How to Avoid Plagiarism How to avoid plagiarism When using secondary sources in your papers, you can avoid

plagiarism by knowing what must be documented. Specific words and phrases If you use an author's specific word or words, you must place those words within quotation marks and you must credit the source. Information and Ideas Even if you use your own words, if you obtained the information or ideas you are presenting from a source, you must document the source. Information: If a piece of information isn't common knowledge (see below), you need to provide a source. Ideas: An author's ideas may include not only points made and conclusions drawn, but, for instance, a specific method or theory, the arrangement of material, or a list of steps in a process or characteristics of a medical condition. If a source provided any of these, you need to acknowledge the source. Common Knowledge? You do not need to cite a source for material considered common knowledge: General common knowledge is factual information considered to be in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of military, political, literary, and other historical events. In general, factual information contained in multiple standard reference works can usually be considered to be in the public domain. Field-specific common knowledge is "common" only within a particular field or specialty. It may include facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to readers within that discipline. For instance, you may not need to cite a reference to Piaget?s developmental stages in a paper for an education class or give a source for your description of a commonly used method in a biology report?but you must be sure that this information is so widely known within that field that it will be shared by your readers. If in doubt, be cautious and cite the source. And in the case of both general and field-specific common knowledge, if you use the exact words of the reference source, you must use quotation marks and credit the source. http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_plagiarism.html Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/). When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice at bottom. Contributors:Karl Stolley, Allen Brizee, Joshua M. Paiz. Summary: There are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts. This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work. Overview and Contradictions Research-based writing in American institutions, both educational and corporate, is filled with rules that writers, particularly beginners, aren't aware of or don't know how to follow. Many of these rules have to do with research and proper citation. Gaining a familiarity of these rules, however, is critically important, as inadvertent mistakes can lead to charges of plagiarism, which is the uncredited use (both intentional and unintentional) of somebody else's words or ideas. While some rhetorical traditions may not insist so heavily on documenting sources of words, ideas, images, sounds, etc., American academic rhetorical tradition do. A charge of plagiarism can have severe consequences, including expulsion from a university or loss of a job, not to mention a writer's loss of credibility and professional standing. This resource, which does not reflect any official university policy, is designed to help you develop strategies for knowing how to avoid accidental plagiarism. For instructors seeking a key statement on definitions and avoidance on plagiarism, see Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices . (Purdue University students will want to make sure that they are familiar with Purdue's official academic dishonesty policy as well as any additional policies that their instructors have implemented.) Intellectual Challenges in American Academic Writing There are some intellectual challenges that all students are faced with when writing. Sometimes these challenges can almost seem like contradictions, particularly when addressing them within a single paper. For example, American teachers often instruct students to: Develop a topic based on what has already been said and written Rely on experts' and authorities' opinions Give credit to previous researchers Improve your English to fit into a discourse community by building upon what you hear and read BUT BUT BUT BUT Write something new and original Improve upon and/or disagree with those same opinions Make your own significant contribution Use your own words and your own voice

For instructor and student documents on preventing plagiarism, please visit these resources on the Purdue OWL. Contributors:Karl Stolley, Allen Brizee, Joshua M. Paiz. Summary:

There are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts. This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work. Is It Plagiarism Yet? There are some actions that can almost unquestionably be labeled plagiarism. Some of these include buying, stealing, or borrowing a paper (including, of course, copying an entire paper or article from the Web); hiring someone to write your paper for you; and copying large sections of text from a source without quotation marks or proper citation. But then there are actions that are usually in more of a gray area. Some of these include using the words of a source too closely when paraphrasing (where quotation marks should have been used) or building on someone's ideas without citing their spoken or written work. Sometimes teachers suspecting students of plagiarism will consider the students' intent, and whether it appeared the student was deliberately trying to make ideas of others appear to be his or her own. However, other teachers and administrators may not distinguish between deliberate and accidental plagiarism. So let's look at some strategies for avoiding even suspicion of plagiarism in the first place When Do We Give Credit? The key to avoiding plagiarism is to make sure you give credit where it is due. This may be credit for something somebody said, wrote, emailed, drew, or implied. Many professional organizations, including the Modern Language Association and the American Psychological Association, have lengthy guidelines for citing sources. However, students are often so busy trying to learn the rules of MLA format and style or APA format and style that they sometimes forget exactly what needs to be credited. Here, then, is a brief list of what needs to be credited or documented: Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials When you reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or other media

Bottom line, document any words, ideas, or other productions that originate somewhere outside of you. There are, of course, certain things that do not need documentation or credit, including: Writing your own lived experiences, your own observations and insights, your own thoughts, and your own conclusions about a subject When you are writing up your own results obtained through lab or field experiments When you use your own artwork, digital photographs, video, audio, etc. When you are using "common knowledge," things like folklore, common sense observations, myths, urban legends, and historical events (but not historical documents) When you are using generally-accepted facts, e.g., pollution is bad for the environment, including facts that are accepted within particular discourse communities, e.g., in the field of composition studies, "writing is a process" is a generally-accepted fact.

