Name: ___David Ramos M__________________________

The Perils of Plagiarism

To answer these questions, please read the information on this web page:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html
The questions will proceed chronologically through the website. In other words, you will find answers to
the first questions at the beginning of the website, and later questions near the end.
1.

How does this web page define plagiarism?

-Plagiarism.- According to the Purdue University Web site [plagiarism is the uncredited use(both
intentional and unintencional) of somebody elses words or ideas].
- https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/
2.

Look at Actions that might be seen as plagiarism. In your own words, please explain the difference
between Deliberate plagiarism and Possibly accidental plagiarism.

-Deliberate plagiarism is when people take the words or researches of another person and use it as their
own, as if they originally created that piece.
-Possibly accidental plagiarism happens when you cant think on another way to put your thoughts than
kind of putting it on the same words.

3.

You are a high school teacher. You discover that a student plagiarized material as part of an important
report. When confronted with the situation, the student says, But it was an accident! I didnt mean to
plagiarize! What would you tell the student?
-I would tell him that plagiarism its a pretty serious intellectual offense and warn him he should be more
careful, maybe tell him to redo the report quoting or changing some of similar words and express the idea
with his own words.

Look carefully at Choosing when to credit. Put a check mark next to all of the texts for which you
MUST document their source.
4. _____ words from a commonly known prayer
5. __X___words from a new song
6. __X___reprinted diagrams
7. _____common knowledge
8. _____your own observations based on anothers research
9. __X___a unique phrase you found on the internet that expresses your ideas
10. _____ your own opinions
11. __X___ text from a newspaper
12. _____ Just a few words (less than 5) that someone else wrote
Look carefully at Making sure you are safe. Write down five things that you can do to avoid problems
with plagiarism.
13. Always put the source authors name in the same sentence as the quote
14. Use parenthetical citations, footnotes, or endnotes to refer readers to additional sources
15. Mark someone elses words with a big Q, for quote.
16. Use a statement that credits the source somewhere in the paraphrase

17.Check your paraphrase or summary against the original text

18.25. Please complete Exercises for practice on the next page.

Exercises for Practice

Below are some situations in which writers need to decide whether or not they are running the risk of
plagiarizing. In the Y/N column, indicate if you would need to document (Yes), or if it is not necessary to
provide quotation marks or a citation (No). If you do need to give the source credit in some way, explain
how you would handle it. If not, explain why.
Y/N
If yes, what do you do? If no, why?

Situation

1. You are writing new insights about your own

experiences.

No

You dont have to quote because its your own

experiences.

2. You are using an editorial from your school's

newspaper with which you disagree.

Yes

-You need to quote the source.

-Put the source in your references so readers
can check for themselves that newspaper
article.

3. You use some information from a source

without ever quoting it directly.

Yes

-You need to put the name of the author and

year when he wrote it next to the information.

4. You have no other way of expressing the exact Yes

meaning of a text without using the original
source verbatim.

-You need to use quotation marks on the

sentence or sentences and put the name of the
author.

5. You mention that many people in your

discipline belong to a certain organization.

Its common knowledge.

No

6. You want to begin your paper with a story that Yes

one of your classmates told about her
experiences in Bosnia.

-You need your readers to know that the story

its from that person so you need to put her
name in references and comment that the story
is originally from her.

7. The quote you want to use is too long, so you Yes

leave out a couple of phrases.

You need to quote and put the name of the

author and mark him in references, because is
more than 5 words.

8. You really like the particular phrase somebody Yes

else made up, so you use it.

Since its a particular phrase from someone

else you need to quote him and put him in your
references.