Recognizing Plagiarism

Visit these sites listed here and use the information you find to respond to the situations described below.

The Princeton University Writing Center From the list of topics select "When to Cite Sources".
Purdue University's OWL page, "Avoiding Plagiarism" Scroll down to the section called "Choosing When to Give Credit". You will find excellent, well organized information here.

Is This Plagiarism?

You use a page on the Internet that translates your Spanish assignments.
You took notes from a web site but forgot to get the address for your bibliography. You are in a rush and decide to make one up.
You did a paper for English last year that you pass in for History this year, making no changes.
Copying and pasting passages from different web sites and handing it in as your final work.
Using pictures, charts or graphs from the web or a book and not citing the source.
Using one of the paper-mill sites to buy a ready done paper to pass in as your work.

Take a look at the examples below. From your newly acquired knowledge try to decide if the material has been cited correctly. Read the original passage first.

Original Passage

"By the last decade of the twentieth century, crops of Indian origin constituted approximately one-third of the annual harvest of the United States. Corn alone accounted for nearly 15 percent of the cash receipts from all crops." (Weatherford, p. 128.)

Weatherford, Jack. Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America. New York: Crown   
                 Publishers, Inc., 1991, p. 128.

Example One

By the 1990's, crops the Indians gave us constituted about 1/3 of the yearly harvest of the United States. Corn was almost 15% of the money received from the crops. (Weatherford, p.128)

Weatherford, Jack. Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America. New York: Crown   
                 Publishers, Inc., 1991, p. 128.

Example Two

The United States owes a debt to the Native-American farmer. Many of the major crops of this country are direct descendants of crops first grown by Native-Americans. Corn consists of 15% of the revenue each year from crops.

Answers

All the situations listed under "Is This Plagiarism?" are examples of plagiarism or cheating.

Example one is cited properly, the second example should also cite the source since the idea and statistics belong to the author of the book.

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THIS PAGE BY Cynthia Tobojka November 2002.

http://warehamportal.mec.edu/lib/