04/19/23 1

How to Avoid Plagiarism And Document Sources

Joan Johnson

04/19/23 2

What is Plagiarism?

• Copying from a source______________

__________________________.

• Copying from a source without quotation marks, but citing the source.

• ______________________________ without citation.

• Poor paraphrasing.

04/19/23 3

Penalties for Plagiarism

• A grade of ________ or an F on the assignment

• Failing the course

• ______________ from college

• See HCC’s honor code on page 49 of the catalog and in page 29 of the Student Handbook

04/19/23 4

Why is Plagiarism such a big deal?

• Because you don’t _______ anything

• Because it _______ other students

• Because professors must take ________ time to ____________ down plagiarism

• Because it undermines academic integrity

04/19/23 5

Common ways of Plagiarizing

• ________________ from an Internet paper mill

• ___________ someone else to write the paper

• Poor ___________ and paraphrasing skills

• _____________ of how to cite, quote, and use source information.

04/19/23 6

How Not to Plagiarize When Quoting Information

• When you quote, quote _____________.

• Put __________ __________ around any information that you quote.

• __________________ your source.

04/19/23 7

How Not to Plagiarize when Summarizing

• Make sure none of the source ___________ has crept into your summary.

• Cite the source.

04/19/23 8

How Not to Plagiarize When Paraphrasing Information

• Make sure you _____________________ ________________material

• _______________________________, and then write your paraphrase

• Check the original to make sure language didn’t creep in

• __________________ of your paraphrase

04/19/23 9

Examples

• The following paragraph is from my master’s thesis:

“Lorine Niedecker admired Dickinson, but she may have been wary of literary history consigning her as an imitator of Dickinson. Although both tend toward ontological obscurity in their poetry, Niedecker’s images, form, and language are strikingly different than Dickinson’s.”

04/19/23 10

Quotations

• ____________: “Although both tend toward ontological obscurity in their poetry, Niedecker’s images … are strikingly different than Dickinson’s” (Johnson 11).

• ___________: “Although both show obscurity in their poetry, Niedecker’s style is much different than Dickinson’s” (Johnson 11). This does not quote the source word for word, so it should not be in quotation marks.

04/19/23 11

Summary

• _______________: Lorine Niedecker worried about being considered an imitator of Emily Dickinson’s (Johnson 11).

• ______________: Niedecker loved and admired Emily Dickinson and wanted to be much like her (Johnson 11). This summary is inaccurate.

04/19/23 12

Paraphrases

• ___________:Lorine Niedecker worried about being considered too much like Emily Dickinson, and that literary scholars might consider her an “imitator.” Despite their similarities in existential vagueness, their poetic styles are dissimilar (Johnson 11).

This paraphrase is accurate and puts any ________ language in quotation marks.

04/19/23 13

Improper Paraphrase

• With Dickinson there is a resistance along with an attraction; Niedecker admired Dickinson, but she may have worried about literary history saying she was an imitator of Dickinson. Niedecker’s form, images, and language are very different from Dickinson’s (Johnson 11). This paraphrase uses phrases from the original _________quotation marks.

04/19/23 14

Proper Documentation

• Any of these examples are ____________ if the author is not given credit.

• Work the _________ into your writing: Joan Johnson points out that… (11).

• Use ___________ documentation: (Johnson 11).

04/19/23 15

Common Knowledge

• You do not have to cite anything that would be considered __________ knowledge. – Emily Dickinson was an American poet.– George Washington was our first president.If you already know it, it is probably common

knowledge. If it is in ________ or ________ of your sources, it is

common knowledge. If in ________, cite it!

04/19/23 16

Handy little things to know

• _________________ ….– You may use these to ____________

information from a quotation. – Do not delete important information that could

______________ the meaning. – Put __________ around your ellipses: […]

04/19/23 17

• Brackets– Use brackets to ______ information to a

quotation: “[Emily] Dickinson…”

– Sic – used to indicate that a ________ is in your source, not you:

• “Dickinsons (sic) poetry was obscure.”

04/19/23 18

Qtd. in

• If your source quotes a source that you would like to use, put “____ ____” in your citation. – As Harold Bloom notes, “We know, as Blake

did, that Poetic Influence is gain and loss…” (qtd. in Johnson 4).

04/19/23 19

Remember:

• Learning to paraphrase well is a ___________. As with any skill, if you do not practice it, you do not improve.

• Professors would rather have _____ __________, even if it is somewhat awkward, rather than someone else’s polished prose.

• We’re here to help you. Just ask!

04/19/23 20

Documenting Sources

• Anything that you take from a source must be cited, unless it is common knowledge.– If in doubt, cite it

• It is a common misconception that only quotations must be acknowledged. ______material you take from a source must be acknowledged.

• Each citation of a source must match up with a full ________________ reference in the works cited.

04/19/23 21

In-text Citations

• _______ introduce the source in your writing: Susan Farrell points out in “fight vs. flight: A re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’” that… and put a page number in parentheses at the end (2). – I prefer that you use

browser page numbers for electronic sources rather than paragraph numbers.

• _____ put the author and page number in parentheses at the end of your paraphrase, quotation, or summary: (Farrell 2).

• Never put a URL in an in-text citation.

• If you must use a title because there is no author use only the first major word (“Fight” 2).

04/19/23 22

Works Cited

• ___________ bibliographical information for your sources

• Arranged in ________order by the ______name of the author or the first main word of the title

• First line is on left margin, and the subsequent lines for each entry are _______ 5 space

• Follow the correct models in your textbook or handbook for proper ways to cite books, journals, electronic, and other sources

• ______________: a sloppy works cited is usually an indication of a sloppy paper.

04/19/23 23

Works CitedSzymborska, Wislawa. “The Terrorist, He Watches.” An

Introduction to Literature. 13th ed. Ed. Sylvan Barnet et al. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2004. pp. 687-688.

Tapcott, Stephen and Mariusz Przybytek. “The Sky, A Sky, Heaven, the Heavens, a Heaven, Heavens: Reading Szymborska Whole.” The American Poetry Review. World Poetry Inc. July 2000. Brish Lib., Hagerstown Community College. 6 April 2004 <galenet. Galegroup. Com.exproxy.hagerstowncc.edu>.

04/19/23 24

Other miscellaneous points

• __________ put numbers next to works cited entries• In __________ format, everything is double spaced. • Periods go _______ citations in in-text citations “quoted

material” (Johnson 11). • Quotations that are more than 4 typed lines are ________

_____ spaces, do not have quotation marks, and the period goes before the citation.

• Most importantly, __________ information from a source, unless it is common knowledge, ________ be cited.

04/19/23 25

Sources for MLA Documentation

• Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research papers. 5th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999. – This is the bible for MLA

documentation. It can be found in most bookstores.

• Hacker, Diana. A Writer’s Reference. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. – Most HCC 101 students

should have this book.

• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab, a wonderful site.

• http://webster.commnet.edu/mla/index.shtmlsource– Another very good site