Transcript Plagiarism
CM220
Unit 5 Seminar
Citing your sources: Paraphrasing, Quotations, and
Summarizing
Plagiarism: What it is and how to avoid it
Seminar Discussion Questions: Plagiarism & Practicing
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing: using your own writing style, distinctive
word choices, and sentence structure to capture the idea
of the source.
Change the form of the original quotation, using different words and
word order, without in any way changing the meaning.
Try not to use any of the words in the original except for names,
places, or necessary technical terms.
If you must use some of the words from the original source, put
quotation marks around them even if you’re using no more than a
phrase or a distinctive word.
Passages that are paraphrased must still be cited with both
a parenthetical citation and an entry on the reference page.
Even though the idea is written in your own words, the idea still
belongs to the original writer and credit must be given.
Summarizing
A summary is a shortened version of a text or passage.
Only the main ideas and essential information are noted, while
supporting details like examples and illustrations are eliminated.
Because only the essential information is stated, a summarized
passage is not given as much importance as paraphrased text.
Unlike a paraphrase, which is more or less the same length as the
original, a summary is always shorter than the original.
Quotations
Direct quotations are
appropriate in three instances:
1.
Dialogue: these words were actually spoken by someone.
2.
Incredibly well-worded passages: the wording is so
perfect that it cannot possibly be improved upon.
3.
Critique: showing what the original author said exactly so
that it can be criticized.
Quote or Paraphrase?
Generally, quote very little. Quotations should be saved for
special occasions, for quotes that are perfect the way they are ("Ask
not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for
your country"), or for information that is so important to your paper
that you need the extra credibility a quotation provides.
Paraphrase most of the time, especially for factual information
and for information that can be stated more briefly or more clearly
in your own words.
Paraphrasing Examples
Using a direct quote: According to Charles Panati (1987), "the words
'Mary had a little lamb,' spoken by Thomas Edison on November 20,
1877, into his latest invention, the phonograph, were the first words of
recorded human speech" (p.193).
Paraphrase #1: Thomas Edison, testing his new invention, recorded
the words "Mary had a little lamb," making this poem the first
recording of the human voice (Panati, 1987).
Paraphrase #2: According to Charles Panati (1987), Thomas Edison,
testing his new invention, recorded the words "Mary had a little lamb,"
making this poem the first recording of the human voice.
Plagiarism
In essence, plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s ideas and work.
Whether a student copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of
another without properly acknowledging the source, it is still
plagiarism.
Plagiarism can happen inadvertently because of careless note taking as
well.
Copying documentation from another student or from any other source
without proper citation is a form of academic dishonesty, as is
producing work substantially from the work of another.
Citing your sources carefully and correctly – using paraphrasing,
quotation, and summarizing – will help you to avoid plagiarism.
PREWRITING
Brainstorming/Listing
Bubbling/Clustering
Questioning
Freewriting
Boomerang
Outlining
Unit 5 Seminar Discussion Question #1
1.
What incidents of plagiarism have you witnessed in school or on the
job? How have you responded to these incidents? How have others?
Have you ever been taught what does and does not constitute
plagiarism?
Unit 5 Seminar Discussion Question #2
2.
Practice paraphrasing the following. Remember, paraphrases keep the
same ideas as the original, but put them in your own words. They also
need in-text citation (last name, year).
Here's the original, written by Michael Devries in 2001: “Violent movies
don't create criminals: criminals are drawn to violent movies.”
Here's the original, written by Alex Hall in 1999: “The Mercator
projection, while the most common way to draw a map of the world,
distorts many of its features. For example, Africa and Greenland appear
to be the same size on it, but Africa is actually fourteen times larger.”