Plagiarism

Essential Question/Warm Up Essential Question: What is plagiarism? Warm Up: What do you think plagiarism is in academic writing? Why is it so important to avoid plagiarism? Answer in a paragraph.

Definitions From the Code of Conduct for Caesar Rodney High School Students. Plagiarism is defined by Webster as “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own; or to use (a created production) without crediting the source; or to commit literary theft; or to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.”

Other definitions Plagiarism is the act of intentionally or unintentionally treating work done by someone else as though it were your own (Shepard 39). “If the information, idea, or statement is not common knowledge, and if it came from an outside source, then you must credit your source. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism” (Shepard 39) If you do not cite your sources, you will be guilty of plagiarism. If you are plagiarizing knowingly or unknowingly, you will receive a zero on your paper. If you think you are plagiarizing accidentally, see me.

Two types students commit The first type (less common). Students use/buy/borrow someone’s work and put their name on it. “Cut and paste.” The second type is harder to realize and is the number one way students plagiarize. Students believe that since they have paraphrased the information, they don’t need to cite the source. Any information gained from a source must be cited!

Consequences Plagiarism, like cheating, is considered a form of academic dishonesty. Such dishonest behavior will result in the student receiving a zero for the assignment. Also, depending upon the severity of the offense, the student may receive a referral, which would lead to one or three days of Extended Day. The effects of receiving a zero could be very devastating, especially for athletes and possible Honor Society inductees.

Avoidance Do not wait until the last minute! Many students commit plagiarism because they are trying to finish the paper up until the last minute. Please make use of the requirement of handing in a rough draft. Your teacher will correct or explain any possible problems you may have. All research papers MUST have a works cited page attached. If you do NOT turn in a works cited page, you are guilty of plagiarism and will receive a zero.

How to Cite Basic Citation Place the citation at the end of the sentence that contains the material being documented. “The Oklahoma migrants found “not a Promised Land but a man-blighted Eden” (Crockett 195). Block Quote: if the quote is more than four lines long, it needs to be presented as a block quote. Introduce the quote as normal, place a colon at the end of the sentence, go to the next line and then tab twice. Type the text as normal keeping the double indentation throughout the quote. Place the punctuation before the citation. He also warned that terrible anger was building upon the migrants: Dignity is all gone, and [their] spirit has turned to sudden anger . . . . We regard this destruction of dignity . . . as one of the most regrettable results of the migrant’s life, since it does . . . Make [of the migrant] a sullen outcast who will strike at our government in any way that occurs to him. (Steinbeck 62, 70)

Basic citation rules Authors' names are inverted (last name first); if a work has more than one author, invert only the first author's name, follow it with a comma, then continue listing the rest of the authors. If you have cited more than one work by a particular author, order them alphabetically by title, and use three hyphens in place of the author's name for every entry after the first. When an author appears both as the sole author of a text and as the first author of a group, list solo-author entries first. If no author is given for a particular work, alphabetize by the title of the piece and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations. Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc. This rule does not apply to articles, short prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle. Underline or italicize titles of books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and films. Use quotation marks around the titles of articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers. Also use quotation marks for the titles of short stories, book chapters, poems, and songs. List page numbers efficiently, when needed. If you refer to a journal article that appeared on pages 225 through 250, list the page numbers on your Works Cited page as 225-50. If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database, you should provide enough information so that the reader can locate the article either in its original print form or retrieve it from the online database (if they have access).

Paraphrasing The Original Passage Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.

Paraphrasing A plagiarized version: Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes (Lester 46-7).

Paraphrasing **Even with the documentation, the sentence structure and word choice are too close to the original! To avoid this, you must read a paragraph or page, put the source away from you, compose and write your thoughts, go back and make sure that you didn’t just substitute a word or two.

Direct Quotes When you use material word for word from a source, you must quote the material. Place quotation marks (“”) around the material. Introduce your quotes and establish the authority of your sources. For example: According to critic Tom Roberts, “…. Always cite your source immediately at the end of a direct quote. For example: “…is evident at the end of the novel” (Roberts 10).