Plagiarism and MLA

1. Plagiarism and MLA You know you were wondering…

2. Turning in a paper that someone else wrote • Using other people’s work without using documentation to give them credit • Presenting another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to him or her—even if you paraphrase • Doing any of the above intentionally or unintentionally. What is PLAGIARISM?

3. Students who plagiarize at Travis High School will receive: • a zero on the final research assignment (a major grade) • a disciplinary referral • a parental notification of academic dishonesty • no recommendations for college or career application • In college, consequences range from being removed from the class to permanent expulsion. What happens if I plagiarize?

4. Give credit to the originator of the materials you use to inform your paper • when you use direct quotations from those sources • even when you paraphrase • Use MLA (which stands for Modern Language Association)format to document the sources you used and the information that came from them. • Even when you paraphrase How do I avoid plagiarism?

5. MLA format allows readers to easily cross reference your sources. • It protects the writer from being accused of plagiarism. • It improves the writer’s own ethos—his or her credibility—by deferring to those who truly are experts on the topic. • It provides uniformity with others in the same class, department, and discipline, who are doing the same kind of writing. • This means that teachers and professors also have consistency of expectations among the students they evaluate. Why do English teachers love MLA so much?

6. Use quotation marks. • Document to credit your source. • Use the source’s words exactly. • Use brackets [ ] if you need to add a word change a word (such as verb tense) to make it fit grammatically. • Use ellipses… to delete a portion of a very long quotation. The original meaning of the quotation must still be represented by the portion you use. • Integrate the quotation into your own sentences so that it flows properly. How do I properly quote source material?

7. Use the following quotation from Ender’s Game in a sentence of your own, and cite it with the author’s last name and page number. Refer to your handout if you need help on the citation. • The source is: Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. New York: Tor, 1991. Print. • The quotation you’re going to use is: Ender could see resentment growing in the way the other soldiers shifted their weight and glanced at each other, the way they avoided looking at Bean. • Use this quotation as evidence to prove the claim that Ender is observant. • It came from Page 161 of the book. Now it’s your turn.

8. Slightly Better: Ender was so observant that he “could see resentment growing in the way the other soldiers shifted their weight… the way they avoided looking at Bean” (Card 161). Avoid dropped quotations (also called floating quotations.) How’s this? Ender is so observant that he can sense the other soldiers’ animosity when they “[shift] their weight and [glance]at each other”and “[avoid] looking at Bean (Card 161). Bad: Ender was observant. “Ender could see resentment growing in the way the other soldiers shifted their weight and glanced at each other, the way they avoided looking at Bean” (Card 161).

9. Ender was never sure what the dwarves were doing as he picked his way through the village, and in return he did them no harm either. • Keep the same meaning of the original quotation, but use your words for the whole thing. • Do you still need to cite it? • Of course you do! Now use your own words to paraphrase this quotation from Page 141.

10. The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ • Citation Machine citationmachine.net • Hang on to these notes and today’s handout. You will use them over the next few weeks. Additional resources

11. Your test over this material will be on11 April 2014.