1. Using Examples and Avoiding plagiarism

2. Using Examples:
As we’ve seen from the basic essay format that we’ve gone over, using evidence (examples, quotations, statistics, and various sorts of specific facts) helps us build a solid paper.
Today, we are going to look at some specific strategies for helping us use evidence effectively and avoid plagiarism.

3. What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s ideas, thoughts, words, or original work as your own without giving credit to that person.

4. Two types of Plagiarism:
Intentional: Intentional plagiarism is pretty self-explanatory. It involves the individual knowingly and purposefully taking the words or thoughts of others and presenting it as his or her own. This includes turning in a paper that is not your own and copying and pasting things into your paper without quotation marks or giving the source credit.

5. Two types of Plagiarism:
The second type of Plagiarism is unintentional Plagiarism.
With this type of Plagiarism, the individual is unaware of the rule governing the use of sources and mistakenly does not credit material used. This can include forgetting to put quotation marks around a credited quote or not realizing that some material in the paper needs to be cited.

6. Avoiding Plagiarism:
When using information that’s been obtained from somewhere else, there are two ways to integrate it into your paper: Quotation and Paraphrase.
To avoid plagiarism with either of these, we need to begin by using a signal phrase or introductory sentence (much as we’ve learned to do with our summaries). However, there are some additional problems that we need to look out for.

7. Problems with Paraphrase:
Sometimes students when they paraphrase, use too much of the original language from the source. Even though there may be a signal phrase, this is still suspicious and problematic.
Look at the example of the original text on the next slide. After that, look at the problematic and the improved paraphrases on the following slides. What are the notable differences?

8. Original Text:
In 1938, in a series of now-classic experiments, exposure to synthetic dyes derived from coal and belonging to a class of chemicals called aromatic amines was shown to cause bladder cancer in dogs. These results helped explain why bladder cancers had become so prevalent among dyestuffs workers. With the invention of mauve in 1854, synthetic dyes began replacing natural plant-based dyes in the coloring of cloth and leather. By the beginning of the twentieth century, bladder cancer rates among this group of workers had skyrocketed, and the dog experiments helped unravel this mystery.

9. Problematic Student Paraphrase
Now classic experiments in 1938 showed that when dogs were exposed to aromatic amines, chemicals used in synthetic dyes derived from coal, they developed bladder cancer. Similar cancers were prevalent among dyestuffs workers, and these experiments helped explain why. Mauve, a synthetic dye, was invented in 1854, after which cloth and leather manufacturers replaced most of the natural plant-based dyes with synthetic dyes. By the early twentieth century, this group of workers had skyrocketing rates of bladder cancer, a mystery the dog experiments helped to unravel.
Red=wording that is almost the same as the original.

10. Improved Student Paraphrase
Biologist Sandra Steingraber explains that pathbreaking experiments in 1938 demonstrated that dogs exposed to aromatic amines (chemicals used in coal-derived synthetic dyes) developed cancers of the bladder that were similar to cancers common among dyers in the textile industry. After mauve, the first synthetic dye, was invented in 1854, leather and cloth manufacturers replaced most natural dyes made from plants with synthetic dyes, and by the early 1900s textile workers had very high rates of bladder cancer. The experiments with dogs revealed the connection.

11. Exercise:
Get out one of the essays that we’ve read for the class. Pick a passage to use. Read the passage carefully. Then put the essay out of sight and try to write a paraphrase of the passage, making sure that you have cited the source correctly.
Once you are done writing your paraphrase, check it against the original. How close is it?
Have a partner check it.