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What is
Plagiarism & How Do I
Avoid It?
§
Definition:
Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without
clearly acknowledging the source of that information.
§ Examples:
-
Using
any information that is not common knowledge without giving credit. This
includes information from any source: print, electronic, video,
interview, etc.
-
Using a graphic,
photograph, chart, map, sound file, etc., without giving credit
- Using
someone else's work and claiming it as your own (this
includes someone else's paper)
§
Avoiding Plagiarism:
Students sometimes plagiarize ideas without
realizing it. There are two
ways to protect yourself from such unintentional plagiarism:
- Note-taking &
use of note cards
- Documentation of
sources
§
Note-taking:
- Most
of your notes will be paraphrased. This means reading
and then writing down what you have read in your own words. You must change
the vocabulary (words used) AND
the grammatical structure of the original text.
- If
you do not understand a source - don't
use it!
- If you
copy words exactly as they are
written in the source, put quotation marks around them on your note
cards. DO NOT assume you will remember that it is a direct quote that
you need to paraphrase before you use it in your paper.
Failure to use quotation marks or to paraphrase is PLAGIARISM.
Refer to your handouts or
Creating
Note Cards for help with
format for your notes.
§
Documentation:
No matter
what kind of notes
you take-- paraphrase or direct quote -- you must give credit
to your source in the text (parenthetical
in-text citations) of your paper AND in a Works
Cited page. If the person reading your paper cannot match the
information in your paper to the source
by using a parenthetical in-text citation that matches a complete
citation
in your Works Cited page, then you have plagiarized.
For more
information on in-text citations,
see Parenthetical In-Text Citations.
§
Common
Knowledge:
Does that mean I must
document every sentence in the paper?” No, BUT when in
doubt, cite!
Information that is
considered common knowledge does not have to be documented. Factual information of a general nature,
called “common knowledge," reoccurs
in source after source. Remember
this general rule: Information that
occurs in five or more sources may be considered general knowledge. For example, the fact
that Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president is common
knowledge. On the other hand, a historian's comment on Lincoln's
administration would not be considered common knowledge and would
require a citation. When in doubt, cite!
Your
thesis sentence, topic sentences,
analyses, and most of the opening and concluding paragraphs may
not need to be documented. This is true if the information used is your
own interpretation or synthesis based on what you have read.
§ What Happens if I Plagiarize?
At LHS, it
is
up to the teacher and the administration, but most often the student
receives an ‘F’ for the
plagiarized work and the student's parents are notified.
At the college level:
"Because
it is intellectual theft, plagiarism is considered by all
post-secondary
institutions as an academic crime with punishment anywhere from an F on
that
particular paper to dismissal from the course to expulsion from the
college or
university."
| "Writing
a Research Paper." OWL
Online
Writing Lab. Purdue University.
1995-2004. 22 Feb. 2005
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/
hypertext/ResearchW/plag.html>. |
In
the business world, professional plagiarism often results in the loss
of
employment and the ruin of the person's reputation.
§
Avoiding
Plagiarism Resources:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html
http://dewey.chs.chico.k12.ca.us/plagiarism.html
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