What is plagiarism? (And why you should care!)

Definition: American Heritage dictionary: Taking the work or idea of someone else and passing it off as your own (ex. words, images, videos, music, etc)

Objectives By the end of the period you should know the following about plagiarism: What it is Why it’s wrong Stories in the news How to Avoid

Two types of plagiarism: Intentional Copying a friend’s work Buying or borrowing papers Cutting and pasting blocks of text from electronic sources without documenting Unintentional Careless paraphrasing Missing, poor, and/or inaccurate citations Any sort of unethical behavior related to turning in information and calling it your own when it is not

Why it’s Wrong (as if it were necessary!) When you copy you cheat yourself. You limit your own learning. The consequences are not worth the risks! It is only right to give credit to authors whose ideas you use Citing gives authority to the information you present Citing makes it possible for your readers to locate your source Cheating is unethical behavior Is your academic reputation valuable to you?

More “Why”… GLO #6 - Effective and ethical users of technology Understand and respect legal and ethical issues HCPS III LA9 4.6 Use a prescribed documentation style… LA Use quotations and citations in writing… LA Synthesize and cite information… LA Use grade appropriate conventions…

And More….: Pearl City High School’s Motto Excellence With Honor!

Stories…… Senator Joseph Biden (Delaware) dropped his 1987 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. (Sabato) Copied in law school and borrowed from campaign speeches of Robert Kennedy

Stories (2) UVa Probe, students dismissed 3 graduate degrees revoked

Stories (3) 19 year-old sophomore Half million dollar book and movie deal Accused of lifting from Megan McCafferty

Stories (4) McCafferty wrote, “He smelled sweet and woodsy, like cedar shavings.” Kaavya wrote, “I had even begun to recognize his cologne, sweet and woodsy and spicy.”

Stories (5) McCafferty wrote “…but in a truly sadomasochistic dieting gesture, they chose to buy their Diet Cokes at Cinnabon.” Kaavya wrote “In a truly masochistic gesture, they had decided to buy Diet Cokes from Mrs. Fields…”

Stories (6) Kaavya Viswanathan apologizes on NBC’s “Today” show

News (7)

Possible school consequences: “0” on the assignment Parent notification Referral to administrators Suspension or dismissal from school activities--sports and extracurricular Note on student record Loss of reputation among the school community

Do I have to cite everything?

Nope! Facts that are widely known, or Information or judgments considered “common knowledge” Do NOT have to be documented. Hooray for common knowledge!

Examples of common knowledge John Adams was our second president The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 If you see a fact in three or more sources, and you are fairly certain your readers already know this information, it is likely to be “common knowledge.” But when in doubt, cite!

No need to document when: You are discussing your own experiences, observations, or reactions Compiling the results of original research, from science experiments, etc. You are using common knowledge

What’s the big deal? If I change a few words, I’m okay, right? Wrong! Paraphrasing original ideas without documenting your source, is plagiarism too!

You can “borrow” from the works of others in your own work… NOTE:

Avoiding Plagiarism: Strategies Quoting Paraphrasing Summarizing

Q, P, S (1) 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):

Q, P, S (2) A legitimate paraphrase: In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).

Q, P, S (3) An acceptable summary: Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).

Q, P, S (3) 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.

But, what about the Web? When citing a Web source in-text, you are not likely to have page numbers. Just include the first part of the entry. (Valenza) or (“Plagiarism and the Web”)

Avoiding Plagiarism Cite your sources MLA APA etc.

Questions?

Closing Thank you!

Works Cited “ Boston Columnist Resigns Amid New Plagiarism Charges.” CNN.com 19 Aug March 2003 Fain, Margaret. “Internet Paper Mills.” Kimbal Library. 12 Feb Lathrop, Ann and Kathleen Foss. Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Lewis, Mark. “Doris Kearns Goodwin And The Credibility Gap.” Forbes.com 2 Feb “New York Times Exposes Fraud of own Reporter.” ABC News Online. 12 May, Rohrbach, Carol and Joyce Valenza. “What is Plagiarism? (And why you should care!).” Sabato, Larry J. “Joseph Biden's Plagiarism; Michael Dukakis's 'Attack Video' – 1988.” Washington Post Online March 2002.

This PowerPoint was adapted from: Carol Rohrbach and Joyce Valenza. What is plagiarism? (And why you should care). Web.