Deciding if Something is "Common Knowledge"

Generally speaking, you can regard something as common knowledge if you find the same information undocumented in at least five credible sources. Additionally, it might be common knowledge if you think the information you're presenting is something your readers will already know, or something that a person could easily find in general reference sources. But when in doubt, cite; if the citation turns out to be unnecessary, your teacher or editor will tell you. Contributors:Karl Stolley, Allen Brizee, Joshua M. Paiz. Summary: There are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts. This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work. Safe Practices Most students, of course, don't intend to plagiarize. In fact, most realize that citing sources actually builds their credibility for an audience and even helps writers to better grasp information relevant to a topic or course of study. Mistakes in citation and crediting can still happen, so here are certain practices that can help you not only avoid plagiarism, but even improve the efficiency and organization of your research and writing. Best Practices for Research and Drafting Reading and Note-Taking In your notes, always mark someone else's words with a big Q, for quote, or use big quotation marks Indicate in your notes which ideas are taken from sources with a big S, and which are your own insights (ME) When information comes from sources, record relevant documentation in your notes (book and article titles; URLs on the Web)

Interviewing and Conversing Take lots of thorough notes; if you have any of your own thoughts as you're interviewing, mark them clearly If your subject will allow you to record the conversation or interview (and you have proper clearance to do so through an Institutional Review Board, or IRB), place your recording device in an optimal location between you and the speaker so you can hear clearly when you review the recordings. Test your equipment, and bring plenty of backup batteries and media. If you're interviewing via email, retain copies of the interview subject's emails as well as the ones you send in reply Make any additional, clarifying notes immediately after the interview has concluded

Writing Paraphrases or Summaries Use a statement that credits the source somewhere in the paraphrase or summary, e.g., According to Jonathan Kozol, .... If you're having trouble summarizing, try writing your paraphrase or summary of a text without looking at the original, relying only on your memory and notes Check your paraphrase or summary against the original text; correct any errors in content accuracy, and be sure to use quotation marks to set off any exact phrases from the original text Check your paraphrase or summary against sentence and paragraph structure, as copying those is also considered plagiarism. Put quotation marks around any unique words or phrases that you cannot or do not want to change, e.g., "savage inequalities" exist throughout our educational system (Kozol).

Writing Direct Quotations Keep the source author's name in the same sentence as the quote Mark the quote with quotation marks, or set it off from your text in its own block, per the style guide your paper follows Quote no more material than is necessary; if a short phrase from a source will suffice, don't quote an entire paragraph To shorten quotes by removing extra information, use ellipsis points (...) to indicate omitted text, keeping in mind that: o In longer quotes where you have omitted sentence in between other complete sentence, maintain terminal puncutation in between the ellipses. o Example: "None of the national reports I saw made even passing references to inequality or segregation. . . . Booker T. Washington was cited with increasing frequency, Du Bois never, and Martin Luther King only with cautious selectivity." (Kozol 3). To give context to a quote or otherwise add wording to it, place added words in brackets, []; be careful not to editorialize or make any additions that skew the original meaning of the quotedo that in your main text, e.g., o OK: Kozol claims there are "savage inequalities" in our educational system, which is obvious. o WRONG: Kozol claims there are "[obvious] savage inequalities" in our educational system. Use quotes that will have the most rhetorical, argumentative impact in your paper; too many direct quotes from sources may weaken your credibility, as though you have nothing to say yourself, and will certainly interfere with your style

Writing About Another's Ideas Note the name of the idea's originator in the sentence or throughout a paragraph about the idea Use parenthetical citations, footnotes, or endnotes to refer readers to additional sources about the idea, as necessary Be sure to use quotation marks around key phrases or words that the idea's originator used to describe the idea

Maintaining Drafts of Your Paper Sometimes innocent, hard-working students are accused of plagiarism because a dishonest student steals their work. This can happen in all kinds of ways, from a roommate copying files off of your computer, to someone finding files on a disk or pen drive left in a computer lab. Here are some practices to keep your own intellectual property safe: Do not save your paper in the same file over and over again; use a numbering system and the Save As... function. E.g., you might have research_paper001.doc, research_paper002.doc, research_paper003.doc as you progress. Do the same thing for any HTML files you're writing for the Web. Having multiple draft versions may help prove that the work is yours (assuming you are being ethical in how you cite ideas in your work!). Maintain copies of your drafts in numerous media, and different secure locations when possible; don't just rely on your hard drive or pen drive. Password-protect your computer; if you have to leave a computer lab for a quick bathroom break, hold down the Windows key and L to lock your computer without logging out. Password-protect your files; this is possible in all sorts of programs, from Adobe Acrobat to Microsoft word (just be sure not to forget the password!)

Revising, Proofreading, and Finalizing Your Paper Proofread and cross-check with your notes and sources to make sure that anything coming from an outside source is acknowledged in some combination of the following ways:

