Avoiding Plagiarism
Ensuring academic success!
Would you ever steal?
Nevertheless, when you copy another person’s
ideas or words without giving credit,
you are plagiarizing, which is committing
academic fraud!
Deliberate plagiarism is
cheating .
“The word comes from the Latin
word for kidnapping” (Perrin 121).
Copying from a published essay,
web site, buying a paper on-line,
copying a phrase without citing, or
using a friend's paper, is plagiarizing.
If you do so, you run a terrible risk.
The consequences include the following:

Receiving a F on the paper

Failing the class

Being suspended from Owens.
The worst consequence—
Losing an opportunity to learn!
When should I cite?
Is it your idea?
Yes
NO
Is it common knowledge?
No
Cite it!!
Do not cite
Accidental Plagiarism
Using words from another
source without indicating
where they came from.
Solution
Enclose direct quotes with quotation
marks.
Note - the author is credited



Fitzgerald’s story opens with “the
caddies were poor as sin and lived in
one-room houses” (407).
“Writing to learn has different goals
from” other forms of writing (Gere 5).
Gere maintains that writing to learn
strategies alter the roles of teachers
and students (5).
Plagiarism when summarizing

If a passage is summarized and those
ideas are inserted into your work
without noting that these ideas are not
your own, then you have plagiarized.
Solution

Introduce the author and the page of
the source for the summary.
Borrowing/purchasing a paper


Submitting someone else’s paper as
your own is plagiarism!
Whether you hire someone else to
write for you or “borrow” their work,
you are plagarizing.
Solution

Trust your own abilities! The Writing
Center can help you at any stage of
the writing process as well as help
you in working with your sources.
Helpful hints:



When you take notes, add citations as you
go along.
Create a research portfolio with a copy of
every source.
Annotate sources so that you have a
better understanding and will be able to
integrate your sources more smoothly.
Use this check list:



Are quotation marks placed around any
direct quotations?
Are ellipses and brackets used
appropriately?
Are sources identified with the source
and the page number (if any) of the
quotation?
Use this check list:


Do paraphrases differ significantly in
word choice and sentence structure from
the passage being paraphrased and the
source and page number from which you
took the paraphrase identified?
Are summaries not just a series of
passages copied from the source?
Use this check list:


Are signal phrases used to distinguish between
your ideas and those from your sources?
Do you have a Works Cited or Reference page?
Ways to avoid accidental
plagiarism:


Careful note taking
A clear understanding of the
rules for quoting,
paraphrasing, and
summarizing sources
Always rememberIf it is new to you—
then cite it!
Works Cited
Perrin, Robert. Handbook for College
Research 3rd edition. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2005.