What is plagiarism?
(And why you should care!)
Adapted from J. Valenza’s contribution to:
http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/PowerPoints
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Definition:
Plagiarism is “the practice
of taking someone else’s
work or ideas and passing
them off as one’s own.”
(Oxford Dictionaries)
Students. If:
• you have included
the words and
ideas of others in
your work that you
neglected to cite,
• you have had help
you wouldn’t want
your teacher to
know about,
Two types of plagiarism:
• Intentional
• Unintentional
• Copying a friend’s work
• Careless paraphrasing
• Buying or borrowing
papers
• Poor documentation
• Cutting and pasting text
without documenting
• Media “borrowing”
without giving attribution
• Web publishing without
permissions of creators
• Quoting excessively
• Failure to use your own
“voice”
Excuses
It’s okay if
Everyone does it!
I don’t get caught!
This assignment
was BORING!
My teachers
expect
too much!
I was too busy to
write that paper!
(Job, big game, too much homework!)
I’ve got to get
into
??? U.!
My parents
expect “A”s!
Rationale for academic integrity
(as if it were necessary!)
• When you copy you cheat yourself.
• Consequences are not worth the risks!
Is your academic
reputation valuable
• It is only right to give credit to authors.
to you?
•
Citing gives authority to information
you present.
• Citing allows your readers to locate
your sources.
• Cheating is unethical behavior.
Consequences:
• A grade of “0” on the
assignment.
• Conference with parent,
teacher, and assistant
principal.
• Potential loss of
reputation among the
school community.
Real life consequences
Check out these examples
on the UC SanDiego library
website:
http://libraries.ucsd.edu/locations/sshl/guides
/preventing-plagiarism/real-worldexamples.html
Real life (cont’d)
View the Today Show
interview between Katie
Couric and Kaavya
Viswanathan.
Do I have
to cite
everything?
Nope!
• Facts that are widely known, or
• Information or judgments considered
“common knowledge”
Do NOT have to be documented.
Hooray for
common
knowledge!
Examples of common knowledge
• John Adams was our second
president.
• The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
on December 7, 1941.
• The chemical composition of water is
H20.
If a fact appears in three or more
sources, AND you are fairly certain
your readers already know this
information, it is likely to be
“common knowledge.”
But when in doubt, cite!
No need to document when:
• You are discussing your own
experiences, observations, or
reactions.
• Compiling the results of original
research, from science experiments,
etc.
What’s the big deal?
You can “borrow” from the
works of others in your
own work!
Use these three strategies:
• Quoting
• Paraphrasing
• Summarizing
To blend source materials in with your
own, making sure your own voice is
heard.
Quoting
Quotations are the exact words of
an author, copied directly from a
source, word for word.
Quotations must be cited!
Paraphrasing
• Rephrasing the words of an author, putting
his/her thoughts in your own words.
• Reworking the source’s ideas, words,
phrases, and sentence structures with your
own.
• Must be followed with in-text documentation
and cited on your Works Cited page.
Summarizing
• Putting the main idea(s) of one or
several writers into your own words.
• Significantly shorter than the original
and take a broad overview of the source
material.
• Summarized ideas must be cited!
Summarize when:
• You want to establish background
or offer an overview of a topic.
• You want to describe knowledge
(from several sources) about a
topic.
• You want to determine the main
ideas of a single source.
In-text MLA documentation
• Purpose--to give immediate source
information without interrupting the flow of
paper.
• Inaccurate documentation is as serious
as having no documentation at all.
• Brief in in-text documentation should
match full source information in Works
Cited.
How do I cite using MLA style?
• Parenthetical citations are usually placed at the
end of a sentence, before the period, but may be
placed in the middle of sentence.
• Cite the author's last name and the page number.
• In the absence of an author, cite the title and the
page number.
• If you identify the author and title in the text, just
list the page number.
But, what about the Web?
When citing a Web source in-text, you are not likely
to have page numbers. Just include the first part
of the entry.
(Smith)
or
(“Plagiarism and the Web”)
Typical example:
“Slightly more than 73% of Happy High
School students reported plagiarizing
papers sometime in their high school
careers” (Smith 203).
Creating a works cited page
• Use the “hanging indent” style.
• Complete the works cited worksheet
available in the LHS library.
• Follow source-specific formatting examples.
• Double space within and between each
citation.
For more information and specific
examples visit these useful websites:
•
Purdue University Online Writing Lab: MLA Style Guide
(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/)
•
Plagiarism.org (http://plagiarism.org/)
•
EasyBib’s Research Guide
(http://content.easybib.com/students/research-guide/)
Works Cited
"Opal Mehtaâ Author Apologizes for Error." TODAY.com.
NBCnews.com, 26 Apr. 2006. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.
"Plagiarism." Definition of in Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University
Press, Apr. 2010. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
"Preventing Plagiarism: Keepin' It Real." The Library UC San Diego.
University of California, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
Valenza, J. “What is Plagiarism (and Why You Should Care).” 2007.
Microsoft Power Point file. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.