Plagiarism

What is it?

Definition of plagiarism:

The word “plagiarism” has its origin in a Greek word meaning “man-stealing” or “kidnapping.”

You commit plagiarism when you present someone else’s ideas—published or unpublished—as if they were your own.

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:

Another person’s ideas, opinion, or theoryAny facts, statistics, graphs, drawings-any

pieces of information-that are not common knowledge

Quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or,

Paraphrase or summary of another person’s spoken or written words

Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism

Put in quotations everything that comes directly from the text especially when taking notes.

Paraphrase, but be sure you are not just rearranging or replacing a few words.

Summarize, but be sure you are not just restating some of the author’s original words.

Avoid Plagiarism: paraphrase original source material…

Learn how to paraphrase material.

To “paraphrase” means to rewrite source material in your own style and language (do not merely rearrange the other person’s words) and will be about the same length as the original source material.

Here’s how to paraphrase:

Original source material: “Through the earliest years of the 20th century, the spread of population from city centers was slowed by the relative difficulty of transportation to outlying areas.” (Webster 20)

Correct paraphrase-Difficult travel from city centers kept the population from spreading to larger boundaries in the early 1900’s. (Webster 20)

Incorrect paraphrase-In the early years of the last century, the population did not spread from the center of cities because it was relatively difficult to travel to outlying areas. (Webster 20) What is wrong with this paraphrase?

Learn how to “summarize” material:

Original material: “The leading cause of instability in the Roman Republic was the inability of the ruling class to deal with the very real problems of unemployment, overcrowding, and a sense of powerlessness that pervaded the populace.” (Jones 48)

Paraphrase: Much unrest occurred in the Roman state because the Roman governing class was unable to deal with the difficulties among its population which included too few jobs, too many people in too little space, and a feeling of incapacity that was felt by the masses. (Jones 48)

Summary: Much unrest in Rome was caused by the difficulty the Roman governing class had in dealing with the problems of the masses.

What is “common knowledge”?

Common knowledge is ordinary information that most people know or that is not disputed (argued) by most people. It does NOT have to be documented.

Example: George Washington was the first President of the United States.

Example: President Kennedy was elected in 1960.

What if I’m not sure if it is or it isn’t “common knowledge”?

Whenever in doubt, document the source. You can’t go wrong by documenting too much, but you can commit accidental plagiarism if you document too little.

“Intellectual Property”?

Intellectual property is property that derives from the work of the mind or intellect, specifically, an idea, invention, trade mark, secret process (think the Colonel’s Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe!), program, data, formula, patent, copyright, or trademark or application.

Is it plagiarism if it’s accidental?

Suppose you accidentally forget to give credit to the original author or source? It’s STILL plagiarism.

It’s your job to carefully keep track of your notes from your original sources so that every bit of information used from another source is documented properly in your paper.

Avoid plagiarism:

Make sure you include an entry on your Works Cited page for each source you use in a paper.

Do your own work. Teachers have numerous ways to track down plagiarism and on average it now takes about 5 minutes to determine if a piece is plagiarized.

Take careful notes when doing your research so that you can easily document your sources when writing your paper.

Create a note taking system.

Never take chances; when in doubt about whether something is or is not common knowledge, go ahead and document the source.

Examples of plagiarism:

You turn in another person’s research paper as your own You copy portions of another person’s research paper into

your own You directly copy source material into your research paper

without quotation marks and without author and page You paraphrase source material into your paper without a

clear reference to the original source You summarize source material in your paper without a

clear reference to the original source You turn in a poem or short story that you did not write You turn in a feature article that you did not write

More examples of plagiarism:

Using another person’s photographs in a publication without giving credit

Using another’s painting in a publication without giving credit

Using another’s drawings in a publication without giving credit

Using another’s music in a production without giving credit

Why try to avoid plagiarism?

Colleges and universities do not allow plagiarism.

You jeopardize your chances of passing any class in which you are caught plagiarizing.

Members of the MCHS National Honor Society caught plagiarizing risk their future membership and participation.

Don’t make excuses!

I realize that the following excuses do not justify my plagiarism:

“But the author said it so much better than I could…”“But I did change some of the words around…”“I have been doing reports like this since third-grade and no one ever

told me there was anything wrong with it.”“Everybody does it. There is even an Internet site for plagiarists.”“My girlfriend (mother, fill in the blank) was just trying to help me out

because I’m not a good writer.”“I thought that I put the writer’s ideas into my own words. These were

just ideas that I remembered because I did not copy them from the encyclopedia, text, etc.”

Remember these important terms: Plagiarism: using someone else’s work and claiming that it is your own Intellectual property: that which someone else has created from their

brains and minds and which they alone own Common knowledge: information that is generally known and

understood by the majority of the people; the source does not have to be documented

Quote: it is words copied directly from the original source and placed in quotation marks; the source of the quote must always be documented

Summary: it is a restating of the main idea of an original source passage and is much shorter than the original; the source of the summary must always be documented

Paraphrase: it is information that is restated in the student’s own words and is about the same length as the original source; the source of the paraphrase must always be documented.

Intentional plagiarism

This occurs when a student tries to pass off as his/her own any written work that was done by someone else.

This might include short stories, poems, plays, scripts, feature articles, essays, research papers, etc.

You are in danger of failing if you resort to intentional plagiarism in any English class.

Some thoughts on honesty:

Do not do what you would undo if caught.-Leah Arendt

Dare to be honest and fear no labor.-Robert Burns

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.-Henry David Thoreau

I am a big believer in the ‘mirror test.’ All that matters is that you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there, that you’ve done your best.-John McKay

Plagiarism

It might cause you to fail a class. It might result in a grade of “0” on your Senior Portfolio

and thus your Composition Semester Exam grade It might cost you those important teacher

recommendations for scholarships and college admission.

It might cost you school honors and awards. It might cost you your self-respect. It might cost you the respect of others. It is wrong.