Saying no to Plagiarism

1. Saying no to Plagiarism How to avoid mistakes that can kill your grade

2. Why is Citation Important? • Ensures complete documentation. Your reader will be able to find your source easily. • Sets standards of uniformity. This decreases confusion. • Gives proper credit to sources. So you won’t appear to be taking credit for someone else’s words or idea.

3. What is Plagiarism? • Plagiarism is the act of taking credit for someone else's work. • Plagiarism is a form of cheating that can have very bad consequences. • In college, plagiarism usually involves writing. • Here are some examples of plagiarism and some ways to avoid it.

4. Stealing a whole article or paper is plagiarism • Whether it came from one of the many college essay plagiarism websites that buy and sell research papers or from an encyclopedia, or from a friend, it is still plagiarism.

5. Stealing even part of someone else’s paper is plagiarism • Even if just a phrase or two comes from another web site, it’s still plagiarism. Someone who copies work from another source is guilty of cheating.

6. Make sure you put it in your own words • Copying material and then changing it slightly in cosmetic ways—for example, by rearranging the order of the words or sentences, or by using synonyms for some of the words—is usually still plagiarism. • An example of this kind of plagiarism might look like this:

7. An example of plagiarism (note the text in red): • Original: The basic idea is that a system has parts that fit together to make a whole; but where it gets complicated -- and interesting -- is how those parts are connected or related to each other. • Plagiarized:A system has parts that fit together to make a whole, but the important aspect of systems is how those parts are connected or related to each other (Frick 21).

8. Why was that a problem? • The example on the previous slide was a problem because I used some of the same phrases as the original without putting them in quotation marks. • It doesn’t matter that I gave the writer’s name in parentheses at the end: it’s still plagiarism because I used a lot of the original text without putting them in quotation marks.

9. When should you cite a source? • When you use another person's idea, opinion, or theory. • When you use quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words. • When you paraphrase another person's words. • When you use any facts, statistics, graphs, pictures, etc., or any other piece of information that you found from any source.

10. Another example: • Here’s the ORIGINAL, from page 1 of Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime by Joyce Williams (published in 1981 by T.I.S. Editions in Bloomington, Indiana): • As new, larger, steam-powered factories became a feature of the American landscape in the East, they transformed farm hands into industrial laborers, and provided jobs for a rising tide of immigrants.

11. Take a look: • ORIGINAL: As new, larger, steam-powered factories became a feature of the American landscape in the East, they transformed farm hands into industrial laborers, and provided jobs for a rising tide of immigrants. • PLAGIARIZED: As new, bigger steam-driven companies appeared in the eastern part of the country, they changed farm hands into factory workers and provided jobs for the large wave of immigrants.

12. Why was that a problem? • The preceding passage is considered plagiarism for two reasons: • The writer has changed a few words and phrases, but the basic format of the sentence is the same. • The writer has failed to cite a source for any of the ideas or facts.

13. Here’s an ACCEPTABLE paraphrase: • Steam-powered production had shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, and as immigrants arrived in the US, they found work in these new factories. As a result, populations grew, and large urban areas arose. (Williams 1).------------------------------------------------ • On the Works Cited page: • Williams, Joyce. Lizzie Borden: a casebook of Family and Crimein the 1890s. Bloomington: T.I.S. Publications, 1981.

14. Why is this passage acceptable? • This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer: • uses her own words. • lets her reader know the source of her information.

15. Cite graphics or images, too • Copying art or graphs from a Web site or from a printed source is very similar to quoting information. You have to cite the source of the visual information or graph. (Da Vinci) Da Vinci, Leonardo. Mona Lisa. 1503-1506. Oil on wood. Louvre, Paris.

16. How to make sure you’re okay • Put quotation marks around everything that comes directly from another text. • It’s usually a better idea to Paraphrase than to use quotation marks, but be sure you are not just rearranging or replacing a few words.

17. How to paraphrase? • Read over what you want to paraphrase carefully; then cover up the text with your hand so you won’t be tempted to use it as a guide. • Then write out the idea of the passage in your own words without peeking.

18. What don’t I need to cite? • Common knowledge: facts that can be found in numerous places and are likely to be known by a lot of people. • Columbus is the capital of Ohio. • There are 27 bones in the human hand. • This can be tricky. Someone from outside of Ohio might not know that Columbus is the capital. Someone outside the medical field won’t know about the 27 bones. • If you’re not sure whether to cite something, ask your instructor. If your instructor is not available, and you need to finish your paper quickly, you should probably go ahead and cite.

19. You do need to cite ideas that interpret facts • Here’s an example: • According the American Family Leave Coalition’s new book, Senator Jones’s relationship with Congress has hindered family leave legislation (Family Issues 6). • The idea that “Senator Jones’s relationship with Congress has hindered family leave legislation” is not a fact but an interpretation. Therefore, you need to cite your source.

20. Remember: You need to do it twice: • Brief in-text citation right after the quotation or paraphrase. • Complete citation in Works Cited page at the end. • Consistency and neatness count.

21. Citation Rules: Not always Easy • Lots of exceptions. • Can’t cover every situation. • Electronic citation standards still evolving.

22. Resources for Source Citation • Your instructor • Library handouts on MLA and APA format • Web sites like http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ • Citation machines like http://www.bibme.org/ • Microsoft Word 2007 Citations & Bibliography Feature

23. Thanks for listening! • Enjoy your research and let us know how we can help!! • And see or email me if you have any kind of research questions. • lhenry@swcollege.net • 513-317-1891 (call or text)