Transcript What is Plagiarism? Who Cares? Dr. Wendy Sharer Department of English 11/7/2015 Key Terms • Plagiarism • Source • Citation • Common Knowledge 11/7/2015

What is Plagiarism?
Who Cares?
Dr. Wendy Sharer
Department of English
11/7/2015
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Key Terms
• Plagiarism
• Source
• Citation
• Common Knowledge
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What is Plagiarism?
“Copying the language, structure, ideas
and/or thoughts of another and adopting
the same as one’s own original work.”
-From the Student Handbook online
http://www.ecu.edu/studenthandbook/policies.htm
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What is a “source”?
Any person or text (online, print, broadcast, etc.) from
which you get information that you use in your
writing.
– A friend/coworker you interview
– A website you find through Google
– A comment made by someone else in a chatroom
– A newspaper or magazine article (online or in
print)
– An article from a scholarly journal (online or in
print)
– A television show
– Etc.
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What does “citation” mean?
 Citation, in this context, simply means clearly
giving credit where credit is due.
 Proper citation involves clearly indicating
– the author, title, and publication information for the print,
online, broadcast, and interview-based texts that you use
(Include a Bibliography, Works Cited, or References
section)
– which words and ideas come from which sources (Include
in-text citations or footnote/endnote notations)
– when you are moving from your own words and ideas to the
words and/or ideas of another (Include source writer’s name
and signal phrase)
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What is “Common Knowledge”?
• A well-known fact.
• Information that is likely to appear in numerous
sources and to be familiar to large numbers of
people.
• This is the only time you do not need to cite
information, provided that you do not copy that
information word-for-word from a source.
• If you are not sure if the information you want to
use meets these definitions, cite it.
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Examples of Statements that are
Common Knowledge
• Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated
on April 4, 1968.
• East Carolina University is located in
Greenville, NC and is part of the UNC
system.
• Smoking can cause respiratory diseases
such as emphysema and cancer.
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Examples of Statements that are
NOT Common Knowledge
• The family of Martin Luther King, Jr. retained the same
attorney as his accused assassin, James Earl Ray, because
they do not believe that Ray had anything to do with
King’s death.
• ECU enrolled 16,958 full-time undergraduate students in
fall 2007 and 17,815 in fall 2008.
• Smoking accounts for 85% of all emphysema deaths in
the United States.
• In rare cases, nonsmokers who lack a protein called
alpha-1 antitrypsin can develop emphysema.
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Why is citing sources such a
big deal?
1. Source Writer’s Perspective: The
perspective of someone whose words
and/or ideas are being used by someone
else
2. Source User’s Perspective: The
perspective of someone who uses the
words and/or ideas from a source
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Source Writer’s
Perspective
It is important that others cite my
words and ideas so that
1.
2.
3.
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My work can have a broader
impact and can lead to further
research and the advancement
of knowledge
Other people will know where
to go to get more information
I will get the credit
(intellectually and, sometimes,
financially) and recognition I
deserve
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Source User’s Perspective
• To give credit where it is due
• To show that research has
been done and to build
credibility
• To help readers identify what
else they might wish to read
(“research trail”)
• To demonstrate the relevance
and importance of the topic
being addressed.
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Why do people plagiarize?
• They don’t know why it is important to cite their sources
• They lack confidence in their own ideas and writing
abilities
• They cannot figure out how to respond to the writing
assignment/task
• They have never used and are intimidated by handbooks
that explain citation styles (MLA*, APA**, CBE***,
etc.)
*=Modern Language Association
**= American Psychological Association
***= Council of Biology Editors
• They have procrastinated too long
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Motivations for Plagiarism
1. Conscious Plagiarism
2. Unintentional Plagiarism
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Type 1: Conscious Plagiarism
The deliberate misrepresentation of someone
else’s material as one’s own. This form of
plagiarism is subject to the most severe academic
punishment. Don’t do it.
Examples
• Submitting an essay purchased from a term paper
service
• Intentionally copying another student’s work
• Having someone else write your paper for you
• Claiming copied material in your paper as your
own
Type 2: Unintentional Plagiarism
1. Failing, accidentally, to provide sufficient
information about a source from which you
have used language and/or ideas
2. Failing, accidentally, to clearly differentiate
between your words and ideas and the words
and ideas that you get from other sources
3. Making errors in the placement and use of
quotation marks
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Types of Plagiarism
1. Wholesale
2. Patchwork
3. Idea-based
4.Sprinkle
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TYPE 1: Wholesale Plagiarism
• Copying an entire
source or a large
section of a source
and passing it off
as one’s own work.
