Plagiarism Exercise

PLAGIARISM EXERCISE COR 100, Fall 2001 Your Student Handbook calls plagiarism the "most subtle" and "hardest to understand" form of academic dishonesty. Essentially, it is the failure to acknowledge the sources of language and ideas not your own. In other words, if you use an expression, a phrase, or a sentence word for word or an idea that you got from somebody else without saying that it’s not your own, you’re committing plagiarism. We extend that to cover factual information beyond that generally known already. For instance, you don’t have to give a source for your information if you mention the fact that World War II took place from 1939-45. That’s a widely known fact. But if you say that World War II vets are dying in the United States at a rate of about 1,100 per day, you need to say where you got that information. There are two very good ways to avoid plagiarism. One is to use quotation marks and a full citation of the source of the quote you are using. (But don’t load your paper down with quotes. Professors hate that!) The other is to paraphrase the material you’re using, though you still have to give a citation of where you got the material. Let me give you a couple of examples. Here’s a direct quote describing plagiarism: "Plagiarism is easy to fall into. Because of your inexperience with your subject, it will be tempting to use the more sophisticated language of the [scholars whose work] you are reading. In most cases, their expertise will enable them to make their point clearly, and it is easy to get into the habit of using their words instead of your own." This comes from Jules R. Benjamin’s book A Student’s Guide to History (8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001) and the quote appears on page 108. If you use any of Benjamin’s expressions word for word, you have to put them into quotation marks and refer your reader to page 108 of his book. That’s simple enough. Let’s say you want to paraphrase his ideas about plagiarism, that is, to put them into your own words. You might say this: "As Jules Benjamin says in his book A Student’s Guide to History, students writing papers should use their own words whenever possible, rather than relying on those of the scholars whose works the students consult in their research." Then you would give your citation with the page number of the book. You could say pretty much the same thing without referring in the body of your paper to Benjamin’s book, but you still should cite it in your note or parenthetical reference. Benjamin goes on to say that if students fall into the plagiarism trap, it is usually set when they take their notes, not when they sit down to write the paper: "When taking notes, never copy the author’s words unless you intend to quote them in your paper. In that case, be sure to put very clear quotation marks on your note card at the beginning and end of each word-for-word passage. In all other instances, summarize the author’s ideas and information in your own words" (p. 109). Writers work very hard to produce the works we read and consult. Using their work without giving them credit is nothing more than theft. Not only can plagiarism cause problems for students, but it also can get professional writers into trouble, even professors! It also happens to be against the law.