1. Plagiarism and How to Avoid It

2. Plagiarism is a form of theft
It is stealing the
intellectual
property of
another.

3. Plagiarism is a form of theft
In school, plagiarism most
often occurs when a writer
presents as his or her own
information created by
another person.

4. Sadly, plagiarism is unnecessary
• Class assignments are designed and intended
to provide the student with opportunities for
deep understanding and critical thinking
about a specified topic.
• Generally, these assignments ask students to
find information about a topic and then use
that information to create an original
response.

5. Sadly, plagiarism is unnecessary
• These responses demonstrate that the
student understands the main ideas and
issues of the topic.
• Plagiarism robs the student of the opportunity
for meaningful learning and understanding.

6. Courtesy of the Alexandria (VA) Country Day School

7. Avoiding Plagiarism
• The best way to avoid plagiarism is to look
closely at the information, identify the key
points, then summarize the main idea(s) in
your own words.

8. Avoiding Plagiarism
However:
• Even if you put the information into your own
words, you must cite the source of your
information (more on that later).

9. Practice
Here are some facts about a famous person (at this time
we are not going to worry about citations):
• Head Coach Mark Richt came to Georgia with the goal of taking the
lid off a program that had not won an SEC title in 20 years.
• After 11 seasons between the hedges, he's demonstrated what that
means by winning two SEC Championships (2002, '05), four SEC
Eastern Division titles and tied for another.
• And his emphasis on graduation has come to fruition as 221
Bulldog players have earned their degrees during his tenure.
Consolidate this information into your own words in two or
three sentences.