How do you tell if your plagiarizing in your paper? Plagiarism How do you tell if your plagiarizing in your paper? All this is from MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 7th by The Modern Language Association of America

Plagiarism An act of taking someone else’s work and using it as your own. You must give credit to all to the original author or creator. If you have not given credit, this is stealing intellectual work. There are four types of plagiarism that we will be focusing on.

1.) Repeating or Paraphrasing Text Example: Original Source from Wendy Martin’s Columbia Literary History of the United States Some of Dickinson’s most powerful poems express her firmly held conviction that life cannot be fully comprehend without an understanding of death. Plagiarized sentence: Emily Dickinson firmly believed that we cannot fully comprehend life unless we also understand death. Cited sentence: As Wendy Martin has suggested, Emily Dickinson firmly believed that we cannot fully comprehend life unless we also understand death (Martin 625). Emily Dickinson’s “firmly held conviction that life cannot be fully comprehended without an understanding of death” (Martin 625).

2.) Taking a Particularly Apt Phrase Example: Original Source from Michael Agar’s Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation Everyone uses the word language and everybody these days talks about culture…”Languaculture” is a reminder, I hope of the necessary connection between its two parts… Plagiarized sentence: At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that we call “languaculture.” Cited Sentence: At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that Michael Agar has called “languaculture.”

3.) An Author’s Argument and Presenting a Line of Thinking Example: Original Source from Six Way Paragraph’s The Romantic Poets What did the Romantic poets write about? One common topic was nature. Some of the most beautiful nature descriptions ever written come from these poets. But, in holding with their views of poetry, nature was only a starting point. Plagiarized sentence: During the romantic period, the most beautiful descriptions of nature were written. Cited sentence: During the romantic period, Six Way Paragraph writers described the most beautiful descriptions of nature were written.

4.) Taken off the Internet Example: Original Source fromWikipedia.org on Plagiarism Plagiarism is the incorporation of someone else's work – including their language and ideas – without providing adequate credit. Plagiarized sentence: Plagiarism is the incorporation of someone else's work – including their language and ideas – without providing adequate credit. This means it’s stealing. Cited sentence: “Plagiarism is the incorporation of someone else's work – including their language and ideas – without providing adequate credit” (Wikipedia.org). This means it’s stealing.

Checklist for Plagiarism BY MLA HANDBOOK 7TH ED. You have plagiarized if… You can avoid plagiarism by… You do not change anything from the original quotes when summarizing and paraphrasing. On the Web, you copy and paste on to your paper with no quotations or citing. You took someone’s unique word/phrase or argument/ line of thinking without giving them credit. Making a list of the author and the quotes. Make a list… your notes your summary of the work Exact quote Identify all sources that you may use. ALWAYS HAVE QUOTATIONS AND CITING IF YOU ARE WORRIED. Ask your teacher to look at it