Avoiding Plagiarism
Exercises
Avoiding Plagiarism

Original Source:

For many Southerners it was
psychologically impossible to see a black
man bearing arms as anything but an
incipient slave uprising complete with
arson, murder, pillage, and raping.

From page 158 of The Sable Arm, a book by
historian Dudley Taylor Cornish
Avoiding Plagiarism

Original:


For many Southerners it was psychologically
impossible to see a black man bearing arms as
anything but an incipient slave uprising
complete with arson, murder, pillage, and
raping.
Student version:

Civil War historian Dudley Taylor Cornish
observes that many Southerners were so
terrified of slave revolt that the sight of armed
black men filled them with fear (158).
Avoiding Plagiarism

Student version:


Civil War historian Dudley Taylor Cornish
observes that many Southerners were so
terrified of slave revolt that the sight of armed
black men filled them with fear (158).
This passage is acceptable because it is
written in the student’s own words and
is correctly documented with an MLA intext citation
Avoiding Plagiarism

Original:


For many Southerners it was psychologically
impossible to see a black man bearing arms as
anything but an incipient slave uprising
complete with arson, murder, pillage, and
raping.
Student version:

For many Southerners it was psychologically
impossible to see a black man bearing arms as
anything but an incipient slave uprising
complete with arson, murder, pillage, and
raping.
Avoiding Plagiarism

Student version:


For many Southerners it was psychologically
impossible to see a black man bearing arms as
anything but an incipient slave uprising
complete with arson, murder, pillage, and
raping.
This passage is obviously plagiarized,
copied word-for-word from the source with
no quotation marks and no MLA in-text
citation
Avoiding Plagiarism

Original:


For many Southerners it was psychologically
impossible to see a black man bearing arms as
anything but an incipient slave uprising complete
with arson, murder, pillage, and raping.
Student version:

According to Civil War historian Dudley Taylor
Cornish, “For many Southerners it was
psychologically impossible to see a black man
bearing arms as anything but an incipient slave
uprising complete with arson, murder, pillage, and
raping” (158).
Avoiding Plagiarism

Student version:


According to Civil War historian Dudley Taylor
Cornish, “For many Southerners it was
psychologically impossible to see a black man
bearing arms as anything but an incipient slave
uprising complete with arson, murder, pillage, and
raping” (158).
This passage is acceptable because the
student has enclosed borrowed words in
quotation marks and has correctly
documented the quotation with an MLA in-
Avoiding Plagiarism

Original:


For many Southerners it was psychologically
impossible to see a black man bearing arms as
anything but an incipient slave uprising
complete with arson, murder, pillage, and
raping.
Student version:

According to Civil War historian Dudley Taylor
Cornish, for many Southerners it was
psychologically difficult to see a black man
bearing arms as anything but a potential slave
revolt.
Avoiding Plagiarism

Student version:


According to Civil War historian Dudley Taylor
Cornish, for many Southerners it was
psychologically difficult to see a black man
bearing arms as anything but a potential slave
revolt.
This passage is plagiarized; although the
source is correctly documented with an intext citation, the student has paraphrased
the author’s language far too closely
Avoiding Plagiarism

Original:


For many Southerners it was psychologically
impossible to see a black man bearing arms as
anything but an incipient slave uprising complete
with arson, murder, pillage, and raping.
Student version:

Civil War historian Dudley Taylor Cornish writes
that for psychological reasons many Southerners
couldn’t help but view an armed black man as “an
incipient slave uprising complete with arson,
murder, pillage, and raping” (158).
Avoiding Plagiarism

Student version:


Civil War historian Dudley Taylor Cornish writes
that for psychological reasons many Southerners
couldn’t help but view an armed black man as “an
incipient slave uprising complete with arson,
murder, pillage, and raping” (158).
This passage is acceptable; it consists of a
paraphrase in the student’s own words
followed by a quotation from the source.
Everything is followed by a correctly
formatted MLA in-text citation