Avoiding Plagiarism; Writing
Effective Metacommentary,
Using Facts and Statistics Wisely
Quickwrite
• Come up with a clear thesis statement that
answers this question, and then begin to
answer it in the form of a freewrite.
• What do you think are the most common
reasons that some students plagiarize (cheat,
steal others’ words or ideas) on their written
assignments? What do you think should be
done in order to address these reasons and
prevent plagiarism from occurring?
Three Basic Rules for Avoiding
Plagiarism:
1. Make sure all word-for-word quotes have quote
marks showing where they begin and end. Also,
make sure to make the difference between your
ideas and your sources’ ideas clear when
paraphrasing or summarizing.
2. Identify where each quote OR paraphrased idea
came from in the body of your paper using intext citations.
3. Make sure that each source you quote or
paraphrase in your paper is correctly listed on
your Works Cited page.
To Cite, or Not to Cite
• You do not have to cite facts that are undisputed
common knowledge.
– Ex: The Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1, 1863.
– Ex: Water is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one
oxygen atom.
– Ex: Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland.
• However, once you start needing to use ideas
about these common, everyday facts that you
found in your sources, you must cite the source
of the idea.
• When in doubt, cite! And if you have time, ask!
Some Myths about Plagiarism
• Myth 1: As long as I have a source on my works cited page, I
don’t have to mention it in the body of my paper.
• WRONG! Any time you use ideas or words from a source, you
must include an in-text citation.
• Myth 2: As long as I change one or two words in a quote, I
don’t have to put quote marks around it or do a citation.
• WRONG! Changing one or two words in a quote and replacing
them with synonyms is STILL PLAGIARISM if you keep the
original ideas and/or sentence structure.
• Myth 3: As long as I paraphrase correctly, using my own words
and sentence structure to express an idea, I don’t need an intext citation.
• WRONG! Even if you use your own words, if the idea originally
came from somewhere else, you must cite it.
Myths about Plagiarism
• Myth 4: I don’t need to cite exact words, ideas or
information I find on the internet.
• WRONG! Treat your internet sources with the same
respect you have for your print or online database
sources.
• Myth 5: It is appropriate to use an old essay from a friend,
buy an essay, or have someone help me write an essay
using his or her wording instead of mine.
• WRONG! All of these are called collusion, and they are all
plagiarism.
• Myth 6: I won’t get caught if I plagiarize.
• WRONG! Plagiarism is quite obvious to most professors,
and many of them use plagiarism detecting software.
Resources to Help you Avoid
Plagiarism
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P. 451-456 of Rules for Writers for avoiding plagiarism.
P. 458-459 for a directory of MLA citation information.
P. 479-523 for MLA references.
P. 523-532 for example research paper.
Example research paper from the Purdue OWL
Online plagiarism tutorial and quizzes from Simon
Fraser University
• Plagiarism Self Test from Western Carolina University
• University of Southern Mississippi’s Plagiarism Tutorial
How to Use TurnItIn to Check for
Plagiarism
• After you have uploaded your essay to turnitin,
you will have the ability to check YOURSELF for
any plagiarism.
• Your originality score should be less than 30%.
This means that no more than 30% of your essay
should be identified as word for word from a
source, even if sources are quoted correctly.
• Any portions of your essay that turnitin highlights
should be enclosed in quotes and given a correct
MLA parenthetical citation.
What Happens if TurnItIn Finds
Plagiarism?
• If you have time before the due date, you can
fix the problem and upload a new, corrected
file that will replace the old one.
• This means that it would be a good idea to
give yourself time to correct any errors before
the due date.
• If you discover accidental plagiarism after the
due date, I will give you the opportunity to
revise.
What about intentional plagiarism?
• Intentional plagiarism is cheating that is not the result
of an accident, a lack of knowledge, or a citation error.
For example, uploading an entire essay you bought or
copied from a website is not an accident.
• What happens if turnitin identifies intentional
plagiarism?
– Hope you’ve given yourself enough time to take it down
and upload something you actually wrote before the due
date.
– Because if I catch you, I will fail you on the assignment with
no hope of revision so fast it’ll make your head spin.
Chapter 10 of They Say / I Say
• What is metacommentary? Why do authors
sometimes feel the need to include it in their
writing?
• In your research paper, you might need to
explain to your readers how to read your
points in order to avoid confusion or
misunderstanding.
Chapter 10 of They Say / I Say
• P. 129 of TSIS says, “metacommentary is a way of
commenting on your claims and telling others how—and
how not—to think about them.”
• Add an additional paragraph to your quickwrite in which
you include one or more examples of metacommentary
that tells your reader how to think about your points.
– Are there any potential misunderstandings that you can clarify?
