FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II

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INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITING

INSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield

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Plagiarism
 

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English 0990, 0110, 1010, and 1020

James Maxfield, Instructor

Handout: Avoiding Plagiarism in Research Papers and Essays

Plagiarism is a form a cheating (either intentional or unintentional) where the writer wrongfully uses or presents someone else’s words or ideas either without permission and/or without proper citation credit to that author or copyrighted entity. Citations for works cited must appear both in the text where the borrowing or quotation occurs and also in the works cited at the end of the paper. See MLA proper format for both.

You must acknowledge all of the sources for ideas that are not your own and for all supporting evidence from other sources.

Penalties for Plagiarism can vary from as little as a grade deduction and instructions to correct the faults, failing the paper, failing the course, and in the most extreme cases, suspension from all classes for the term or expulsion from the college.

Plagiarism comes in 4 primary forms:
bulletFailing to acknowledge your source of paraphrased information
bulletFailure to use quotation marks around a "key word" or "another’s words and phrases" obtained from another source or text
bulletFailure to credit another writer with an idea that you used in your paper
bulletFailure to inform your instructor if you are using previous material from another class

Tips & Guidelines on How to Avoid Committing Plagiarism
bulletDo not use the author’s sentence structure and merely substitute synonyms for the author’s key words or phrases!
bulletYour sequence of ideas should be your own and not the same as the source, and be sure to credit and attribute the ideas (that are not your own) to the source author. This should also be done within your narrative as well as in your citation.
bulletUse your own words or paraphrase whenever possible. If you must use the author’s exact words or a key word or phrase, you must use quotation marks with proper MLA format and citation.
bulletIf you use a passage and change a few words, you must still quote and cite the entire passage.
bulletIf you add, omit, or change any words or phrases in the quotation, you must put your [additions, changes, or deletions in brackets] as show here.
bulletBe sure to end each instance of quoted material with a quotation mark to indicate where your material begins again.

Remember: All sources must be listed in Works Cited. This includes each book you use for your paper, including but not limited to:

bulletA separate listing for each short story that you discuss in your paper
bulletA listing for the Short Fiction book itself if you use information from one of the general sections written by the editor
bulletA listing for all secondary research sources (books, articles, etc.)
bulletA listing if you use a definition from a dictionary
bulletA listing of information obtained from your Handbook (See title of book)
bulletA listing if you use ideas obtained from class lectures, handouts, or from student workshops

(Students in English 1010 & 1020 only: Read/Skim and study citation examples in Handbook: pp. 563-621. In-text citations: see pp. 564-65.)

Other English sections will have different reference materials.

 

Send mail to james.maxfield@tri-c.edu with questions or comments about this web site.
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Last modified: 04/30/06