The evil in your report writing

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PLAGIARISM
The evil in your report writing
The importance of making proper references
Compiled by Yunus Yusoff
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Plagiarism is using others' works, ideas and
words without clearly acknowledging the source of
that information.
Synonym forgery, copying, piracy, literary
theft, counterfeiting
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Definition of Plagiarism
According to the Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means 1)  to steal
and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as
one's own 2)  to use (another's production)
without crediting the source 3)  to commit
literary theft. 4)  to present as new and
original an idea or product derived from an
existing source
Source http//www.plagiarism.org/research_site/e_
what_is_plagiarism.html, July 2005
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All of the following are considered plagiarism

• turning in someone else's work as your own
• copying words or ideas from someone else without
  giving credit
• failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
• giving incorrect information about the source of
  a quotation
• changing words but copying the sentence structure
  of a source without giving credit
• copying so many words or ideas from a source that
  it makes up the majority of your work, whether
  you give credit or not

Source http//www.plagiarism.org/research_site/e_
what_is_plagiarism.html, July 2005
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Types of plagiarism(Sources of information not
cited)

• "The Ghost Writer" The writer turns in another's
  work, word-for-word, as his or her own.
• "The Photocopy" The writer copies significant
  portions of text straight from a single source,
  without alteration.
• "The Potluck Paper" The writer tries to disguise
  plagiarism by copying from several different
  sources, tweaking the sentences to make them fit
  together while retaining most of the original
  phrasing.
• "The Self-Stealer" The writer "borrows"
  generously from his or her previous work,
  violating policies concerning the expectation of
  originality adopted by most academic
  institutions.

Source http//www.plagiarism.org/research_site/e_
what_is_plagiarism.html, July 2005
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Types of plagiarism(Sources of information
cited, but still insufficient)

• "The Forgotten Footnote" The writer mentions an
  author's name for a source, but neglects to
  include specific information on the location of
  the material referenced.
• "The Misinformer" The writer provides inaccurate
  information regarding the sources, making it
  impossible to find them.
• "The Too-Perfect Paraphrase" The writer properly
  cites a source, but neglects to put in quotation
  marks text that has been copied word-for-word, or
  close to it.
• "The Resourceful Citer" The writer properly
  cites all sources, paraphrasing and using
  quotations appropriately. The catch? The paper
  contains almost no original work!
• "The Perfect Crime" In this case, the writer
  properly quotes and cites sources in some places,
  but goes on to paraphrase other arguments from
  those sources without citation.

Source http//www.plagiarism.org/research_site/e_
what_is_plagiarism.html, July 2005
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YOU MUST MAKE A REFERENCE WHEN YOU USE

• another person's idea, opinion, or theory.
• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings any
  pieces of information that are NOT common
  knowledge.
• quotations of another person's actual spoken or
  written words
• paraphrase of another person's spoken or written
  words

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WHAT IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE? Common knowledge
facts that can be found in numerous places and
are likely to be known by a lot of
people. Example Tunku Abdul Rahman was
Malaysias first Prime Minister. This is
generally known information. You do not need to
reference this fact.
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Sample text from a book
The first voice decoder was developed in 1931 by
Dudley.

• If you copy the exact words from the source.
• - Place the words in quotes
• - Place the reference identification

Example The first voice decoder was developed
in 1931 by Dudley. 3

• If you only copied the idea from the source
• - Place the reference identification

Example The development of speech recognition
technology was seen as early as in the 1930s. 3
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If you make any references to the Web page,
please do not forget to ALSO include the
following - complete URL eg
http//www.intel.com/whitepaper/newcpu01.html -
date the you retrieved the document eg 20
November 2001
Note Please refrain from making references to
websites of low integrity.
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COMMON MISTAKES

• Did not provide references
• References provided, but only beside the title.
• References provided, but were not numberred.
• References provided, but no references made in
  the document.
• References provided but wrong references made in
  the text. Mismatch of reference numbers and
  reference text numbers.
• Information directly copied from source was not
  placed in quotations.
• Referrence made was too general. Example
  www.yahoo.com

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FOOTNOTES, ENDNOTES REFERENCE

• Footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page
  where you make the references.
• You can combine all the footnotes and place them
  at the end of the report. This page is known as
  endnotes page.
• Reference page is the alphabetized list of all of
  your references (endnotes or footnotes) complete
  with the publishers name and date of
  publication, if applicable.

For more information, refer to Final Year
Project Guidelines.
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Plagiarism Checker
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WHY SHOULD YOU AVOID PLAGIARISM ?

• You are committing literary crime. Legal actions
  can be taken against you.
• You will fail your project. Youll be given an E
  grade.
• Your project will be placed in library and read
  by others. Do not disgrace yourself and the
  university.

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PLAGIARISM PREVENTION FOR STUDENTS
Log on to http//www.plagiarism.org/research_si
te/e_pp_stud_menu.html
http//www.plagiarism.org
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More info on plagiarism

• The Definitive Guide to Internet Plagiarism
  http//www.plagiarized.com
• Plagiarism and the Webhttp//www.wiu.edu/users/mf
  bhl/wiu/ plagiarism.htm
• The Plagiarism Resource Sitehttp//www.plagiarism
  .phys.virginia.edu/ home.html
• Cut-and-Paste Plagiarism Preventing, Detecting
  and Tracking Online Plagiarism http//alexia.lis.
  uiuc.edu/janicke/plagiary.htm
• Plagiarism How to avoid it. http//www.aresearchg
  uide.com/6plagiar.html
• Strategy to avoid Plagiarism http//www.virtualsa
  lt.com/antiplag.htm
• Detailed discussion of what plagiarism is, how to
  detect it, and how to avoid it
  http//www.indiana.edu/wts/wts/ plagiarism.html

• Preventing, Detecting and Tracking Online
  Plagiarism http//alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/janicke/pl
  agiary.htm
• Suggestions about combating internet-aided
  plagiarism http//www.wiu.edu/users/mfbhl/wiu/
  plagiarism.htm
• Very detailed advice, with many links to other
  websites http//www.asee.org/prism/december/
  html/student_plagiarism_in_an_onlin.htm
• This site discusses eight methods of detection
  http//newark.rutgers.edu/ehrlich/plagiarism598.h
  tml
• Anti-plagiarism strategies for research papers
  http//www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
• Advice for students on avoiding accidental
  plagiarism http//www.writing.northwestern.edu/ti
  ps/plag. html
• Examples of what is, and isn't, plagiarism
  http//www.csubak.edu/ssric/Modules/Other/
  plagiarism.htm

And many many more.....