In-text citation, otherwise known as parenthetical citation Footnotes or endnotes Bibliography, References, or Works Cited pages Quotation marks around short quotes; longer quotes set off by themselves, as prescribed by a research and citation style guide o Indirect quotations: citing a source that cites another source If you have any questions about citation, ask your instructor well in advance of your paper's due date, so if you have to make any adjustments to your citations, you have the time to do them well

o o o o

Works Cited Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1992. Print. Contributors:Karl Stolley, Allen Brizee, Joshua M. Paiz. Summary: There are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts. This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work. Contributors:Karl Stolley, Allen Brizee, Joshua M. Paiz. Summary: There are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts. This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work. Best Practices for Teachers Suspecting a student of plagiarism is never pleasant; proving a student has plagiarized is even worse. It's common for teachers to feel offended and hurt when students have acted unethically in their courses. But there are some things you, as a teacher, can do to minimize plagiarism in your classes. Click here for more resources on how to prevent plagiarism in the classroom. Developing a strong course policy on plagiarism One can never be too direct in explaining to students what actions can be considered plagiarism in their class. Writing and providing to students a course policy statement that includes a section on plagiarism is an excellent first step. Be sure to include and cite any school policies that might be suspect. Here, for example, is a statement that Professor Irwin Weiser of Purdue University has used with his Introductory Composition courses: The following statement about honesty and the use of sources is from the Introduction to First-Year Composition Courses: When writers use material from other sources, they must acknowledge this source. Not doing so is called plagiarism, which means using without credit the ideas or expressions of another. You are therefore cautioned (1) against using, word for word, without acknowledgment, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc., from the printed or manuscript material of others; (2) against using with only slight changes the materials of another; and (3) against using the general plan, the main headings, or a rewritten form of someone else's material. These cautions apply to the work of other students as well as to the published work of professional writers.

Of course, these cautions also apply to information you find on the Internet, World Wide Web, or other electronic or on-line sources. Since we will be discussing how to acknowledge and cite sources, you should be able to avoid accidentally plagiarizing anyone else's work. If you are in doubt, please ask me, since the consequences for plagiarism are severe. The university policies about plagiarism include penalties ranging from failure of an assignment to expulsion from the university. In this class, anyone who plagiarizes fails the course, and I will probably inform the Office of the Dean of Students of the reason for the failing grade. Contributors:Karl Stolley, Allen Brizee, Joshua M. Paiz. Summary: There are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts. This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work. Plagiarism Lesson Plans and Exercises Heading This is where Ehren and Cris's stuff is going. Computer Title of Time Brief Objectives Lab Materials Activity Est. Explanation Option

How to Avoid Plagiarism Northwestern's "Principles Regarding Academic Integrity" defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one's own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source." Plagiarism can occur in many forms besides writing: art, music, computer code, mathematics, and scientific work can also be plagiarized. This document pays special attention to plagiarism in writing, but it is important to understand that unauthorized collaboration in a math or science assignment is also plagiarism. In all academic work, and especially when writing papers, we are building upon the insights and words of others. A conscientious writer always distinguishes clearly between what has been learned from others and what he or she is personally contributing to the reader's understanding. To avoid plagiarism, it is important to understand how to attribute words and ideas you use to their proper source. GUIDELINES FOR PROPER ATTRIBUTION Everyone in the university needs to pay attention to the issue of proper attribution. All of us--faculty and students together--draw from a vast pool of texts, ideas, and findings that humans have accumulated over thousands of years; we could not think to any productive end without it. Even the sudden insights that appear at first glance to arrive out of nowhere come enmeshed in other people's thinking. What we call originality is actually the innovative combining, amending, or extending of material from that pool. Hence each of us must learn how to declare intellectual debts. Proper attribution acknowledges those debts responsibly, usefully, and respectfully. An attribution is responsible when it comes at a location and in a fashion that leaves readers in no doubt about whom you are thanking for what. It is useful when it enables readers to find

your source readily for themselves. You help them along the way, just as that same source helped you along yours. To make sure that our attributions are useful, we double-check them whenever we can. Quite literally, it is a habit that pays. Colleagues in every field appreciate the extra care. Nothing stalls a career faster than sloppy, unreliable work. Finally, an attribution is respectful when it expresses our appreciation for something done well enough to warrant our borrowing it. We should take pride in the intellectual company we keep. It speaks well of us that we have chosen to use the work of intelligent, interesting people, and we can take genuine pleasure in joining our name with theirs. A NOTE ABOUT ATTRIBUTIONS OR CITATIONS The two most commonly used attribution systemsModern Language Assocation (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA)-- consist of two parts: (a) a reference or works cited list at the end of the document, giving precise information about how to find a source and (b) parenthetical citations immediately following the material you are citing. Professors and disciplines may vary as to the preferred style for documenting ideas, opinions and facts, but all methods insist upon absolute clarity as to the source and require that all direct quotations be followed by a citation. The best solution is to ask which method your instructors prefer. The reference desk of NU's library has manuals available, but form is not as important as substance. It is sometimes difficult to judge what needs to be documented. Generally, knowledge which is common to all of us or ideas which have been in the public domain and are found in a number of sources do not need to be cited. Likewise, facts that are accepted by most authorities also do not require a citation. Grey areas, however, exist and sometimes it is difficult to be sure how to proceed. Many people wrongly assume that if they find material on the web, that material is in the public domain and does not need to be cited. However, the same guidelines apply to all sources you use in your work: electronic or print, signed or unsigned. If you are in doubt, err on the side of overdocumentation. The following passages come from a number of sources, including undergraduate essays. They are all appropriately documented using Modern Language Association (MLA) style and each represents a different kind of problem that you will be facing in your own written work. A. EXAMPLES OF MATERIALS WHICH HAVE BEEN APPROPRIATELY CITED 1. Quoted Material and Unusual Opinion or Knowledge Source: Vivelo, Jackie. The Mystery of Nancy Drew. Ms. 3.3 (1992): 76-77. Print. The teenage detective who was once a symbol of spunky female independence has slowly been replaced by an image of prolonged childhood, currently evolving toward a Barbie doll detective. . . . Every few pages bring reminders of Nancy's looks, her clothing, her effect on other people. . . . The first entry in this series carries a description of Nancy: "The tight jeans looked great on her long, slim legs and the green sweater complemented her strawberry-blonde hair." Use and Adaptation of the Material: Nancy Drew has become a "Barbie doll" version of her old self. She has become superficial and overly concerned with her looks. She is described in the new series as wearing "tight jeans [that] looked great on her long, slim legs (qtd. in Vivelo 77). She has traded her wits and independent spirit for a great body and killer looks (Vivelo 76-77).

