To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use the following:
· Another person’s idea, opinion or theory
· Any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings – any pieces of information – that are not common knowledge
· Quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words
· Paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words
To avoid plagiarism, you should also be familiar with the following terms:
Paraphrase: using someone’s ideas, but putting them in your own words. Although you use your own
words to paraphrase, you must still acknowledge the source of the information.
Summary: putting only the main ideas or main points into your own words. Although summaries are
significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material, you must still
acknowledge the source of the information.
Quotation: using someone’s exact words. When quoting, you must always put quotation marks around
the passage and you must still acknowledge the source of the information.
Common Knowledge: facts that can be found in numerous places and are likely to be known by a lot of
people. This is generally known information and you do not need to acknowledge the source. Example:
John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in 1960.
SOME EXAMPLES TO COMPARE
The original passage-
Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by night fall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum (From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee page 13).
An acceptable paraphrase- The town seemed old by the time Scout got there. The streets were unpaved and messy in the rain. The sidewalks had grass growing, and the main building on the square seemed to sag. Scout thinks that the weather seemed hotter back in those days based on the things she remembers (Lee 13).
An acceptable summary- The narrator of the novel, describes her town as being elderly by the time she was born. She describes the hot weather of the time in a series very descriptive phrases about dogs, mules, men, and women (Lee 13).
An acceptable use of a quote-
Scout remembers her town as a “tired old town” where in “rainy weather the streets turned to read slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square” (Lee 13).
An unacceptable plagiarized version-
Maycomb was a sleepy old town. When I first knew it, the streets turned to red slop when it rained, there was grass growing on the sidewalks, and the courthouse sagged. It was a lot hotter then. A dark colored dog suffered on a hot day; donkeys hitched to wagons swatted flies with their tails.
“Plagiarism: What It Is and How to Recognize and Avoid It.” ISS: Writing Tutorial Services. 2004. Indiana University. 05 July 2008<http://www.indiana.edu>.
Don’ts
· Don’t misrepresent other people's work as yours.
· Don’t make up fake sources, quotations, interviews, etc.
· Don’t think that by copying something over and changing every couple of words that you’ve put it in your own words.
· Don’t copy and paste without citing your sources. The number of quotations should not exceed the number of original sentences written by you.
· Don’t procrastinate on assignments and homework so that you end up under too much deadline pressure and become tempted to take shortcuts.
Do’s
· Do expect to make mistakes managing and citing sources; do expect to correct them.
· Do use strategies to help you manage your sources (for example, put sources you’re
quoting or paraphrasing in a different font and font color until the final draft so you
don’t accidentally forget they came from another writer).
· Do write before, while, and after you research, but especially before.
· Do have a clear idea of your thesis, purpose or argument so you can have a distinctive voice in your own essay and aren’t overwhelmed and intimidated by sources.
Adapted from:
“TechNotes Teaching Tip: Thinking and Talking About Plagiarism.” Strategies for Teaching with Online Tools 2001. <http://bedfordstmartins.com> 09 July 2008.
Additional Notes on Cheating at Philo High School-
If your teacher gives you an assignment, he/she does so because he/she wants you to practice a certain set of skills. If you take a shortcut such as reading a summary instead of the original assigned text, using an online translator, or using an answer key, you are cheating and will receive the consequences for these actions.
It is also important to note that the policy of Philo High School makes no distinction between a student who seeks to cheat and a student who knowingly allows another student to copy his or her work. Both students receive consequences for cheating.
The consequences for plagiarism and cheating can be found online (Page 23) in the Student Handbook under “Academic Dishonesty.” https://www.franklinlocalschools.org/wp-content/docs/schools/phs/phs-19-20-handbook_updated.pdf