Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Secondary English Language Arts
Unit 3: Three Phase Composition
Research: Overcoming Oppression
Plagiarism: Just Say No!
Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional copying of ideas, words, groups of words,
sentences, or even whole paragraphs or pages from another source without giving credit to the
original author.
A source includes
1. Published or printed material such as books, magazines, TV programs, scripts, software,
electronic mail, Internet websites, and student essays.
2. Excessive help from other people.
Plagiarism can occur in several ways:
1. Copying any part of another person’s writing word for word and calling it your own
writing is plagiarism.
2. Taking parts of several people’s writings, putting the parts together, and calling the
writing your own is plagiarism.
3. Taking another person’s writing, substituting some words of your own, and calling the
writing your own is plagiarism.
4. Taking “excessive” help on your own writing from another person is plagiarism.
“Excessive” help is difficult to define. If the ideas, organization, sentences, and/or words
in your paper are primarily those of the person helping you, you are receiving
“excessive” help. If you could not write a similar paper on your own and achieve the
same results, you are receiving “excessive” help. Someone who is really helping you will
give you suggestions and choices about your paper.
5. You may include the ideas and words of other sources in your writings but give the
original writer or thinker credit for the ideas and words by documenting your source. If
you are quoting someone’s words exactly, simply state who said the words. If you are
putting someone’s ideas into your own words, you still need to tell whose idea it is. Give
credit to whom it is due!
6. You must save back-up material such as notes and drafts of all your work in case there is
a question about the originality of your work.
Find a full discussion of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it:
Writers Inc: A Student Handbook for Writing and Learning, pp. 275-277.
Write for College: A Student Handbook, pp. 328-329.
Write responsibly and take pride in your work.
Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Secondary English Language Arts
Unit 3: Three Phase Composition
Research: Overcoming Oppression
Creating In-text Citations
Print sources: This format follows the author-page method, meaning that accompanying the
quotation or paraphrase from your source must be the author and page number. The author’s
name may be part of the sentence or in parentheses, but page numbers should always appear in
parentheses.
Examples:



Alvarez informs us that Dominicans refer to the Trujillo assassination “as an
ajusticiamiento, a bringing to justice, rather than an assassination.” (330).
Dominicans refer to the Trujillo assassination “as an ajusticiamiento, a bringing to
justice, rather than an assassination.” (Alvarez, 330).
Alvarez informs us that Dominicans feel Trujillo’s death was as much about bringing him
to justice as it was an assassination (330).
Electronic Sources: To cite an electronic source, you should create the full citation for your
“Works Cited” page and then work back from there. Include in the text the first item that
appears in the corresponding Works Cited entry (author name, article name, website name, etc).
You do not need to provide a paragraph or page number.

Here is the full entry for a page from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
"Personal Histories: Camps." Personal Histories: Camps. United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum, n.d. Web. 15 July 2013.

This is how that source would be cited as an in-text citation:
Lilly Applebaum explained the origins of the name death march “because the ravines and the
gutters, they were all red from blood” (Personal Histories: Camps).
Create an in-text citation for one of your sources:
For more information visit: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/2/
Baltimore County Public Schools
Office of Secondary English Language Arts
Unit 3: Three Phase Composition
Research: Overcoming Oppression
Model Research Works Cited
Depillis, Lydia. "If You Rebuild It, They Might Not Come." The New Republic. The New
Republic, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 17 July 2013.
Frazier, Robert. "New Orleans: seven months later." Brown Daily Herald. The Brown Daily
Herald, 5 Apr. 2006. Web. 16 July 2013.
Goodman, Rachael D., and Cirecie A. West-Olatunji. "Spaces for Difference: An
Interdisciplinary Journal." Spaces for Difference: An Interdisciplinary Journal 1.2
(2008): 51-68. Traumatic Stress, Systemic Oppression, and Resilience in Post-Katrina
New Orleans [eScholarship]. Department of Education, UC Santa Barbara. Web. 16 July
2013.
Greene, David. "Bush Calls for Bold Plan to Rebuild Coast." NPR. NPR, 16 Sept. 2005. Web. 16
July 2013.