Explanation: The writer has paraphrased most of the material. She discovered that the paraphrased ideas are unusual (not found in other sources). Therefore, she placed a citation at the end of the entire passage. In addition, the writer borrowed a quotation from the Nancy Drew series that she found in the article. The writer has placed quotation marks around that borrowed material and placed a quoted in citation immediately after the quotation. 2. Interpretation Source: Lehmberg, Stanford. The Peoples of the British Isles: A New History. Vol. I. New York: Wadsworth, 1992. Print. Page 9: One recent theory, advanced by the physicist Gerald Hawkins, holds that Stonehenge was actually an observatory, used to predict the movement of stars as well as eclipses of the sun and moon. Such a structure would have been of great value to an agricultural people, since it would enable them to mark the changing seasons accurately, and it would have conferred seemingly supernatural powers on the religious leaders who knew how to interpret its alignments. Use and Adaptation of the Material: If Stonehenge were an astronomical observatory which could predict the coming of spring, summer, and fall, this knowledge would have given tremendous power to the priestly leaders of an agricultural community (Lehmberg 9). Explanation: The writer has appropriately cited this material since the writer is in debt to someone else for the analysis, even though the writer has not used any direct quotations. 3. Paraphrased Material Source: Osborne, Richard, ed. How to Grow Annuals. 2 ed. Menlo Park: Lane, 1974. Print. Page 24: As a recent authority has pointed out, for a dependable long-blooming swatch of soft blue in your garden, ageratum is a fine choice. From early summer until frost, ageratum is continuously covered with clustered heads of fine, silky, fringed flowers in dusty shades of lavender-blue, lavender-pink, or white. The popular dwarf varieties grow in mounds six to twelve inches high and twelve inches across; they make fine container plants. Larger types grow up to three feet tall. Ageratum makes an excellent edging. Use and Adaptation of the Material: You can depend on ageratum if you want some soft blue in your garden. It blooms through the summer and the flowers, soft, small, and fringed, come in various shades of lavender. The small varieties which grow in mounds are very popular, especially when planted in containers. There are also larger varieties. Ageratum is good as a border plant (Osborne 24). Explanation: The writer has done a good job of paraphrasing what could be considered common knowledge (available in a number of sources), but because the structure and progression of detail is someone else's, the writer has acknowledged the source. This the writer can do at the end of the paragraph since he or she has not used the author's words. 4. Using Other Authors' Examples
nd

Source: Begley, Sharon. "The Puzzle of Genius." Newsweek 28 June 1993: 46+. Print. The creative geniuses of art and science work obsessively. . . . Bach wrote a cantata every week, even when he was sick or exhausted. Source: Hotz, Robert. The Heady Theories on Contours of Einstein's Genius. Wall Street Journal 2009 May 22, late ed: A9. Print. Although he published 300 scientific papers, Einstein couldn't easily describe the way his mind worked. Use and Adaptation of the Material If there is a single unifying characteristic about geniuses, it is that they produce. Bach wrote a cantata every week (Begley 50). Einstein drafted over 300 papers (Hotz A9). Explanation: Instead of finding original examples, the writer has used other authors example to back up what the writer had to say; therefore, the writer cited the sources where he found the examples. 5. Using Other Authors' Charts and Graphs Source: Technorati. State of the Blogosphere 2008. Technorati, 13 October 2009. Web. 20 November 2009

Use and Adaptation of the Material: As blogging has evolved, so has its credibility as a communication medium. In its survey for its 2008 State of the Blogosphere Report, Technorati asked a statistically valid representative sample of bloggers world wide about the credibility of the blogging world. The results suggest blogging is becoming more credible as a source of information (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Perceptions of Blogs and Traditional Media. Source: Technorati 2008. Explanation: Instead of creating an original chart or graph, the writer has used one from an outside source to support what the writer has to say; therefore the graph has been cited both in the textual introduction and also in the caption. If the writer had created an original chart, some of the facts might need citations (see example VIII). 6. Using Class Notes Source: McKay, Mary. : Messages in Modern Music. Northwestern University. Evanston, IL. 10 Mar. 2010. Lecture. A. Born in USA--Springsteen's 7th, most popular album a. Recorded with songs on Nebraska album--therefore also about hardship 1. Nebraska about losers and killers b. About America today--Vietnam, nostalgia, unemployment, deterioration of family c. Opening song--many people missed the Vietnam message about how badly vets were treated. class notes--Messages in Modern Music A05 Professor Mary McKay--March 10, 2010 Use and Adaptation of the Material: As Professor McKay has pointed out, many of the songs in Born in the USA (Springsteen's seventh and most popular album), including the title song, were recorded with the songs on Nebraska. Consequently, Born in the USA is also about people who come to realize that life turns out harder and more hurtful than what they might have expected. However, while Nebraska deals with losers and killers, Born in the USA deals more locally with the crumbling of American society--its treatment of returning Vietnam veterans, its need to dwell on past glories, its unemployment and treatment of the unemployed, and the loss of family roots. This is apparent from the opening song of the album "Born in the USA" in which Springsteen sings from the perspective of a Vietnam Veteran. Explanation: By mentioning Professor McKays name in the text itself, the writer has acknowledged that these ideas (which are not commonly held or the writer has not investigated to find out if they are commonly held) come from a lecture.

