P LAGIARISM Why not make it your own? Seriously!

F ORMS OF P LAGIARISM  Borrowing' a friend's paper & copying their sentences, paragraphs, etc.  Downloading a paper from the Internet & turning it in as your own  Not citing your source or telling where you got your information  Copying passages from a source without giving credit to the author  Retaining too much of the wording and style of the original in paraphrasing/summarizing Examples: Changing a word or words within a sentence. Changing the sentence structure Using entire phrases from another source as your own. Combining someone else’s sentences into one sentence or breaking one sentence into two or more sentences. Omitting a word or phrase but keeping the original content.

E XAMPLES OF P LAGIARISM Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's eponymous debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer- songwriter who was raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. At age fourteen, she moved to Nashville to pursue a career in country. She committed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's eponymous debut album in 2006 established her as a country music superstar. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest person to single- handedly write and perform a number one song on the country chart, and she won a Best New Artist nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Original text from wikipedia Example of an unacceptable paraphrase that is plagiarism

W HY W AS THIS CONSIDERED PLAGIARISM ? Three Reasons: The writer has only changed around a few words and phrases, periodically omitted a word/phrase, or changed the order of the original’s sentences. The writer has failed to cite a source for any of the ideas or facts. The sentences have just been combined or broken apart.

H ERE IS HOW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE. Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's eponymous debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Taylor Swift is one of the most successful musical artists of all time, yet she is still very young. She was born in 1989 in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Her musical career began fourteen years later when she moved to Nashville, Tennessee and signed with the label Big Machine Records. Her first album was released in 2006, and she has been a success ever since. The music industry also considers her a success; she won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best New Artist (wikipedia.com). Original text from An acceptable paraphrase

W HY IS THIS CONSIDERED ACCEPTABLE ? Three reasons: Accurately states the information from the original document Writer uses his/her own words Lets his/her reader know the source of their information

A FEW THINGS THAT CAN HELP YOU MAKE IT YOUR OWN. When you are reading an article or book that you are assigned to summarize you should do the following: Highlight or underline the facts you want to use and rewrite them in your own words Make sure that you cite information that you have taken from original text (give the author, title of the article, website address, etc.)