How Not to Plagiarize For more information visit the CSU Writing Center Woodall Hall 116

What is the purpose of a research paper? A good research paper starts with a provocative question – something you need to find the answer to. In piecing together the answer in writing, the researcher asserts himself and constructs a “conversation” among the various sources.

What is plagiarism? Plagiarism occurs when a student opts out of the “conversation” by pretending to be someone she is not. Like a ventriloquist’s doll, the plagiarizing student ends up chattering words she does not understand. Needless to say, the plagiarizing student does not capitalize on the learning that research is meant to stimulate.

What makes an instructor suspect that YOU plagiarized? What is the literary canon and why should minorities and women be included in the literary canon? In this short research paper I will answer this question, focusing primarily on why minorities and women should be included in the literary canon. First of all, what exactly is a literary canon? A literary canon, according to Henry Louis gates, Jr., “is often represented as the essence of the traditional textbooks, the connections between the texts of the canon is meant to reveal the tradition’s logic and ins internal rationale (Gates 101).” The literary canon is not self-evident, absolute, or neutral. Scholars make canons, but that is not to say that women and minorities are not scholars and that they do not belong in the canon. Women and minorities make canons, too, both by critical revaluation and by revision. The history of the idea behind the “canon” involves the history of literary pedagogy and of the institution of the school. Once we understand how literary canon’s arose, we no longer see them as objects of unidentifiable history. A function of the literary canon is to provide people, specifically younger ones, with historic books of the past. Some very famous canonical authors include: Mark Twain –William Shakespeare, who wrote “Hamlet,” and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote “Scarlet Letter.”

What three techniques can you use to include sources in your research? Quote Copy the source sentence or passage word for word and put quotation marks around it. Summarize Focusing on a passage of several paragraphs to several pages, pick out the main ideas and place them in a coherent paragraph. Paraphrase Focusing on a short passage of up to several sentences, restate the main points and the details in a coherent whole.

How can you be sure you have not plagiarized a quotation? Having copied the words exactly, you have remembered to place them in quotation marks. You have provided a signal phrase and parenthetical citation. WRONG: The literary canon is not self-evident, absolute, or neutral. RIGHT: As many scholars have shown, “The literary canon is not self-evident, absolute, or neutral” (Gates, 1998).

How can you be sure you have not plagiarized a summary or paraphrase? You have translated the source into your own words. You have translated the source into your own sentence structure. You have provided a signal phrase and parenthetical citation. ORIGINAL: Every decision a researcher makes depends first and foremost on the question the researcher is asking. WRONG: All conclusions a researcher draws depend first and always on the question the scientist asks. RIGHT: Researchers refer to the question they pose when determining the best research methods (Heiman, 2002).

Why should you go to all this bother when you could simply quote everything? From the reader’s perspective, it is tedious at best to read a “patchwork quilt” of quotes. From the writer’s perspective, translating a source’s ideas into your own words and sentence structure results in your comprehending and retaining more. Quote sentences that are so uniquely or technically worded that you would lose something in the translation if you paraphrased. Otherwise, use summary and paraphrase to present your sources.

What should you do if you are still confused? The trained writing consultants in the CSU Writing Center can help you with any additional questions you might have. Stop by and visit us in Woodall Hall! Monday-Thursday10:00-6:00 Friday10:00-2:00 Or submit your essays online at langlit.colstate.edu/writingcenter