In this instance, because there is no page number to cite, no parenthetical citation is necessary. A reader can go to the entry for McKay in the Works Cited list to find all the necessary specific information about the source. 7. Debatable Facts Source: Craig, Gordon A. Europe Since 1815. New York: Dryden, 1974. Print. Page 370: In the campaigns of 1915, Russian casualties have been conservatively estimated at more than 2 million. Source: Stavrianos, Leften.S. The World Since 1500. New York: Prentice Hall, 1966. Print. Page 438: By the end of the summer [of 1915] in addition to military casualties totaling 2,500,000 men, Russia had lost 15 percent of her territories. . . . Response to the Material Estimates of the number of deaths in Russia during 1915 range from over two million (Craig 370) to two and a half million (Stavrianos 438). Explanation: The writer found different facts in different sources; therefore the "facts" needed to be documented. 8. Unusual Facts Source: Enroth-Cugell, Christina, Lyle F. Mockros, and Robert A. Linsenmeier. Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern, 1969-1999. PDF File. Northwestern University Biomedical Engineering. Northwestern University, 4 Sept. 2001. Web. 3 August 2010. The majority of the biomedical engineering faculty from various departments in Tech believed that if the program at Northwestern was to maintain the worldwide reputation for excellence it had achieved and make further progress during the ensuing years, then the curriculum had to continue to include quantitative biology courses on the Evanston Campus. One compelling reason for advocating the reintroduction of such biology courses on the Evanston campus was that by the early 1970's approximately 40% of first year undergraduates in the engineering school were enrolling in the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Program. Use and Adaptation of the Material: For decades, biomedical engineering has been one the most popular engineering majors at Northwestern. In fact, in the 1970s roughly 40% of incoming engineering undergraduates entered the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Program (Enroth-Cugell, Mockros and Linsenmeier, 3) Explanation: The writer found this fact in only one source and wants his reader to know where to find it. B. EXAMPLES OF PLAGIARISM Failure to acknowledge the sources from which we borrow ideas, examples, words and the progression of thought constitutes plagiarism. Here are some examples: 1. Direct Plagiarism

Source Material From: Ekman, Paul, Wallace V. Friesen, and Phoebe Ellsworth. Emotion in the Human Face: Guidelines for Research and an Integration of Findings. New York: Pergamon, 1972. Print. Page 1: The human face in repose and in movement, at the moment of death as in life, in silence and in speech, when alone and with others, when seen or sensed from within, in actuality or as represented in art or recorded by the camera is a commanding, complicated, and at times confusing source of information. The face is commanding because of its very visibility and omnipresence. While sounds and speech are intermittent, the face even in repose can be informative. And, except by veils or masks, the face cannot be hidden from view. There is no facial maneuver equivalent to putting one's hands in one's pockets. Further, the face is the location for sensory inputs, life-necessary intake, and communicative output. The face is the site for the sense receptors of taste, smell, sight, and hearing, the intake organs for food, water, and air, and the output location for speech. The face is also commanding because of its role in early development; it is prior to language in the communication between parent and child. Misuse of source (italicized passages indicate direct plagiarism): Many experts agree that the human face, whether in repose or in movement, is a commanding, complicated, and sometimes confusing source of information. The face is commanding because it's visible and omnipresent. Althoughsounds and speech may be intermittent, the face even in repose may give information. And, except by veils or masks, the face cannot be hidden. Also, the face is the location for sensory inputs, life-supporting intake, and communication. Comment The plagiarized passage is an almost verbatim copy of the original source. The writer has compressed the author's opinions into fewer sentences by omitting several phrases and sentences. But this compression does not disguise the writer's reliance on this text for the concepts he passes off as his own. The writer tries to disguise his indebtedness by beginning with the phrase "Many experts agree that. . . . " This reference to "many experts" makes it appear that the writer was somehow acknowledging the work of scholars "too numerous to mention." The plagiarized passage makes several subtle changes in language (e.g., it changes "visibility and omnipresence" to "it's visible and omnipresent"). The writer has made the language seem more informal in keeping with his own writing style. He ignores any embellishments or additional information given in the source-passage. He contents himself with borrowing the sentence about how only masks and veils can hide the face, without using the followup elaboration about there not being a "facial equivalent to putting one's hands in one's pockets." He also reduces the source's list of the face's diverse activities at the end of the paragraph. Had the writer enclosed the borrowed material in quotation marks and credited the authors of the Emotions book with a parenthetical citation, this would have been a legitimate use of a source. 2. The Mosaic Source Material From: Fishman, Joshua. Language in Sociocultural Change. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972. Print. Page 67: In a relatively open and fluid society there will be few characteristics of lower-class speech that are not also present (albeit to a lesser extent) in the speech of the working and lower middle classes. Whether we look to phonological features such as those examined by Labov or to morphological units such as those reported by Fischer (1958) (Fischer studied the variation between -in' and -ing for the present participle ending, i.e. runnin' vs.

