Plagiarism

M. Kubus

A Fluid Term?

OED: to take and use as one's own (the thoughts, writings, or inventions of another person); to copy (literary work or ideas) improperly or without acknowledgement;

(occas.) to pass off as one's own the thoughts or work of (another).

UNC: “the deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words, thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work,

whether graded or otherwise.” (Instrument of Student Judicial Governance, Section II.B.1.).

MLA (Community Life): “Plagiarism involves two kinds of wrongs. Using another person’s ideas, information, or expressions without acknowledging that person’s work

constitutes intellectual theft. Passing off another person’s ideas, information, or expressions as your own to get a better grade or gain some other advantage constitutes fraud” (MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th. ed.).

Community Life: “providing material, information or other assistance to another person with knowledge that such aid could be used in any of the

violations stated above; providing false information in connection with any inquiry regarding academic integrity, or failing to provide information in such

an inquiry.SLUH: “The burden for enforcing this code of honesty falls on both students

and teachers. Students should not lend their work out to others. If one student seeks another's assistance on an assignment, the assistance should be given in face-to-face instruction - not by passing written work from one

student to another. The student who ignores this advice and makes his answers or work available to another shares responsibility and consequences

if cheating occurs” (SLUH Handbook, 13).

Why is Kubus so concerned about

plagiarism? What’s the big deal?

Always cite when…(taken from the Yale Writing Center)

Common Knowledge

“In every professional field, experts consider some ideas ‘common knowledge,’ but remember that you’re not a professional (yet). In fact, you’re just learning about those concepts in the course you’re taking, so the material you are reading may not yet be

“common knowledge” to you. In order to decide if the material you want to use in your paper constitutes “common knowledge,” you may find it helpful to ask yourself the

following questions:

Did I know this information before I took this course?Did this information/idea come from my own brain?

“If you answer “no” to either or both of these questions, then the information is not “common knowledge” to you. In these cases, you need to cite your source(s) and

indicate where you first learned this bit of what may be ‘common knowledge’ in the field” (UNC Writing Center, “Plagiarism”).

Paraphrasing

“Paraphrasing means taking another person’s ideas and putting those ideas in your own words. Paraphrasing does NOT mean changing a word or two in someone else’s sentence, changing the sentence structure while maintaining the original words, or

changing a few words to synonyms. If you are tempted to rearrange a sentence in any of these ways, you are writing too close to the original. That’s plagiarizing, not

paraphrasing.

“Paraphrasing is a fine way to use another person’s ideas to support your argument as long as you attribute the material to the author and cite the source in the text at the end of the sentence. In order to make sure you are paraphrasing in the first place,

take notes from your reading with the book closed. Doing so will make it easier to put the ideas in your own words. When you are unsure if you are writing too close to the original, check with your instructor BEFORE you turn in the paper for a grade. So,

just to be clear—do you need to cite when you paraphrase? Yes, you do!” (UNC Writing Center, “Plagiarism”)

Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism

Take notes with the book closed or the article flipped over

Start taking notes by writing down all of the necessary bibliographic information that you will need for your Works Cited and Works Consulted

pages

Be organized! Misquoting somebody or misattributing a quotation is also plagiarism!

Try not to use your notes word for word in your essay. This will remove you even further from the words of the author of your secondary source.

When taking notes, use quotation marks so that you will be able to distinguish between which words in the notes are yours and which are the

author’s.

Find an appropriate style manual. Here’s one that I suggest:Advice on and Guidance with Citations

Four ways of indicating reference

QUOTATION MARKS PARENTHETICAL CITATION

ENTRY ON A WORKS CITED PAGE

SIGNAL PHRASE 

Without any of these, the penalty is a 0 on the assignment.   

If the student gives some indication in only one of the 4 ways… 

...you will lost 10 points for bad citations.

Remember, you need to cite your source, even if:1. you put all direct quotes in quotation marks.

2. you changed the words used by the author into synonyms.

3. you completely paraphrased the ideas to which you referred.

4. your sentence is mostly made up of your own thoughts, but contains a reference to the author’s

ideas.5. you mention the author’s name in the sentence.

When in doubt…

…cite.

More help.