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Plagiarism and Citations

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What is Plagiarism?

PLAGIARISM IS TAKING SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK AND CALLING IT YOUR OWN. THIS CAN REFER TO WEBSITES, BOOKS, SONGS, FILMS/TELEVISION SHOWS, EMAILS, INTERVIEWS, ARTICLES, ARTWORK, AND GROUP WORK.

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Plagiarism and How to Avoid It

The Bad News

  • Plagiarism is a serious offense in college
  • Failing grade for the paper
  • Failing grade for the class
  • Bad mark on your permanent record
  • Suspension

The Good News

  • Plagiarism is avoidable
  • Understanding of plagiarism
  • Understanding of citations
  • Ask questions!
  • When in doubt, cite!

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Examples of Plagiarism

  • Turning in someone else's work as your own.
  • Copying large pieces of text from a source without citing that source.
  • Taking passages from multiple sources, piecing them together, and turning in the work as your own.
  • Copying from a source but changing a few words and phrases to disguise plagiarism.
  • Paraphrasing from a number of different sources without citing those sources.
  • Turning in work that you did for another class
  • Buying an essay or paper and turning it in as your own work.
  •  Mentioning an author or source within your paper without including a full citation in your bibliography.
  • Citing a source with inaccurate information, making it impossible to find that source.
  • Using a direct quote from a source, citing that source, but failing to put quotation marks around the copied text.
  • Paraphrasing from multiple cited sources without including any original work.

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https://resources.library.lemoyne.edu/guides/academicintegrity/example-plagiarism

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Proper Citations Help to Avoid Plagiarism

  • Refer to the Purdue OWL
  • https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html

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Proper APA Citation

  • With DOI
  • Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Vol.(Issue), page numbers. DOI
  • Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Development and validation of the active empathetic listening scale. Psychology & Marketing, 23(2), 161- 180. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20105
  • Without DOI (use URL)

Denny, H., Nordlof, J., & Salem, L. (2018). Tell me exactly what it was that I was doing that was so bad": Understanding the needs and expectations of working-class students in writing centers. Writing Center Journal, 37(1), 67–98. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26537363

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Paraphrasing and Summarizing

What Is Paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is taking information from an article and writing it in your own words. When paraphrasing, the length of the paragraph should stay the same or similar. This does not mean changing a few words in the paragraph and calling it your own.

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What is Summarizing?

Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing, but the paragraph must be condensed to a just a few lines.

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Proper Paraphrase Citation

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html

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Common Knowledge

  • Common Knowledge means information that the general public knows to be true without having to look it up

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Examples:

  • Capitals and States
  • Temperature that water freezes/boils
  • Names of famous people or events in nation’s history that are remembered and celebrated

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Citing Graphs/Tables

  • Number all tables when citing (Table 1, Table 2, etc.)
  • Each table must have a title written in italicized
  • Provide a note that explains the table

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Citing an Image

  • Basic Format:
  • Author. (Year). Title of Image [format]. Website. URL.
  • Example:
  • AKC. (n.d.). Labrador Retriever Dog Breed Information [Photograph]. American Kennel Club. https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/labrador-retriever/

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Plagiarism Tutorial/More Information

  • https://lib.usm.edu/plagiarism_tutorial/
  • More on Library Resources Canvas Course
  • Writing Lab (make an appointment on WCONLINE)
  • Page 20-22 of the Academic Catalog (Academic Integrity)

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Let’s Practice!

  • Scenario 4: Your professor assigns you to do a PowerPoint presentation on the life cycle of a frog. While doing your research, you find a great graphic of the life cycle to include in your presentation. You copy and paste this graphic onto your slide and continue finishing you’re your PowerPoint slides. When your slides are finished, you hand the presentation in to your professor.
  • Question: What did the student miss in their slides? How can they fix it?

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Let’s Practice!

  • Scenario 5: A student is writing a research paper on the effects of owning a pet can increase your health. The student found the following paragraph in the article from Psychology Today:
  • What is it about having a pet? The researchers found pet owners benefited from companionship and “unconditional love” from pets. Pets were especially helpful for people living alone. In addition, people with pets made social connections with strangers out in public and were more likely to have positive interactions with family and friends.
  • The student transforms the paragraph to include it in their paper by writing the following:
  • What is it about having a pet? Researchers found owners of pets to benefit from the friendship and love from pets. Pets were helpful for secluded individuals. In addition, pet owners made connections with strangers socially in public and had more confident interactions with others (Jones, 2020, p. 16).
  • Question: Is this the correct way to paraphrase this paragraph? Why or why not?

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