1. What is Plagiarism Exactly?
Plagiarism is defined as the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

2. There are two forms of plagiarism: Unintentional Plagiarism

3. Unintentional Plagiarism
1) When you do not put in-text citations in the right place
2) When you don’t paraphrase or quote correctly
3) When you don’t put the correct information in your
Works Cited page
Unintentional plagiarism is also unacceptable and often results in a “0” or other unsatisfactory grade

4. Intentional Plagiarism:
When you copy and paste sections of another’s writing and add it into your own, without quotations and citations.
When you change just a couple of words or minor details and pass it off as your own original work.
When you buy, steal, or copy another person’s work and ideas and pass it off as your own work.

5. Self- Plagiarism: (A Form of Intentional Plagiarism)
When you “recycle” your own paper you wrote in high school, another class, another college, or any other place and pass it off as an original work you created for the assignment given……
This is still plagiarism, and cheating!

6. One way your teachers will catch you plagiarizing: Turnitin
What is “Turnitin,” you ask?
It is a database and search engine that professors scan your papers into to find any similar articles, either on the Internet or one that was submitted by another teacher’s student. It gives a readout of all the sources with the same groups of words in them. If you take someone else’s work and don’t cite, your teacher will not only know, but know exactly where you took it from.

7. The Horrible and Humiliating Consequences of Plagiarism:
A failing grade of “0” for the assignment
A failing grade of “F” for the class
Suspension from college
Expulsion from college
Loss of future career and education opportunities
Embarrassment and humiliation
Loss of respect from friends, family, colleagues and classmates
Copyright infringement lawsuits and other legal consequences
Loss of opportunity to be a critical thinker and writer

8. Academic Integrity
Academic integrity means taking college seriously, doing the right thing even when you think no one is looking, and being honest in all of your academic endeavors. It means long nights of studying, researching, and writing. It means sacrifice. By cheating and plagiarizing, you diminish the value of your education, your degree, and your character.

9. Note: At 25 seconds, there is a crass joke about Clifford the Big Red Dog. Consider skipping from 23 seconds to 32 seconds to avoid it.
Note to presenter: At 25 seconds, there is a crass (but not unacceptable) joke about Clifford the Big Red Dog. Consider skipping from at 0:23 seconds to 0:32 seconds to avoid it.

10. Pretty embarrassing, huh?
As you can see from the video, getting caught plagiarizing isn’t pretty. People will not accept it. And since we all can’t “Just go back to being a doctor,” don’t risk it.
If you ever end up in a high profile career or in education, plagiarism can come back to haunt you as it did for Senator Rand Paul. It tarnishes your credibility.

11. So, how do I cite correctly?
There are several citation formats out there, but you will mostly encounter these two in undergraduate studies- MLA format (Modern Language Association) and APA format (American Psychological Association).
MLA- Arts and Humanities (includes Composition I and II)
APA- Sciences (includes business classes and most paralegal classes).
Your teacher will usually tell you what he or she expects. If you aren’t sure, just ask.
The Writing Center provides handouts that explain the basic citations you will encounter while doing research.

12. How do I give proper credit to other authors or creators in my writing?
Use the resources provided in your Comp I & II textbooks
Purchase a copy of the MLA 7th Ed. handbook and the APA 6th Ed. Style Guide, or use the copies available in the library research room.
Don’t assume using the book is foolproof when citing for the first few times. It can be confusing. There is no need to struggle or stress- bring in the paper and your resources and the Writing Center will be happy to explain and check your work. We find that even when students use correct material to cite, they still end up making mistakes.
Do not simply Google “How to cite…” you will end up confused and with incorrect information
Use only reliable online resources such as the Purdue OWL
Citation generators can be helpful, but they are known to produce incorrectly formatted or incomplete citations- do not rely on them.

13. Citing Correctly
In MLA format, a basic in-text citation is usually an author’s last name or article title (if no author), and a page number if one exists.
The sentence(s) you use verbatim (word for word) must have quotations around it. Otherwise, you are plagiarizing even if you cite it.
Example: “Stupid is as stupid does”(Gump 14).
If no page number, it will simply be (Gump).

14. Do Not Simply Copy Someone Else’s Work Without Explaining It
In addition to citations and quotation marks, you should always explain your quotes and connect it to your own ideas. This demonstrates to your teacher that:
You were thoughtful and selective in your quoted material
You understand what you are reading, not just slapping quotes in your paper to fulfill a professor’s requirement.

15. Integrate Your Quoted Research
Lincoln reasoned that “No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent” (223). Lincoln understood and respected the democratic process, even if it meant he himself was subject to lose an election.
* In this case, the writer cited the author’s last name in the sentence, so it is not necessary to place the author’s last name in parentheses at the end- only a page number, if a page number exists.
Explain why the in text citation does not need a last name and page number in parenthesis. (Because the author cited it while introducing the quote; it is clear who the author of the quote is, and a citation at the end would be repetitive.

16. Citation Pages
An in-text citation at the end of a sentence is not enough. It is still considered plagiarism unless you provide a complete list of information at the end of the paper. Why? So the reader can find or verify the original source, and to give credit where it is due.
Each in text citation must have a corresponding full length citation on the separate page, called a “Works Cited” page (MLA) and a “Reference” page (APA). These formats are intricate and require careful attention to detail. You will undoubtedly have questions, and a guide book can become overwhelming- come to the Writing Center for help or a quick check after you complete it.
If you have an incomplete or incorrectly formatted citation page, you will either get a 0 or other unsatisfactory grade, and maybe if the professor decides to, allow you to redo it if it is the first assignment (This does not happen often- don’t count on it).

17. Paraphrasing: The Most Misunderstood and Plagiarized Form of Research
Paraphrasing is when you reword a sentence or a few sentences written or spoken by someone else.
Just changing a couple words is NOT enough.
This is still plagiarizing, even if you provide a citation at the end.
Either reword as much as possible, changing clauses, adjectives, and anything else you can, or keep all of the words in tact and use quotation marks.
Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for descriptive words.

18. Quoting
When quoting someone else’s work, you must use “quotation marks” to show your audience that you took the content word-for-word. Without quotation marks, you suggest to the audience that you were the original writer of those words- plagiarism.

19. Summarizing
When you read large tracts of information and restate it in your own words in a shorter version, you are summarizing. The same rules apply:
Do not copy and paste and then change just a few words, and always cite it, preferably with an introduction explaining who the author is, what the article is about, and why it is important, followed by a citation. If it is a long summary, cite periodically, and especially after a direct quotation.

20. (Yes, PowerPoint presentations must be cited, or it is plagiarism)
Work Cited
Rand Theft Caught-O. Comedy Central, 7 Nov Web. 11 Jan
(Yes, PowerPoint presentations must be cited, or it is plagiarism)

21. Writing Center Location and Hours:
Q224 and Q225
Monday – Thursday: :00 am to 8:30 pm
Friday: :00 am to 4:00 pm
Saturday: :00 am to 4:00 pm
We love to help you! No appointment is necessary; we do sessions on a walk-in basis only. Please stop in with a printed copy of your work. For citation help, please have your sources ready, either with a list of URLs or sources printed out.