ENG 113: Composition I

 Plagiarism is the act of using words or ideas of another person without attributing them to their rightful author—presenting those borrowed words and ideas as if they are your own  Plagiarism is stealing  MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers Plagiarism is “intellectual theft” – taking someone else’s ideas, information, or expressions without acknowledgment Plagiarism is “fraud” – getting a better grade based on someone else’s work  Plagiarism can be:  Intentional  Unintentional/Accidental

 Anytime your put your name on something and claim it as your own work, borrowing without acknowledging is plagiarism  Part of writing honestly is distinguishing your ideas from the ideas of others  Always cite your sources When in doubt – cite!  Plagiarism can have severe consequences  F on an assignment, F in a course, disciplinary action, loss of trust, loss of reputation

COMMON ERRORHOW TO AVOID IT No source information is provided for borrowed material (including statistics) Always include full parenthetical documentation and a Works Cited list that make the source of your information clear to readers A source’s ideas are presented as if they are your own original ideas Keep track of the sources you consult, and always keep full source information with your sources. Never cut and paste material from an electronic source directly into your paper The boundaries of borrowed material are unclear Be sure to use an identifying tag before and parenthetical documentation after the material

COMMON ERRORHOW TO AVOID IT The language of the paraphrase or summary is still too close to the original Be careful to use original phrasing and syntax when you write summaries and paraphrases A friend’s or tutor’s words or ideas appear in your paper Any help you receive should be in the form of suggestions, not additions Material you wrote for another course is used in your paper Always get permission from both professors if you want to reuse work you did for another course, and be sure the material you use is substantially revised

 To avoid unintentional plagiarism, you must take control of your sources and maintain that control throughout the research and writing process  This means that you must keep track of all the material you use so that you know where you found each piece of material  As you take notes, be careful to distinguish your sources’ ideas from your own  As you draft your paper, be sure to :  Quote your sources’ words accurately (even punctuation must be reproduced exactly as it appears in the original) Do not quote out of context  Be sure to present the sources’ ideas accurately when you paraphrase or summarize  Include accurate and detailed documentation

 The Internet makes plagiarism easy  Cutting and pasting information directly from a source is tempting Never cut and paste material from sources directly into your paper  Inserting even a sentence or two from an Internet source into a paper without quotation marks and documentation is plagiarism  The same is true for visual materials (graph, chart, table, photograph) – you must cite the source

 Failure to acknowledge sources is plagiarism  Intentional plagiarism occurs when a student knowingly submits work containing the words, ideas, images, or other intellectual property of another person without acknowledging and citing the source of the material  Word-for-word copying = plagiarism  Copying and pasting = plagiarism  Rewording another person’s ideas without properly acknowledging the source = plagiarism  Handing in another student’s paper or buying a paper from an internet site = plagiarism

 Unintentional plagiarism occurs when:  A researcher is sloppy about note-taking and paraphrasing Even a single phrase or word group taken word-for- word needs quotation marks and a citation  A researcher fails to distinguish opinion found in a source from common knowledge or common facts  Accidental plagiarism is serious and results in the same penalties  Be careful to properly acknowledge and cite your sources

 Documentation is the practice of identifying borrowed material and giving the proper bibliographic information for each source  In English, we use the Modern Language Association documentation style  Be sure to check with your professor since other classes might use different styles such as Chicago Manual of Style or American Psychological Association

 Always document:  Quotations from a source  Summaries or paraphrases of a source’s original ideas  Opinions, judgments, and conclusions that are not your own  Statistics from a source  Visuals from a source  Data from charts or graphs in a source

 The following kinds of information do not require documentation:  Common Knowledge Common Knowledge is factual information that can be found in several different sources A writer’s date of birth A scientific fact The location of a famous battle Familiar quotations that you expect your readers will recognize To be or not to be = Shakespeare Your own original opinions, judgments, and conclusions  When in doubt: Cite a source!  Just because you are familiar with a piece of information or quote, does not means that your reader will be – therefore, do not just assume that a “fact” is common knowledge or a quote is well known, verify that it is or cite a source

 In your research, you may find sources whose ideas match your own  Since you came up with the idea on your own, before encountering the same thought in your research, do you need to cite the source?  Yes – if you do not cite the source, you take the chance of having your reader think that you plagiarized the idea  While you do not need to check to make sure that all of your ideas are unique, a good rule of thumb is that if you encounter your idea in a source, you should acknowledge the source  This also strengthens your case by: Showing that you are not alone – others share your idea Borrowing the ethos of an expert

 It is not necessary to put quotation marks around common words and phrases  For example, patriotism or Secretary of State  When a single word expresses a writer’s opinion or judgment, it should be placed in quotation marks and cited  The word is no longer common, but is significant  Example:  Steven L. Carter, Civility: “As for the automobile itself, it seems an almost diabolical tool, in the traditional sense of the word—a thing of the devil, made to bring out the worst in us”  Used in a paper: Under the cover of anonymity within their cars, driers become not just uncivil, but as Steven Carter puts it, even “diabolical” once behind the wheel (7)

 As you revise your papers, make sure that you have not accidentally committed plagiarism  Some guidelines 1. Be sure that you have identified your source and provided appropriate documentation 2. Be sure you have placed quotation marks around borrowed words Even if material includes parenthetical documentation, if there are words that were taken exactly from a source but are not placed in quotation marks, it is plagiarism 3. Be sure that you have identified the boundaries of borrowed material Identifying tags 4. Be sure you have used your own phrasing and syntax

 Insert quotation marks where they are needed  Edit paraphrased or summarized material if necessary so that the syntax and phrasing are not too close to those of the source  Add parenthetical documentation where necessary to acknowledge the use of source’s words or original ideas  Add identifying tags where necessary to clarify the scope of the borrowed material or to differentiate material from multiple sources  Check every quoted passage to make sure that it adds something vital to the paragraph. If it does not, summarize or paraphrase the source’s words instead

Academic Integrity Students are expected to observe Christian principles at all times. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to: Fraud (copying, misrepresentation, fictionalized accounts, and unauthorized collaborations); Plagiarism (word for word, lifting and quilting, and quoting or paraphrasing without a source). Cheating, defined as any act of fraud or plagiarism, is unethical, immoral, and not tolerated. Penalties may include an F on the assignment, a failing grade for the course, or further disciplinary action.