
PERIOD goes before the documentation.
Parenthetical Documentation
What if I use more than one source to put a
paragraph together?
If you used more than one SOURCE to
construct a paragraph, you must document
after each BLOCK of INFORMATION. If each
BLOCK of INFORMATION is more than one
sentence, the period goes BEFORE the
documentation. If each BLOCK of
INFORMATION is just one sentence, then the
period goes AFTER the documentation.
Parenthetical Documentation
How do I know what to put in the parenthesis when I am
documenting?
When you document a BOOK source WITH AN
AUTHOR, you put the author’s LAST name
and the PAGE NUMBER.
Example: (Smith 3)
When you document a BOOK source
WITHOUT AN AUTHOR, you put the TITLE
of the BOOK and the PAGE NUMBER.
Example:(Germany the Beautiful 12-15)
Parenthetical Documentation
How do I know what to put in the parenthesis when I am
documenting?
When you document an INTERNET source
WITH AN AUTHOR, you put the author’s
LAST name and the PAGE NUMBER.
Example: (Jones 3-5)
When you document an INTERNET source
WITHOUT AN AUTHOR, you put the TITLE
of the WEBSITE and the PAGE NUMBER.
Example: (“German Food” 2-5)
Works Cited
“Food in Germany.” Foods Around the World. 6 February 2007. Web. 30 January 2010.
German Culture. Berlin: Deutschland Publishing, 2007. Print.
Schaefer, Laurie. Personal Interview. 5 February 2007.
Wooten, Meredith. I Love Kraut. Pfafftown: Tabor Publishers, 1999. Print.
Zimmermeyer, Dave. “Soccer, the Unknown Sport.” Sports Unlimited. 5 March 2009. Web.
2 February 2010.
Food is an interesting aspect of Germany’s culture. This
first and second sentence of the paragraph are from an Internet
source without an author, which is very common for Internet
sources. The Internet source is only three pages long, and you
know that because the printout tells you in the upper right hand
corner(
) The next two sentences are
from a brochure, which is always documented as if it is a book.
Often, because brochures are written by advertising agencies,
you will not have an author, so remember that you just use the
title, which you can usually find on the front cover of the
brochure (
) This one
sentence is from an interview with one of your favorite teachers
who traveled to Germany; this teacher gave some wonderful
insight into the food of the country and how much she loved it
(
) The final three sentences are from a
book with an author. You found this great information on food to
finish the paragraph. The page numbers that you used were
pages 1121-1123 (
) Many
spectators at the popular sports in Germany enjoy eating these
wonderful foods.