How To Avoid Plagiarism OCHS ENGLISH DEPT

Joseph Trimmer, A GUIDE TO MLA DOCUMENTATION

What is plagiarism?

• Theft• Using someone else’s words or

ideas without giving proper credit (or no credit)• Intentional or unintentional • Serious offense (HS & college)

How to AVOID doing it… (1)

Document a source whenever you:- Use a direct quotation- Summarize or paraphrase a passage - Copy a table, chart, or other diagram- Construct a table from data provided by others- Present specific examples, figures, or facts that

you’ve taken from a specific source used to explain or support your judgments

How to AVOID doing it… (2)

• Take notes CAREFULLY, making sure you identify quotations in your note cards or electronic files (be sure to note source!)• Formulate and develop your own

ideas, using your sources to support rather than replace your own work

The Contradictions of American Academic WritingShow you have done your research---But--- Write something new and original

Appeal to experts and authorities---But--- Improve upon, or disagree with experts and authorities

Improve your English by mimicking what you hear and read---But--- Use your own words, your own voice

Give credit where credit is due---But--- Make your own significant contribution

ACTIONS that may be seen as PLAGIARISM

• Buying, stealing, or borrowing a paper • Hiring someone to write your paper• Building on someone else’s ideas without

citation • Using the source’s words too closely when

paraphrasing • Copying from another source without

paraphrasing (on purpose or accidentally)

Need to Document • When you are using or referring to somebody else’s

words or ideas from a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium

• When you use information gained through interviewing another person

• When you copy the exact words or a "unique phrase" from somewhere

• When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, and pictures

• When you use ideas that others have given you in conversations or over email

No Need to Document • When you are writing your own experiences,

your own observations, your own insights, your own thoughts, your own conclusions about a subject

• When you are using "common knowledge" — folklore, common sense observations, shared information within your field of study or cultural group

• When you are compiling generally accepted facts• When you are writing up your own experimental

results

Deciding if Something is "Common Knowledge"

Material is probably common knowledge if . . • You find the same information

undocumented in SEVERAL other sources• You think it is information that your readers

will already know• You think a person could easily find the

information with general reference sources

DocumentingConaway, James. The Smithsonian.

New York: Knopf Publishing, 1995. Print.

DuPree, David. "Top Crop of Free Agents Ripe for Picking." USA Today. 9 July 9 1996: 3C. Print.

"I Spy a '98 Corvette." CQ Researcher. 15 July 1996. www.spycorvette.com.

Patterson, William and Betty White. "Learning by Numbers." 10 July 2002. Web. 21 January 2008. http://www.teachnlearn.org/num_learn/htm.

(Conaway #)

(DuPree #)

(“I Spy a ‘98 Corvette”)

(Patterson and White)

Many students may wonder how the lecture originated. At first,

no professors lectured at all, but instead used more primitive ways of

encouraging learning. Renaissance Spaniards, ever eager to enlighten

their students, found devices such as the rack, hot iron, and thumbscrews

to be effective motivation for their pupils (Torquemada 72). It worked so

well that 95% of the population accepted instruction (Wheeler 319).

These early techniques of settling debates and instilling

knowledge were indeed effective, but required a large volume of space in

each classroom. Professor John De Sade reveals that "early compromises

such as teaching composition in dungeons proved inefficient.“ He also

notes that the janitor's guild complained about the time it took to clean

up the mess after each lesson.

Professor J. Dahlmer at the Institute for Advanced Psychological Study suggests

more modern techniques are necessary:

Many students complain that lectures bore them. Who

wants to learn about enthymemes, syllogisms, and

persuasive argumentation? Let the administration plant

land-mines and trapdoors in the halls. . . . Teachers

could install electrical shock devices to randomly "zap"

students at their desks. This innovation would not only

keep students awake and alert, but it would also

entertain the students' classmates for hours on end. (18)

This suggestion has gained popularity with other persons of substance. The celebrity

Charles Manson said in an interview with reporters, "I know that some backward

humanists oppose this idea in general, but I find the suggestion delightful. Why stop

there? Let's incorporate guillotines as well" ("Charles in Charge"). Certainly, such

items are becoming cheaper as the latest Gulf War winds down.

• According to Mark Twain in Roughing It ,the rider for the pony express was usually a little bit of a man, brimful of spirit and endurance. Guilty

• According to Mark Twain in Roughing It, “the rider for the pony express was usually a little bit of a man, brimful of spirit and endurance”(52). OK!

• The pony express rider's horse wore a little wafer of a racing-saddle and no visible blanket (Twain 53). Guilty

• The pony express rider's horse “wore a little wafer of a racing-saddle and no visible blanket”(Twain 53). OK!

• The rider traveled two-hundred and fifty miles a day, ten miles per horse. Guilty

• The rider traveled two-hundred and fifty miles a day, ten miles per horse (Twain 53). OK!