Avoiding Plagiarism PowerPoint created by Kimberly Cauble, Griggs Road Elementary School Copyright © 2012 Kimberly Cauble All rights reserved by author. Permission to copy for classroom use only. Electronic distribution limited to classroom use only.

What is plagiarism? Plagiarism, based on the Greek word for “kidnapping,” is stealing someone else’s ideas or writing. Someone’s ideas and writing is actually their personal property! You wouldn’t want anyone to steal from you, and you don’t want to get caught stealing someone’s property. As you progress through school, the consequences for plagiarizing become more severe. In middle school, you may be forced to redo the assignment, given a bad grade, and/or put in in-school detention to redo the work. In high school, you may be given a bad grade and/or suspended. In college, you may be kicked out.

Avoiding Plagiarism There are several tricks you can use to avoid plagiarizing: Paraphrase the information! Put it into your own words. That doesn’t mean changing one or two words; that means changing almost all of the words AND the sentence structure. Give the author credit. Quote their words directly, using quotation marks, or reword what they said, but ALWAYS give them credit! This is called “citing your source.”

Also… **Wikipedia is NOT a good source of reliable information. Anyone can add information to Wikipedia, and sometimes, the information is wrong! Some of the information on Wikipedia may in fact already be plagiarized from somewhere else! It’s a good place to look for links, but never use it as a source in your own work.

PARAPHRASING

Is This Paraphrased Correctly? Original Work: “Just before 8 on the morning of December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.” (from harbor) harbor On December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese bombers attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The bombing lasted about 2 hours. The Japanese managed to destroy 20 ships, including eight battleships, and 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans died in the attack, and over 1,000 were hurt. NO! Even though the student deleted a few words and changed around a few others, there is a lot of wording and structure that is left exactly the same.

Is This Paraphrased Correctly? Original Work: “Just before 8 on the morning of December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.” (from harbor) harbor On December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese bombers attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The bombing lasted about 2 hours. The Japanese managed to destroy 20 ships, including eight battleships, and 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans died in the attack, and over 1,000 were hurt. NO! Even though the student deleted a few words and changed around a few others, there is a lot of wording and structure that is left exactly the same.

Is This Paraphrased Correctly? Original Work: “April 14, The Stars and Stripes is ceremoniously raised over Fort Sumter. That night, Lincoln and his wife Mary see the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. At 10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shoots the president in the head. Doctors attend to the president in the theater then move him to a house across the street. He never regains consciousness.” (from April 14, 1865: Lincoln and his wife attended the play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater. During the third act, John Wilkes Booth shot the president in the head. Doctors tried to help him and moved him across the street, but Lincoln died. NO! Again, even though the student deleted a few words and changed around a few others, even changing some of the verb tenses, there is still a lot of wording and structure that is left exactly the same.

Is This Paraphrased Correctly? Original Work: “April 14, The Stars and Stripes is ceremoniously raised over Fort Sumter. That night, Lincoln and his wife Mary see the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. At 10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shoots the president in the head. Doctors attend to the president in the theater then move him to a house across the street. He never regains consciousness.” (from April 14, 1865: Lincoln and his wife attended the play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater. During the third act, John Wilkes Booth shot the president in the head. Doctors tried to help him and moved him across the street, but Lincoln died. NO! Again, even though the student deleted a few words and changed around a few others, even changing some of the verb tenses, there is still a lot of wording and structure that is left exactly the same.

Is This Paraphrased Correctly? Original Work: “Just before 8 on the morning of December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.” (from harbor) harbor Pearl Harbor, an American navy base in Honolulu, was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, The attack caused the massive destruction of many ships and planes, as well as over 2000 deaths and 1000 injuries. YES! The wording has been changed and the structure of the writing is different. This is a good paraphrase of the original information.

Is This Paraphrased Correctly? Original Work: “April 14, The Stars and Stripes is ceremoniously raised over Fort Sumter. That night, Lincoln and his wife Mary see the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. At 10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shoots the president in the head. Doctors attend to the president in the theater then move him to a house across the street. He never regains consciousness.” (from On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth. YES! The wording has been changed and the structure of the writing is different. This is a good paraphrase of the original information.

