WHAT is Plagiarism?
And how do you avoid it?
- Using others’ ideas and words
without citing the source
- Downloading material from the Internet without acknowledgment
- Using visual information from a website without citing the source
- Forgetting to add a citation to ideas that are not your own
This applies to:
- published texts in print or online
- other student writers
- what you might hear
on the radio or TV
Why Should You Care
- You will fail the course and/or lose the chance to attend the school
- It will go on your academic record
- You will be cheating yourself
– of learning the material
– of getting an education
– you‘ll be fooling yourself into thinking there are short cuts in college
HOW to Avoid Plagiarism
- What do you think are
some ways to avoid plagiarism?
Why Do Students Deliberately Plagiarize?
- fear of taking risks in own work
- poor time-management skills
- rushing to finish paper
- students think it’s easier than writing
- lack of interest in subject – FIND something about the subject you like
- lack of knowledge about topic
HOW students plagiarize accidentally
- didn’t take notes during research and document sources
- fuzzy on what plagiarism means and HOW to recognize it
- sources incorrectly cited
- cultural misconceptions: intellectual property rights not universal
Underlying Implications of Plagiarism
- Goal of research and college writing is to engage yourself in scholarly issues,
- learning how to join the academic discussion. Not learning how to do this
- means also avoiding learning how to join the broader social conversation in your
community at large.
- 1. Make a record of each source
– use a working bibliography
– keep track of sources in notes, bookmark web sites, record URL and date of access
2. Put in quotations everything that comes directly from the text.
* this includes facts, statistics, drawings
According to Peter S. Pritchard in USA Today, “Public schools need reform but they’re irreplaceable in teaching all the nation’s young” (14).
* quotation marks around entire quote
(MLA style) Use page number if available.
3. Signal the source material:
* According to Peter S. Pritchard in USA Today,“Public schools need reform but they’re irreplaceable in teaching all the nation’s young” (14).
The words “According to” signals the reader
of the source being used and is called
an attributive tag.
An attributive tag: “Pritchard comments that…” shows the source of the quote.
or an informative attributive tag that provides more information: “Congressman Pritchard…”
- Learn how to cite sources correctly:
– look in a writing handbook under MLA documentation!
– look online!
– ask your teacher!
– visit the tutoring center!
- Start working on your essays early – give yourself enough time to do a good job.