Plagiarism & Annotation

Overview Plagiarism is the Problem Annotation is the Answer Foot/End noting

What is Plagiarism? Presenting someone’s work as your own Example: buying an essay, copying someone’s assignment Using someone’s words instead of your own Example: taking a sentence intact or even an “apt phrase” and presenting it as your own Presenting someone’s ideas as your Example: following the logic of a paragraph (even in your own words) and presenting it as your own Presenting someone’s sources as your own Example: putting down the same footnotes but without reading the books yourself

What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism is intellectual theft It completely undermines the logic of learning by doing

What is Plagiarism? Intentional Buying work Copying someone’s written work Copying from the Internet “Cut and paste” from the Net Unintentional Bad notetaking Excessive quotations Staying close to the text Bad “archiving” of copied materials Sloppy writing Lack of language confidence

Write it Yourself Using your own words for your own ideas For the ideas of others Quoting Paraphrasing Summarizing

Write it Yourself Using your own words for your own ideas For the ideas of others Quoting Paraphrasing Summarizing

Quoting Using “the exact words” of another author For accuracy For impact For atmosphere Most students over-quote... and then it is a sign of laziness

Paraphrasing Using the arguments (and evidence) of an author (usually in the original order) You need to show the logic (and evidence) in order to show how far you agree or disagree You have made detailed notes and don’t want to waste them Essays made up of consecutive pieces of paraphrased text do not usually shine with intellectual power!

Summarising In your own words condensing the main thrust of an authors argument You want to show how the author fits into a particular debate You want to show how you fit into a debate Thoroughly commendable but don’t overdo it, and don’t cheat

Plagiarism What we look for I Exact phrases from a text without attribution Close paraphrasing from a text without attribution Content of essay that match those of a fellow student Content of an essay that match an own assignment submitted for another course This is the equivalent of an athlete being tested positively for doping

Plagiarism What we look for II Attributions that do not match the content of the text Unusual changes in personal style This is the equivalent of an athlete being tested positively for using a masking agent

The Answer to Plagiarism Annotate properly What to annotate Quotes Cite exact page at the end of every quote Paraphrased passages Cite relevant pages Summaries Cite the pages or even entire source

Annotation End/Footnoting Out-of-text system Used when you also have complicated citations archives citations legal citations Used when text commentary included

Annotation End/Footnoting Out-of-text system Uses Full attribution first citation Ibidem. (page)immediate second citation Author, op. cit. (page ) later citation Author, short title , op. cit.(page) if more than one title

Annotation End/Footnoting Bibliography and notes follow same system Initials, Surname, Title (Place of Publication, Publisher, Date) Initials, Surname, “Title” in Editors (eds.) Title (Place of Publication, Publisher, date) pages Initials, Surname, “Title”, Journal, Volume, Number (year) pages

The End