running and found that the former realization was more common when children were talking to each other than when they were talking to him, more common among boys than girls, and more common among "typical boys" than among "model boys"), we find not a clear-cut cleavage between the social classes but a difference in rate of realization of particular variants of particular variables for particular contexts. Even the widely publicized distinction between the "restricted code" of lower-class speakers and the "elaborate code" of middle-class speakers (Bernstein 1964, 1966) is of this type, since Bernstein includes the cocktail party and the religious service among the social situations in which restricted codes are realized. Thus, even in the somewhat more stratified British setting, the middle class is found to share some of the features of what is considered to be "typically" lower-class speech. Obviously then, "typicality," if it has any meaning at all in relatively open societies, must refer largely to repertoire range rather than to unique features of the repertoire. Misuse of source (italicized passages indicate direct plagiarism): In a relatively fluid society many characteristics of lower-class speech will also be found among the working and lower middle classes. Labov and Fischer's studies show that there is not a clear-cut cleavage between social classes but only a difference in the frequency of certain speech modes. All classes share certain speech patterns. The difference among classes would only be apparent by the frequency with which speech expressions or patterns appeared. By this standard, then, Bernstein's distinction between the "restricted code" of the lower-class speakers and the "elaborated code" of middle-class speakers is useful only up to a point, since Bernstein mentions cocktail parties and religious services as examples of "restricted speech" groupings. "Typicality" refers more to speech "range" than to particular speech features. Comment While this passage contains relatively few direct borrowings from the original source, all its ideas and opinions are lifted from it. The writer hides her dependency on the source by translating its academic terms into more credible language for a novice in sociology. For example, the plagiarist steers clear of sophisticated terms like "phonological features," "morphological units," and "repertoire range." However, her substitutions are in themselves clues to her plagiarism, since they over-generalize the source's meaning. The writer seems to acknowledge secondary sources when she refers to Labov's and Fischer's studies, but she obviously has no first-hand knowledge of their research. If she had consulted these studies, she should have cited them directly and included them in the Works Cited list, rather than pretending that both she and her audience would be completely familiar with them. She intertwines her own opinions with the source and forms a confused, plagiarized mass. The writer should have acknowledged her indebtedness to her source by eliminating borrowed phrases and crediting her paragraph as a paraphrase of the original material. She could also have put quotation marks around the borrowed phrases and cited them appropriately: As Fishman explains, phonological studies by Labov and Fischer show that there is not a clear-cut cleavage between social classes but only a difference in the frequency of certain speech modes (Fishman 67). 3. Paraphrase Source : The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Cliffs Notes, n.d. Web. 4 August 2010. THE DISCIPLINE OF THE CODE HERO If the old traditional values are no good anymore, if they will not serve man, what values then will serve man? Hemingway rejects things of abstract qualities courage, loyalty, honesty, bravery. These are all just words. What Hemingway would prefer to have are concrete things. For Hemingway a man can be courageous in battle on Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock. But this does not mean that he will be courageous on Wednesday morning at 9

o'clock. A single act of courage does not mean that a man is by nature courageous. Or a man who has been courageous in war might not be courageous in some civil affair or in some other human endeavor. What Hemingway is searching for are absolute values, which will be the same, which will be constant at every moment of every day and every day of every week. Ultimately, therefore, for Hemingway the only value that will serve man is an innate faculty of self-discipline. This is a value that grows out of man's essential being, in his inner nature. If a man has discipline to face one thing on one day he will still possess that same degree of discipline on another day and in another situation. Thus Francis Macomber in the short story "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber," has faced a charging animal, and once he has had the resolution to stand and confront this charging beast, he has developed within himself a discipline that will serve him in all situations. This control can function in almost any way in a Hemingway work. Misuse of source: Hemingway tries to discover the values in life that will best serve man. Since Hemingway has rejected traditional values, he himself establishes a kind of "code" for his heroes. This code is better seen than spoken of. The Hemingway hero doesn't speak of abstract qualities like courage and honesty. He lives them. But this living of values entails continual performance the Hemingway hero is always having his values put to the test. How can the hero be up to this continual test? Hemingway stresses the faculty of self-discipline as the backbone of all other virtues. Self-discipline places man's good qualities on a continuum. The dramatic change in Francis Macomber in "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" stems more from his new-found self-control than from any accidental combination of traits. Comment This illustrates plagiarism since the writer used the notion of the "Hemingway code hero" presented in Cliffs Notes as the sole basis for his own essay. He has absorbed his source's concepts, re-phrased them, and, perhaps, made them simpler. But there is a one-to-one relationship between the development of ideas in the Cliffs Notes and the plagiarists rendition. The first two sentences of the plagiarist's are directly borrowed from his source; the remaining sentences are more artfully disguised. The worst feature of this idea-copying is that it seems to be the end product of a close reading of Hemingway's "Short, Happy Life," the writer makes it appear that his comments are based on this short story. The writing here would be acceptable if he had written the same paraphrase with the proper acknowledgement of his source. 4. Insufficient Acknowledgement Source: Laven, Peter. Renaissance Italy: 1464-1534. New York: Capricorn, 1964. Print. The tenacious particularism of the Italian state gave rise to a wide variety of constitutional solutions and class structures throughout Italy. Even conquered territories and those swallowed up by bigger neighboring powers often managed to retain much of their internal organization as it had been. If power changed hands, the instruments and forms of power usually remained the same. Since the economic needs of such territories did not suddenly alter with a change of government or master, those classes which had been important before the change tended to continue to be important afterwards as well. Only when the nature of the change was economic and social might there have been a reversal in the relationships of classes; but even in this there was no sudden revolution in the structure of classes.

