Plagiarism A Worldwide Concern

What is plagiarism? Whether deliberate or inadvertent, plagiarism is a form of stealing.

“ ‘Plagiarism’ is defined as the appropriation of any other person’s work and the unacknowledged incorporation of that work in one’s own work offered for credit” Intentional or accidental—does not matter

How I Recognize Plagiarism! The BIG FOUR: Writing that differs markedly from student’s other written work Language too sophisticated for student Sentence structure too sophisticated for student Concepts, terminology, or applications beyond student’s previously demonstrated level of understanding

What does NOT have to be documented? The student’s own ideas, thoughts, and opinions “Common knowledge” Date of Declaration of Independence

What DOES have to be documented? Direct quotations (these should be copied exactly and enclosed in quotation marks) Statistics, amounts, graphs, etc. Unique opinions and interpretations made by others Paraphrases of information that are not common knowledge

A Paragraph of 50 words... Hey, I’ll take the original, pluck out some nice-sound phrases, add adjectives and change verbs, play with sentence structure! Is THIS plagiarism? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you “rework” passages that you have found  Write a paper after extensive research 

Paraphrasing is NOT Substituting synonyms for words in the source Rearranging the order of words in the source Just omitting some of the words in the source Using different words while keeping sentence structure and order of the source

Student Example Original: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.” New Version: “It was a dazzling April day, cold to be sure. The clocks struck thirteen. Winston Smith, in an effort to escape the nasty wind, nuzzled his chin into his coat and snuck through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though a cloud of smelly dust from tagged along with him.”

WHEN IN DOUBT…

DOCUMENT !!!

Consequences?  An obligation to make restitution or reimbursement  A suspension or termination of particular student privileges.  Reputation  Disciplinary probation.  Suspension from the college.  Expulsion from the college.

What happens at Faulkner? You will get a “0” for the assignment’ You will get reported to Mr. Ben Young, Director of the Military Education Program Consult your handbook for more information

Best Way Not To... Trust your own ideas...you are a smart cookie! Stay away from the Internet until you’ve got something down on the paper! Follow all rules established by the MLA When in doubt, document it with quotation marks and ( ) “As many experts suggest” OR “According to they say that...”

A Brave New World Out There In the age of technology it is easy to find information I encourage you to find this information and use it—when it is right Plagiarism filters such as Turnitin.com can find “problems with your writing” Trust in your voice