A+Word+about+Plagiarism

toc =Useful Websites Regarding the Issue of Plagiarism=

[|Plagiarism Today] [|Brain Pop on Plagiarism] [|A Quick Guide to Plagiarism] Plagiarismdotorg [|Free Paper Plagiarism Checker at grammarly.com] [|turnitin.com]

Understanding What Plagiarism is and What is Expected
Defining Plagiarism… Student Myths regarding Plagiarism…..
 * It is a form of robbery (Merriam Webster defines it as committing a “literary theft”)
 * It is stealing someone else’s words, ideas, or data without properly documentation.
 * It is the stealing or passing off of someone else’s words, ideas, or data as one’s own.
 * It is “presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source” (Merriam Webster)
 * “Quoting other people or citing sources will make me sound less knowledgeable.”
 * “Quoting other people is painstaking and takes too much time.”
 * “Nobody really cares if I plagiarize or will even check.”
 * “If I am missing one source, it won’t matter; it’s just one source of many”
 * “It’s not a big deal if I get caught; I just need to get by this assignment.”

Consequences of Plagiarism…
 * Failure of an assignment and / or a course [A zero for the assignment is this classroom's policy; be sure to check the FCS Handbook for our school's policy regarding plagiarism issues.]
 * In some cases, expulsion from school
 * Damages the student-teacher relationship
 * Damages the academic reputation and integrity of a school.
 * Harms the student themselves as they do not learn skills vital to their future academic success and professional career
 * Undermines trust and promotes suspicion and cynicism in ourselves as well as the public

Information Sharing Today… Unintentional Plagiarism… Label the following when researching!
 * Plagiarism is easy today as we have so many resources accessible to us.
 * Downloading a paper may take minutes and we often own many print sources. Copying and pasting sections or quotations is easy.
 * It is important to know the difference between what we own and what we do not. Any work, sentence, wording, or ideas that you have borrowed need to be given credit
 * Sometimes plagiarism happens because the student does not keep careful records of the notes and research that they are conducting. This may happen as a result of having to quickly put together a written assignment that has been put off to the last minute; there are many reasons why a student might fall into the trap of unintentional plagiarism. It is important to know that plagiarism, intended or not intended, is still plagiarism and the consequence for this violation still applies. You can protect yourself from plagiarism by simply keeping record of three types of material that you collect in your notes:
 * Direct Quotes from a source
 * Summaries or paraphrasing of ideas or quotes from a source
 * Your own ideas

Understand that... Identify that...
 * Presenting an author’s exact words without marking it as a quotation is plagiarism, even if you cite the source.
 * Recording only quotations is the most reliable method of note-taking.
 * Similar problems can occur in notes kept electronically through copying and pasting. Make sure that you add quotations around them if it is a DQ [direct quotation] or label as para. [paraphrase] or sum. [summary].
 * If you carefully document the research items you gather in whatever note-taking system you choose to use, you can make sure that you avoid plagiarism violations that could cause you grief and negative consequences.

Sometimes plagiarism happens because the student does not carefully record where information is from. This tracking to the Works Cited page is critical to give credit not only to the person of authorship, but also printing companies who have published the work or websites that have publically published online. Students can avoid this error by carefully keeping track of what source is responsible for what information and included this information in the gathering of research phase as well as the drafting of the rough draft phase of writing. Students need to be diligent to habitually place the citation either in the text or in parenthesis afterward.

Forms of Plagiarism…
 * Blatant form of plagiarism: Obtaining and submitting as your own a paper written by someone else (MLA Handbook 2.3)
 * Repeating or Paraphrasing Wording (MLA Handbook 2.5)
 * Taking a Particularly Apt Phrase (MLA Handbook 2.5)
 * Paraphrasing an Argument or Presenting a Line of Thinking (MLA Handbook 2.5)
 * Reusing a Research Paper (MLA Handbook 2.7.1)
 * Collaborative Work (MLA Handbook 2.7.2)
 * Research on Human Subjects (MLA Handbook 2.7.3)
 * Copyright Infringement (MLA Handbook 2.7.4)


 * Please note that the key issue to consider is that the items used in the list above are plagiarized if they are “not properly cited within the paper and those citations do not “clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited” (MLA Handbook 214).

When is Documentation Needed then? When You...
 * directly quote a portion of the source (this includes words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, data, graphs, and images)
 * paraphrase or summarize part of the source (this includes concepts, arguments, data, graphs, and images)
 * utilize an idea or line of thought that somebody else came up with

When Documentation is not needed… Be aware that you do not need to cite common knowledge: material that you find again and again as you do your research or your readings. Diana Hacker in her Rules for Writers (New York: St. Martin’s P, 1988) spells out the policy:
 * As a rule, when you have seen certain facts repeatedly in your reading, you don’t need to cite them. On the other hand, when they have appeared in only one or two sources or when they are controversial, you should cite them. If a topic is new to you and you are not sure what is considered common knowledge or what facts are a matter of controversy, ask someone with expertise. When in doubt, cite the source. (388-89)
 * Always protect yourself. If you are not certain about whether or not the information you are using is common knowledge, cite it!