Misuse of source: In his comprehensive study, Renaissance Italy, Peter Laven discusses the peculiar organization of Renaissance citystates: The tenacious particularism of the Italian states gave rise to a wide variety of constitutional solutions and class structures throughout Italy. Even conquered territories and those swallowed up by bigger neighboring powers often managed to retain much of their internal organization as it had been(1 30). This means that if power changed hands, the instruments and forms of power usually remained the same. Since the economic needs of such territories did not suddenly alter with a change of government or master, those classes which had been important before the change tended to continue to be important afterwards as well. Only when the nature of the change was economic and social might there have been a reversal in the relationships of classes; but even in this there was no sudden revolution in the structure of classes. Comment This half-crediting of a source is a common form of plagiarism. It stems either from a desire to credit one's source and copy it too, or from ignorance as to where to footnote. The general rule is to footnote after rather than before your resource material. In this case, the plagiarist credits historian Peter Laven with two quoted sentences and then continues using the author without giving acknowledgement. The writer disguises the direct plagiarism as a paraphrase by using the falsely-explanatory phrase "This means that ..." in the third sentence. This example of plagiarism is especially reprehensible because the writer seemingly acknowledges his source--but not enough. _____________________ This guide was prepared with contributions from many people, including members of the Undergraduate Council. Mark Sheldon, Assistant Dean for Academic Integrity in WCAS, assisted with the organization of the document and worked with Barbara Shwom of the WCAS Writing Program to update the material. The section on attribution was written by Jean Smith of the WCAS Writing Program, with help from Bob Wiebe of the History Department. Contributors include Katrina Cucueco (Speech '96), Ryan Garino (CAS '98), Scott Goldstein (Tech '96), and Jean Smith and Ellen Wright of the Writing Program. The examples of plagiarism and comments are based upon Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgement (published by Dartmouth College). For more on plagiarism, see Charles Lipson, Doing Honest Work in College. How to Prepare Citations, Avoid Plagiarism, and achieve Real Academic Success (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2004). http://www.northwestern.edu/provost/students/integrity/plagiarism.html It's not enough to know why plagiarism is taken so seriously in the academic world or to know how to recognize it. You also need to know how to avoid it. The simplest cases of plagiarism to avoid are the intentional ones: If you copy a paper from a classmate, buy a paper from the Internet, copy whole passages from a book, article, or Web site without citing the author, you are plagiarizing. Here's the best advice you'll ever receive about avoiding intentional plagiarism: If you're tempted to borrow someone else's ideas or plagiarize in any way because you're pressed for time, nervous about how you're doing in a class, or confused about the assignment, don't do it. The problems you think you're solving by plagiarizing are really minor compared to the problems you will create for yourself by plagiarizing. In every case, the consequences of plagiarism are much more serious than the consequences of turning in a paper late or turning in a paper you're not satisfied to have written. "...the consequences of plagiarism are much more serious than the consequences of turning in a paper late..."

The consequences of accidental plagiarism are equally daunting and should be avoided at all costs. Whether or not you intended to plagiarize, you will still be held responsible. As a member of an intellectual community you are expected to respect the ideas of others in the same way that you would respect any other property that didn't belong to you, and this is true whether you plagiarize on purpose or by accident. The best way to make sure you don't plagiarize due to confusion or carelessness is to 1) understand what you're doing when you write a paper and 2) follow a method that is systematic and careful as you do your research . In other words, if you have a clear sense of what question you're trying to answer and what knowledge you're building on, and if you keep careful, clear notes along the way, it's much easier to use sources effectively and responsibly and, most of all, to write a successful paper. If you have questions about plagiarism at any point in your research or writing process, ask. It's always better to ask questions than it is to wait for an instructor to respond to work that you have turned in for a grade. Once you have turned in your final work, you will be held responsible for misuse of sources. With these principles in mind, here are some guidelines for conducting research responsibly: Keep track of your sources; print electronic sources

While it's easy enough to keep a stack of books or journal articles on your desk where you can easily refer back to them, it's just as important to keep track of electronic sources. When you save a PDF of a journal article, make sure you put it into a folder on your computer where you'll be able to find it. When you consult a Web site, log the Web address in a separate document from the paper you're writing so that you'll be able to return to the Web site and cite it correctly. You should also print the relevant pages from any Web sites you use, making sure you note the complete URL and the date on which you printed the material. Because electronic sources aren't stable and Web pages can be deleted without notice, beware of directing your readers to sources that might have disappeared. Check when the Web site you're using was last updated and update the URLs as you work and once again right before you submit your essay. If an electronic source disappears before you submit your work, you will need to decide whether or not to keep the source in your paper. If you have printed the source and can turn it in with your paper, you should do so. If you have not printed the source, you should consult your instructor about whether or not to use that source in your paper. The library has several helpful resources for managing your sources, including RefWorks. Keep sources in correct context

