Quoting Text Evidence Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using somebody else’s work or ideas without giving them proper credit. Plagiarism is a serious problem for a few reasons. First, plagiarism is like stealing an idea. Ideas and writing are forms of intellectual property. Intellectual property is protected by law just like objects that somebody owns. Next, when your teacher gives you an assignment, they want to see how you think about and synthesize information and ideas. When you plagiarize, your teacher isn’t able to see that. Finally, plagiarism compromises your academic integrity. This is the honor that you have in your work and the trust between you and your teacher and community.

Plagiarism is a problem because it

• is stealing intellectual property. all of the above

• prevents your teacher from seeing what you’ve learned.

• damages the trust between you and your academic community.

• all of the above

You know that quotes and facts from many sources help strengthen your argument. To use a quote, you must set it off in quotation marks and then cite the source. One very common type of plagiarism happens when a writer fails to put the quotation marks around quotations or to cite them properly. This could mean copying a sentence or whole paragraph from a book or online article and putting it into your paper without setting it off from the rest of the text. It could also mean using quotation marks but not saying where the quote came from. When you don’t put a sentence in quotation marks or include a citation, you are telling the reader that the sentence is yours. To avoid this type of plagiarism, make sure that any quote includes quotation marks and is cited properly. Citations often appear in parentheses after a quotation.

Which of the following sentences includes a properly formatted quote and citation?

• The framers said they wrote it to improve the union.

• The framer said they wrote it in order to “form a more perfect union.”

• The framers of the Constitution wrote it in order to form a more perfect union (US Constitution, preamble).

• The framers of the Constitution said they wrote it in order to “form a more perfect union” (US Constitution, preamble).

Paraphrasing is when you put an idea from a source into your own words. Sometimes you may read something in a source that is important, but you don’t want to put it into your paper as a direct quote. So you rewrite the passage in your own words. That’s perfectly fine, as long as you are careful about citations.

If the information you are paraphrasing is common knowledge, or known by most people, you don’t need to cite the source. But if the information is not common knowledge, you must cite it. Even if the words are your own because you’ve paraphrased, the idea is not. How do you know what ideas are common knowledge and what ideas are original? It can be tricky. Facts that are common knowledge are easy to verify and can be found in multiple sources. A single author’s original research, image or argument is not common knowledge. If you’re unsure whether or not to cite, cite!

Read the following passage from “A Short Walk Around the Pyramids & Through the World of Art” by Philip M. Isaacson:

This is a place called Saqqara. It is on the edge of a great desert an hour’s drive from Cairo. You could reach it by camel, but that would take much longer. As you approach Saqqara, a line of walls and a strange pyramid rise from the sand like a golden mirage. But they are not a mirage. They are among the oldest works of art in the world. They were built more than 4,600 years ago by an Egyptian king with a wonderful imagination. His name was Zoser.

Which of the following sentences plagiarize from Isaacson?

• When you first see the walls and pyramid at Saqqara, you may think they are a mirage. But they are not.

• The great pyramid of Saqqara was built by the Egyptian king Zoser.

• The pyramid at Saqqara was built over 4,600 years ago.

• Saqqara is about an hour outside of Cairo.

There is another form of plagiarism that does not happen accidentally. This occurs when a student knowingly uses somebody else’s work and does not cite it. This could be copying sections from internet articles or copying whole articles and handing them in as one’s own. It could be turning in a paper a friend wrote last year or paying somebody else to write a paper. It can even be a student turning in a paper they themselves wrote for a different class. This is called self-plagiarism.

Plagiarism a very serious offense. Your school has its own policy on how to deal with plagiarism, so it is best to check with your teacher and your school about the specifics. Consequences often include failing the assignment, failing the class, getting put on academic probation or even being expelled from school.

Which of the following is an example of self-plagiarism?

• Derrick buys a paper off the internet and puts his own name on it before turning it in.

• Jackson copies whole paragraphs out of an online article and pastes them into his paper.

• Sophie wrote a paper on Thomas Jefferson for Civics last year, and she turns it in again for US History this year.

• Louisa forgot to write her English paper, so she asks her friend who took the class before if she can turn in a paper that he wrote.

When you use many sources, it can be possible to plagiarize by accident. Avoiding plagiarism begins in your research process. First, make sure to start your research early. That way you have plenty of time to organize your sources and you will not be tempted to rush and take shortcuts.

Next, make sure you always write down where information comes from. If you quote a source directly in your notes, make sure you put quotation marks around the quote. That way you won’t forget that it’s a quote later. If you need to paraphrase a source, first read the material and then paraphrase it without looking at the text. That way you won’t be distracted by the author’s word choice and sentence structure. Then cite the source. Remember the golden rule of citation: if you’re not sure if something needs to be cited, cite it!

Which student will most likely avoid plagiarizing by accident?

• Andrew waits until the night before the paper is due to begin researching. .

• Sandra can’t decide if what she wrote needs to be cited, so she doesn’t cite it.

• Shana writes down a few quotes from the article she is reading but doesn’t write down which article they came from.

• Before Karim shuts the book he is reading and paraphrases the author’s point, he writes down the author, title and page number