TYPE 2: Patchwork Plagiarism
• Copying portions of
multiple sources,
connecting them
together, and
submitting the
resulting document as
one’s own work.
Idea-based Plagiarism
• Presenting someone
else’s unique
interpretation, theory,
or analysis as one’s
own.
• This constitutes
plagiarism even if the
wording has been
changed.
Sprinkle Plagiarism
• Occasional failure to
cite properly through
missing information,
errors in punctuation,
etc.
• Often unintentional.
Paraphrase
• What is a paraphrase?
In a paraphrase, your goal is to rewrite a
statement into different words and with a
different sentence structure without losing the
original meaning of the text and while
maintaining the same general length as the
original.
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Paraphrasing Properly
• Using phrases directly from the source without putting
them in quotation marks constitutes plagiarism.
• Following the same sentence structure while changing only
a few words also constitutes plagiarism.
Original From Lester, James D. Writing
Poor Paraphrase
Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
“Students frequently overuse direct quotation in
taking notes, and as a result they overuse
quotations in the final paper. Probably only about
10% of your final manuscript should appear as
directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should
strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of
source materials while taking notes” (Lester 46).
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Students often use too many direct quotations
when they take notes, resulting in too many of
them in the final research paper. In fact, probably
only about 10% of the final copy should consist
of directly quoted material. So it is important to
limit the amount of source material copied while
taking notes (Lester 46).
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Paraphrasing Properly
Original From Lester, James D. Writing
Good Paraphrase
Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
“Students frequently overuse direct
quotation in taking notes, and as a
result they overuse quotations in the
final paper. Probably only about
10% of your final manuscript should
appear as directly quoted matter.
Therefore, you should strive to limit
the amount of exact transcribing of
source materials while taking notes”
(Lester 46).
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In research papers students often
quote excessively, failing to keep
quoted material down to a desirable
level. Since the problem usually
originates during note taking, it is
essential to minimize the material
recorded verbatim (Lester 46).
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Signal Phrases
• A Signal Phrase is a word or group of words that
let your reader know when words and ideas in
your writing come from another source.
Example (signal phrases indicated in red):
In her “Preface” to Country Life Readers: Book One, Cora
Wilson Stewart argues that textbooks in the early part of the
century had been “prepared strictly for immigrants and city
dwellers,” while native-born mountain dwellers had no texts to
reflect their own experiences. In response, she explains, “The
people attending these schools demand textbooks which deal with
the problems of rural life and which reflect rural life” (Country
3).
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Some Signal Phrases
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Acknowledges
Comments
Reasons
Adds
Compares
Refutes
Admits
Confirms
Illustrates
Agrees
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Reports
Argues
Notes
Suggests
Observes
Thinks
Claims
Emphasizes
Points out
Writes
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When do I need to worry about
plagiarism?
• You should avoid
plagiarizing in all of your
assignments, in all of
your classes.
• Plagiarism is not just
something your English
teacher cares about—it is
something that all
instructors in all
disciplines care about.
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Tips for Avoiding Conscious Plagiarism
• Do not procrastinate—start early!
• If the assignment allows for some
freedom, find a subject that actually
interests you
• Use prewriting strategies
(Brainstorming, free-writing,
clustering) to generate YOUR ideas
on the subject BEFORE you start
reading about what others say.
• Realize how easy it is for a teacher
to discover a plagiarized paper
• Realize the severity of the
consequences
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Tips for Avoiding Unintentional Plagiarism
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Do not procrastinate—start early!
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Use prewriting strategies
•
Take careful notes & follow a structured note-taking procedure.
•
Be very careful copying and pasting from online/electronic sources!
•
Indicate clearly in your notes where different ideas come from (try colorcoding things you copy or paraphrase from different sources or use some
form of margin notations, such as “M” for “my thoughts” and “S1” for “source
#1,” etc.).
•
Indicate clearly which ideas are your ideas and which ideas come from
another source
•
Save draft versions of your writing as you proceed so that if you accidentally
delete a citation while revising, you can go back and get it.
•
Befriend a citation handbook
•
Don’t forget the quotation marks & the parenthetical references!
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University Resources
• First-Year Writing
Studio
– ENGL 1100 & 1200
– Bate 2005
– 328-6399
• University Writing
Center
– All other courses
– Joyner Library, 1st Floor
– 328-2820
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