Whenever you consult a source, you should make sure you understand the context, both of the ideas within a source and of the source itself. You should also be careful to consider the context in which a source was written. For example, a book of essays published by an organization with a political bias might not present an issue with adequate complexity for your project. The question of context can be more complicated when you're working with Internet sources than with print sources because you may see one Web page as separate from an entire Web site and use or interpret that page without fully understanding or representing its context. For example, a definition of "communism" taken from a Web site with a particular political agenda might provide one interpretation of the meaning of the word but if you neglect to mention the context for that definition you might use it as though it's unbiased when it isn't. Likewise, some Internet searches will take you to a URL that's just one Web page within a larger Web site; be sure to investigate and take notes on the context of the information you're citing. Plan ahead

Research can often turn out to be more time-consuming that you anticipate. Budget enough time to search for sources, to take notes, and to think about how to use the sources in your essay. Moments of carelessness are more common when you leave your essay until the last minute and are tired or stressed. Honest mistakes can lead to charges of plagiarism just as dishonesty can; be careful when note-taking and when incorporating ideas and language from electronic sources so you always know what language and ideas are yours and what belongs to a source. Don't cut and paste: File and label your sources

Never cut and paste information from an electronic source straight into your own essay, and never type verbatim sentences from a print source straight into your essay. Instead, open a separate document on your computer for each source so you can file research information carefully. When you type or cut and paste into that document, make sure to include the full citation information for the print source or the full URL and the date you copied the page(s). For Web sources, make sure to cite the page from which you're taking information, which may not necessarily be the home page of the site you're using. Use logical and precise names for the files you create, and add citation information and dates. This allows you to retrieve the files easily, deters you from accidentally deleting files, and helps you keep a log of the order in which your research was conducted. It's a good idea to add a note to each file that describes how you might use the information in that file. Remember: you're entering a conversation with your sources, and accurate file names and notes can help you understand and engage that conversation. And, of course, always remember to back up your files. Keep your own writing and your sources separate

Work with either the printed copy of your source(s) or (in the case of online sources), the copy you pasted into a separate documentnot the online versionas you draft your essay. This precaution not only decreases the risk of plagiarism but also enables you to annotate your sources in various ways that will help you understand and use them most effectively in your essay. Keep your notes and your draft separate

Be careful to keep your research notes separate from your actual draft at all stages of your writing process. This will ensure that you don't cut language from a source and paste it into your paper without proper attribution. If you work from your notes, you're more likely to keep track of the boundaries between your own ideas and those in a source. Paraphrase carefully in your notes; acknowledge your sources explicitly when paraphrasing

When you want to paraphrase material, it's a good idea first to paste the actual quotation into your notes (not directly into your draft) and then to paraphrase it (still in your notes). Putting the information in your own words will help you make sure that you've thought about what the source is saying and that you have a good reason for using it in your paper. Remember to use some form of notation in your notes to indicate what you've paraphrased and mention the author's name within the material you paraphrase. You should also include all citation information in your notes. When you decide to use paraphrased material in your essay, make sure that you avoid gradually rewording the paraphrased material from draft to draft until you lose sight of the fact that it's still a paraphrase. Also, avoid excessive paraphrasing in which your essay simply strings together a series of paraphrases. When the ideas taken from your sources start to blend in deceptively with your own thinking, you will have a more difficult time

maintaining the boundaries between your ideas and those drawn from sources. Finally, whenever you paraphrase, make sure you indicate, at each logical progression, that the ideas are taken from an authored source. Avoid reading a classmate's paper for inspiration.

If you're in a course that requires peer review or workshops of student drafts, you are going to read your classmates' work and discuss it. This is a productive way of exchanging ideas and getting feedback on your work. If you find, in the course of this work, that you wish to use someone else's idea at some point in your paper (you should never use someone else's idea as your thesis, but there may be times when a classmate's idea would work as a counterargument or other point in your paper), you must credit that person the same way you would credit any other source. On the other hand, if you find yourself reading someone else's paper because you're stuck on an assignment and don't know how to proceed, you may end up creating a problem for yourself because you might unconsciously copy that person's ideas. When you're stuck, make an appointment with your instructor or go to the Writing Center for advice on how to develop your own ideas. Don't save your citations for later

Never paraphrase or quote from a source without immediately adding a citation. You should add citations in your notes, in your response papers, in your drafts, and in your revisions. Without them, it's too easy to lose track of where you got a quotation or an idea and to end up inadvertently taking credit for material that's not your own. Quote your sources properly

Always use quotation marks for directly quoted material, even for short phrases and key terms. Keep a source trail

As you write and revise your essay, make sure that you keep track of your sources in your notes and in each successive draft of your essay. You should begin this process early, even before you start writing your draft. Even after you've handed in your essay, keep all of your research notes and drafts. You ought to be able to reconstruct the path you took from your sources to your notes and from your notes to your drafts and revision. These careful records and clear boundaries between your writing and your sources will help you avoid plagiarism. And if you are called upon to explain your process to your instructor, you'll be able to retrace the path you took when thinking, researching, and writing, from the essay you submitted back through your drafts and to your sources. http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&pageid=icb.page342057