(p. 135)
– Can you introduce and then provide a specific example of your
point? (p. 136)
– Can you anticipate some objections to your point and answer
them? (p. 136)
– Can you tie all of your small points together to make one
general point? (p. 137)
Logos Review
• One of the ways you will be making your
argument is through the use of logos.
• Logos appeals to logic, reason, and “common
sense.”
• Arguments that use logos use often use statistics
and results of scientific studies and interpret
those statistics and results for the reader to show
how those facts support the claim.
Using Facts Effectively
• “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you
are not entitled to your own facts.” – U.S.
Senator Daniel Moynihan
• When you present factual findings (statistics or
study results) in your research paper, you are
going to need to do these things:
– Interpret the fact. Explain what it means to your
argument.
– Give your facts context.
– Make sure your facts are credible to the reader.
Your Sources May Have Done Some
Interpretation Already…
• In your research, you will find facts presented in two
different ways:
• Informative sources simply give you the facts and let
you draw your own conclusions. There are no beliefs
about the facts in informative sources, and it is up to
you to interpret the facts and explain why they fit your
claim.
• Persuasive sources will use facts in order to support a
claim. These types of sources will have beliefs about
what the facts mean and what should be done because
of them. These are the sources you can agree or
disagree with.
Informative/Persuasive: to Sum Up
• So, to sum up: if a fact is from an informative
source, it is up to YOU to interpret it.
• If a fact is from a persuasive source, you have
a choice.
– Use the fact without responding to your source’s
ideas about the fact.
– Quote the fact and the ideas, and then
agree/disagree with the ideas about the fact, not
the fact itself.
Logos and Statistics
• Many appeals to logos are based on research that has
statistical results.
• “An analysis by the Pew Research Center found that of
more than 67,000 news stories that appeared in
newspapers or on cable and network television, radio
and news websites, between February 2009 and
February 2010, 1.9 percent related in a significant way
to African Americans, 1.3 percent related to Latinos
and only .2 percent related to Asian Americans”
(Hannah).
• The author quotes this study in order to support his
argument that the media is not adequately
representing LBGTQ people of color.
Questions to Ask About
Statistics/Research
• Who conducted the research? Are they
credible?
• How recent is the research?
• How many individuals were included in the
study?
• What methods were used to conduct the
study? Were they fair and effective?
• If the statistics are interpreted/explained, who
is doing the interpretation?
There are three kinds
of lies: lies, damned
lies, and statistics.
- Mark Twain
Use Statistics Honestly
• Logos is a powerful tool for persuasion, but you
want to make sure that you are using the
research you encounter honestly.
• It is possible that legitimate, factual research
might be manipulated by an unethical writer.
A very over the top example:
• “California Community Colleges are doing a
terrible job. In a study of 2013 graduation
rates, the Chronicle for Higher Education
found that only 26.2% of students seeking a 2year degree finished within three years. This
means that barely more than one fourth of
students finish their degrees in a reasonable
amount of time. Taxpayers should be outraged
that their taxes are supporting institutions
with such low rates of success.”
Give Your Facts/Statistics Context
• The fact “only 26.2% of CA students finish their community
college degrees in three years” needs context.
• Which students were included in the study?
– “First time, full-time degree seeking students.”
– This means that students who took a break and then graduated
in a reasonable amount of time aren’t counted.
– Part time students who later became full time aren’t counted.
• 26.2% graduate in 3 years in California, but how does this
compare to other states?
– The national average is only 19.4%, so California is performing
BETTER than the national average in Community college degree
completion.
– Out of all 50 states, California has the 10th highest completion
rate (the highest is South Dakota, with 51.2% graduating in 3
years).
Questioning Facts: The Exception
• Remember how I said “you can’t argue with
facts”? There is one exception.
• If you find out that the research that provided a
statistic was not well done, you can question the
research.
• Point out a flaw in the study’s methods that you
discovered.
• Point out an unethical or unfair practice by the
study’s authors.
• Remember, though, you can only do these things
if you are ready to prove that the study is flawed.
A Problems to Watch out For
• Correlation is not causation (the verb
is “correlate”)
– Just because two things are happening at the same time, or
changing at the same rate, does not mean that they one is the
cause of the other.
• If you believe that two things are changing at the same
time or at the same rate because they are related, you
need to do much more to argue for the connection than
present statistics that say they are both changing.
• There are several amusing graphs about trends that prove
this point here, as well as a video that explains the issue in
more depth.
So what does all of this mean for my
research paper?
• Use facts and statistics wisely.
• When you are interpreting and explaining facts and
statistics, make sure you are doing so in a way that is
logical and fair.
– Let your audience know where the fact/statistic came
from, and argue for its credibility.
– Remember that correlation is not causation.
• When you are responding to your sources’
interpretations of facts, be sure that you are arguing
for or against the interpretation of the facts, and not
the facts themselves, unless you have proof that the
study is flawed.