What is Plagiarism?

1
What is Plagiarism?

• (And why you should care!)

Borrowed and Adapted from the SBHS Plagiarism
Committee
2
Definition

• Plagiarism is the act of presenting the words,
  ideas, images, sounds, or creative expression of
  others as your own.

3
Two Types of Plagiarism

• Intentional

• Unintentional

• Copying a friends work
• Buying or borrowing papers
• Cutting and pasting blocks of text from
  electronic sources without documenting in a paper
  or on a poster
• Media borrowing without documentation
• Web publishing without permissions of creators
• Mosaic plagiarism
• Using 3 or more words in the same order/coined
  phrases

• Careless paraphrasing
• Poor MLA documentation
• Quoting excessively
• Improper use of quotation marks

4
Plagiarism A Real Issue

• A study of almost 4,500 students at 25 schools,
  suggests cheating isa significant problem in
  high school74 of the respondents admitted to
  one or more instances of serious test cheating
  and 72 admitted to serious cheating on written
  assignments. Over half of the students admitted
  they have engaged in some level of plagiarism on
  written assignments using the internet.
• Based on the research of Donald L. McCabe,
  Rutgers University
• Source CIA Research. Center for Academic
  Integrity. Duke University, 2003
  lthttp//academicintegrity.org/cai_research.aspgt

5
Is this important?

• What if
• The architect building your new house cheated his
  way through math. Will your new home be safe?
• Your lawyer paid for a copy of the bar exam to
  study. Will the contract she wrote you stand up
  in court?
• The accountant who does your taxes hired someone
  to write his papers and paid a stand-in to take
  his tests. Does he know enough to get you a
  refund?
• (Lathrop and Foss 87)

6
School Consequences

• Fail the paper/project without the opportunity to
  make it up
• Suspended/removed from sports teams or
  extracurricular activities
• Removed from grade level activities
• Reported to colleges

7
Real Life Consequences

• Damaged the reputation of two prominent
  historians, Stephan Ambrose and Doris Kearns
  Goodwin
• New York Times senior reporter Jayson Blair
  forced to resign after being accused of
  plagiarism and fraud

8
Remember, if you

• have included the words and ideas of others in
  your work that you neglected to cite
• have had help you wouldnt want your teacher to
  know about
• have claimed someone elses work as your own

You Have Plagiarized!
9
Research Strategies

• Quoting
• Summarizing
• Paraphrasing

10
Quoting
the exact words of an author, copied directly
from a source, word for word quotations must
ALWAYS be cited!

• Use quotations when
• You want to disagree with an authors argument
• You want to highlight particularly eloquent or
  powerful phrases or passages
• You are comparing and contrasting specific points
  of view
• You want to note the important research that
  precedes your own

11
Summarizing
involves putting main ideas of one or several
writers into your own words significantly
shorter than the original and take a broad
overview of the material must cite!

• Summarize when
• You want to establish background or offer an
  overview of a topic
• You want to describe knowledge (from several
  sources) about a topic
• You want to determine the main ideas of a single
  source

12
Paraphrasing
Rephrasing the words of an author, putting their
words in your own rework the sources ideas,
words, phrases, and sentences with your own must
cite!

• Paraphrase when
• You plan to use information on your note cards
  and wish to avoid plagiarizing
• You want to avoid overusing quotations
• You want to use your own voice to present the
  information
• You want to explain difficult concepts in more
  simple terms

13
The Rule of Thumb

• If the information you are using is not something
  commonly known, be sure to cite your source!
• Its better to be safe than sorry!

14
Why Its Worth It

• When you copy, you cheat yourself and limit your
  own learning
• The consequences are not worth the risks!
• It is only right to give credit to authors whose
  ideas you use
• Citing gives authority to the information you
  present
• Citing makes it possible for your readers to
  locate the original source
• Education is not an us vs. them game! Its
  about learning for the sake of learning
• Cheating is unethical behaviorand youre all
  better people than that!

15
Works Cited

• Boston Columnist Resigns Amid New Plagiarism
  Charges. CNN.com 19 Aug. 1998. 2 March 2003
  lthttp//www.cnn.com/US/9808/19/barnicle/gt
• Fain, Margaret. Internet Paper Mills. Kimbal
  Library. 12 Feb. 2003 lthttp//www.costal.edu/libra
  ry/mills2.htmgt
• Lathrop, Ann and Kathleen Foss. Student Cheating
  and Plagiarism in the Internet Era. Englewood,
  CO. Libraries Unlimited, 2003.