Plagiarism portfolio

PLAGIARISM:

 What is it?

What are some examples of it? How can you avoid it? 

Erin Tanner, EDT 6005

As long as there have been scholars, poets, artists, and musicians who have created...

"Mona Lisa"Leonardo da Vinci

c. 1503-1519Oil on poplar

77 cm × 53 cm (30 in × 21 in)

Original: Musée du Louvre, Paris

...there have been other scholars, poets, artists, and musicians who have "borrowed." 

"L.H.O.O.Q."Marcel Duchamp

1919

Pencil on a reproduction of Mona Lisa, 19.7 x 12.4 cm

Original: New York, Mary Sisler Collection

 How familiar are you with the concept of plagiarism? 

Take the quiz!

See the next slide to find out if you were right...

ALL of the situations were examples of some form of plagiarism!

Are you surprised? 

Next, let's learn more about what plagiarism is, see some examples of it, and learn how to avoid it!

So what IS plagiarism, exactly?

Plagiarism is the act of presenting another's intellectual property

— words, thoughts, research, or artistic work — as one's own.

What are some things that could be plagiarized?

• prose (fiction or nonfiction writing)

• poems• songs (even parts of songs!)• equations• theories • even, in some cases, your OWN

writing!

Let's look at a few well-known examples of plagiarism...

An example of plagiarism from the music world, Part 1:

Should Nirvana have taken full credit for writing the melody of this song, "Come As You

Are," which was recorded in 1991?

Think you know the answer? Don't decide until you've seen

Part 2!

An example of plagiarism from the music world, Part 2:

Or should this band, Killing Joke, get the credit? This song, "Eighties," was recorded (as the title suggests) in 1984:

Wait - we're not done yet! Watch the video in Part 3 before you

make up your mind...

An example of plagiarism from the music world, Part 3:

Or did the melody originate with this band, The Damned? This song, "Life Goes On," was recorded in 1982:

Each of these songs is slightly different. Are there enough similarities to make a case for 

copyright violation (i.e., plagiarism)?

 The lawyers thought so!

The obvious plagiarism (copyright violation) between these three bands resulted in numerous lawsuits.  Litigation ceased only with the death of Kurt Cobain, lead singer and songwriter of Nirvana,

in 1994.

Next, let's look at an example of plagiarism from the literary world.

An example of plagiarism in academic nonfiction...

Stephen Ambrose, Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian and author of Band of Brothers (on which the HBO series of thesame name was based), faced a storm of controversy when itwas discovered that he had presented the work of other authors as his own.

Many people still disagree as to whether Ambrose's plagiarism was intentional or simply careless. A Jan. 10, 2002, segment of the NPR program "All Things Considered" featured a discussion of disputed passages from his work and an interview with a plagiarism expert.

Do you think Ambrose's plagiarism was intentional?Listen to the excerpt here.

These examples all involved alleged plagiarism from other sources. But did you

know...

...that it's possible to plagiarize from your own work?!

This is called self-plagiarism.  The APA Publication Manual says, "Just as researchers do not present the work of others as their own (plagiarism), they do not present their own previously published work as new scholarship (self-plagiarism)" (American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 16).  An example of this would be writing a paper for one class, then resubmitting the paper later for another class without mentioning that it's been graded before. One school or instructor may accept this, while another may not. ALWAYS ask your instructor if it is acceptable for you to reuse an old paper, even if parts of it are rewritten.

Now that you've learned what plagiarism is and have seen some examples, how can you

avoid plagiarism in your own work?

Avoiding plagiarism in your research and writing:

According to The American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010. p. 15:

"Researchers do not claim the words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit where credit is due."

The best defense against plagiarism is to take careful notes and cite the sources where you found your information. If

you're not sure, cite your source!This short video from Kevin deLaplante

of The Critical Thinking Academy clearly explains how to determine if something

needs to be cited:

So how do you go about "citing sources"? What does a citation look like? How do you

know what format to use? There are many different publication styles, and each has a distinct format for referencing. These formats are laid out in style manuals or handbooks. Some examples of publication style handbooks:

The Modern Language Association (MLA)

Handbook

The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook

The American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual

For the purpose of this tutorial, we're going to use the APA Publication Manual format.

Let's learn how to create an in-text citation.

The American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual

Creating an in-text citation in APA format:

The above is a direct quote (the exact same words in the exact same order as in the original text) from The Publication Manual of The American Psychological Association. To use this quote correctly in a paper, it would need an in-text citation after it to

show where it came from. This gives the reader enough information to find the source on the References page.

"Researchers do not claim the words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit where credit is due."

Next: What are the different parts of an APA in-text citation?

What information makes up an APA-style in-text citation? This is a quote from a book:

• Use quotation marks around any DIRECT QUOTE (the original author's exact words in the exact same order as they appeared in the source).

• In-text citations are enclosed by parentheses. Remember that the period at the end of the sentence goes OUTSIDE the second parenthesis!

 • The author's name is the first information to include. This may be the last name of a

person or persons (in the case of multiple authors) or the name of a company, organization, or government entity.  

 • Next, include the publication date of the work you are citing. 

 • With a DIRECT QUOTE, you must always include the page number, using the

abbreviation p. (for a quotation from a single page).

  "Researchers do not claim the words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit where credit is due" (American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 15).

In-text citations give the reader enough information to find the full entry on your References page.

This should be the last page of your research paper.    

In other style guides, a References page might be known as a Works Cited page or a Bibliography.

Next: How should you format the entries on a References page?

 This video explains how to format APA-style entries on a References page:

Next: Summary. What have we covered in this tutorial?

What have we covered in this tutorial?• Plagiarism is the act of presenting another's intellectual property — words, thoughts,

research, or artistic work — as one's own. Even using the same organizational structure as another writer can be considered plagiarism.

 • Through examples, we've seen that plagiarism is a widespread problem; it can affect

anyone from rock stars to Pulitzer Prize-winning historians.  • It's possible to plagiarize from your own work. You should always ask for permission

from your instructor to reuse your own previously published data or an older paper you've written. 

 • An in-text citation shows your reader that you are using someone else's data. It is

made up of several different parts: the last name of the author or authors, the publication date, and (in the case of direct quotes) the page number. 

 • The in-text citation gives your reader enough information to find the full source entry

on your References page (usually the last page of your research paper).

Now let's see what you've learned!

Take the quiz!

Click on the link below to take a short quiz to test your knowledge about plagiarism.

Final words...

"Taking something from one man and making it worse is plagiarism." 

- George Moore