Paraphrasing The best thing to do when paraphrasing is to read the entire selection and then look AWAY from the work and try to put the information into your own words. Don’t forget, though…even though you may reword and restructure the information well enough, you still have to give the author credit in your sources/citations for providing you with the information!

Giving the Author Credit

Is This Cited Correctly? Original Work: “The Earth's oceans are all connected to one another. Until the year 2000, there were four recognized oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic. In the Spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization delimited a new ocean, the Southern Ocean (it surrounds Antarctica and extends to 60 degrees latitude).”Southern Ocean (from bjects/ocean) There are five oceans, and they are all connected to one another. Until 2000, there were only four. In the Spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization named a new ocean, the Southern Ocean. NO! The exact words of the source are used without quotation marks, and the student never says where the information came from.

Is This Cited Correctly? Original Work: “The Earth's oceans are all connected to one another. Until the year 2000, there were four recognized oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic. In the Spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization delimited a new ocean, the Southern Ocean (it surrounds Antarctica and extends to 60 degrees latitude).”Southern Ocean (from bjects/ocean) There are five oceans, and they are all connected to one another. Until 2000, there were only four. In the Spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization named a new ocean, the Southern Ocean. NO! The exact words of the source are used without quotation marks, and the student never says where the information came from.

Is This Cited Correctly? Original Work: “September 23, 1957 was no ordinary school day for Elizabeth Eckford and eight other African American teenagers in Little Rock, Arkansas. Little Rock Central High School, like many schools across the country, was segregated. Only white students were allowed to attend. But the Supreme Court had ruled that segregation, or the legal separation of blacks and whites in public facilities, was illegal. And these nine students, who would be known as The Little Rock Nine, would be the first African Americans to attend Little Rock's Central High.” (from /features_school.html) I learned from pbskids.org that on September 23, 1957, nine African American teenagers in Little Rock, Arkansas, were the first black students to attend Central High School. They became known as The Little Rock Nine. (Student also listed entire website in sources section of work.) YES! The student said in the introduction of their statement where their information came from, even though it was not quoted directly.

Is This Cited Correctly? Original Work: “Gary Schmidt is a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He received both a Newbery Honor and a Printz Honor for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and a Newbery Honor for The Wednesday Wars. He lives with his family on a 150-year-old farm in Alto, Michigan, where he splits wood, plants gardens, writes, and feeds the wild cats that drop by.”Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster BoyThe Wednesday Wars (from Gary Schmidt is an award-winning author and professor. When he’s not writing, “he splits wood, plants, gardens, writes, and feeds the wild cats that drop by.” (from “About the Author,” on (Student also listed website in sources section of work.) YES! The part that is directly quoted is in quotation marks, and the section of the website quoted is listed right after the quote.

Now You Try! Read the following excerpts below, and paraphrase it (put it into your own words). Correctly cite your source. “A tsunami (pronounced sue-nahm-ee) is a series of huge waves that can cause great devastation and loss of life when they strike a coast. Tsunamis are caused by an underwater earthquake, a volcanic eruption, a sub-marine rockslide, or, more rarely, by an asteroid or meteoroid crashing into in the water from space. Most tsunamis are caused by underwater earthquakes, but not all underwater earthquakes cause tsunamis - an earthquake has to be over about magnitude 6.75 on the Richter scale for it to cause a tsunami. About 90 percent of all tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean.volcanic eruptionasteroidmeteoroidRichter scale Many tsunamis could be detected before they hit land, and the loss of life could be minimized, with the use of modern technology, including seismographs (which detect earthquakes), computerized offshore buoys that can measure changes in wave height, and a system of sirens on the beach to alert people of potential tsunami danger.” (from

Resources Used in this Presentation: tilt.library.skagit.edu/module4/plagiarism.htm (Plagiarism image on Slide #1) tilt.library.skagit.edu/module4/plagiarism.htm sociology.camden.rutgers.edu/jfm/plagiarism/plagiaris m-jfm.htm (Cut & Paste graphic on Slide #3) sociology.camden.rutgers.edu/jfm/plagiarism/plagiaris m-jfm.htm Microsoft Clip Art html html Notice how I cited my sources on this PowerPoint!