plagiarism

1. Istanbul Bilgi University
Plagiarism and Citing Sources
Presented by C. M. Herrington, MAA, MAT
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2. “Plagiarism is using others’ ideas
and words without clearly
acknowledging the source of that
information”
(Writing Tutorial Services, 2004).
Notice that it does not matter whether or
not the failure to give credit is intentional.
Any lack of credit, even accidental, is
considered plagiarism.
At California State University San
Marcos, the General Catalog (2008)
defines plagiarism as:
1.not giving proper credit for ideas,
words, or “specific substance of another’s
work,” (84)
2.claiming authorship on a group project
without actually doing the work,
3.claiming someone else’s artistic or
scholarly work as your own.
 Any form of information requires
acknowledgement. A common perception
is that only the exact copying of words
from a printed publication constitutes
plagiarism. The requirement to
acknowledge sources is much broader. In
particular, it is important to understand
that the source of ideas — opinions,
theories, facts, etc. — as well as words
must be credited..
 Sources of words and ideas come in
many forms, all of which require proper
attribution to avoid plagiarism. This web
site focuses on plagiarism as it appears in
student papers using written sources but
the concepts can be applied to any type of
source material. Information sources can
include:
• spoken words such as conversations and
interviews,
• written words including email and web
pages as well as published and print
materials,
• multimedia such as movies, music and
photographs, and
• any other way to express an idea
including statistics, drawings, graphs,
maps, etc.
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3. Exact Copy Plagiarism
There are two types of exact copy
plagiarism — whole source and partial
copy.
Whole source plagiarism is claiming an
entire work as your own. The most
common example is when a student puts
his or her name on a paper written by
another person. Whole source plagiarism
also includes claiming to be the creator of
such things as a work of art, an entire
song, or a scientific theorem.
Examples of plagiarizing an entire paper
include turning in as your own work:
 a friend’s paper
 a purchased paper
 a paper published in another source
such as a journal or the Internet
Partial copy plagiarism occurs when the
exact words or content from a source are
inserted as part of your paper without
giving proper attribution. Examples include
 cutting and pasting from an electronic
source
 copying from a printed source
 repeating a conversation, interview
remarks, etc. verbatim
 inserting a photo, audio clip, or other
multimedia element
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4. Paraphrase
 Many people believe that putting a
piece of text or an idea into ‘their
own words’ avoids the issue of
plagiarism. There is a formal term
for putting text or ideas into ‘your
own words’ — it is called
paraphrasing.
 The purpose of paraphrase is often
to summarize or simplify the
author’s ideas, making them easier
to understand, more approachable.
You might also use paraphrase to
emphasize a particular idea or train
of thought from the original
author’s text. Paraphrasing is
acceptable but it is important to
acknowledge the original author’s
ideas, even if it is has been
substantially re-expressed.
 It is important to be cautious
rewriting a piece of information in
your own words, or paraphrasing.
Close paraphrase, where trivial
changes are made such as
substituting similar words or
changing the sentence order, is
essentially the same as copying
the author’s words directly.
 This is not enough to count as an
original expression of the idea and
is still considered a form of exact
copy plagiarism.
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5. Common Knowledge
 Not all ideas require attribution,
specifically, facts that are common
knowledge. Common knowledge
exists when a fact can be found in
numerous places or is likely to be
known by a lot of people.
 For example, you do not need to
document the fact that Abraham
Lincoln was the 16th President of
the United States since this
information is widely known.
 On the other hand, you must credit
your source for facts that are not
generally known or ideas that
interpret facts. For example,
Lincoln’s tall and gangly stature is
consistent with symptoms of
Marfan syndrome (Davidson,
2004).
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6. We often assume that all
people who plagiarize
are deliberately
dishonest. In fact
intentionally planned
plagiarism is fairly rare.
Much of plagiarism is
simply due to
carelessness, or to not
understanding what
plagiarism means.6
How to avoid it…

7. Quiz time to check understanding
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 You can use your notes to answer the following quiz
questions.

8. Quiz- write down your answers only
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Is it plagiarism? YES or NO
1. You write a paper on the legalization
of marijuana for your high school
Current Events class. You save that
paper and hand it in to satisfy the
persuasive paper requirement in your
EAP class here at IBU. Is it plagiarism?
2. You are working on a computer
slide show presentation for your EAP
class. You want to make the point that
Shakespeare’s works have been
plagiarized throughout the centuries.
You capture a painting of Shakespeare
from the Web for your first slide. Is it
plagiarism?
3. In your computer slide show
presentation about Shakespeare’s works,
you include a snippet of famous dialogue
from Romeo and Juliet. Is it plagiarism?
4. You decide the best way to get across
your point about Shakespeare’s works
being plagiarized is to show some
examples. You include a video clip from
the film West Side Story in your
presentation. Is it plagiarism?
5. Your professor says some interesting
things in today’s lecture on Plato. You
decide to use her ideas to begin your
paper. Is it plagiarism?

9. Answers
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1.The answer: Yes.
It’s called self-plagiarism or multiple submission, and it’s
not allowed unless you have the permission of the EAP
instructor
How do you fix the plagiarism problem?
In most cases, you are expected to produce new work for
every college class you take. However, you may ask your
professors about their individual policies regarding
multiple submissions.
2. The answer: Yes, unless you provide an
acknowledgment somewhere in your slide show of the
source of the painting.
While it is not a violation of copyright to use such a
captured image for educational purposes for one class, it
may be a violation to use the image in a setting with a
larger audience or with the potential to make money:
using the image to sell your brand of beard trimmer, for
example.
How do you fix the plagiarism problem?
Get in the habit of adding a list of acknowledgments to
every presentation. You can include sources for images
and video as well as thanks for the people who helped
you.
3. The answer: Probably not.
Shakespeare’s plays have become part of common
knowledge. Practically anyone can quote the more
famous passages: “Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art
thou, Romeo?”
How do you fix the plagiarism problem?
4. The answer: No, unless you try to pass off
the film as your own work.
How do you fix the plagiarism problem?
The important point is to let your audience know
the source of the video you’re showing. And
don’t show too much of it, so that the bulk of your
presentation doesn’t turn out to be someone
else’s work.
5.The answer: Yes.
You must acknowledge the use of any ideas that
are not your own.

10. How to cite sources
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 Citing your sources has several
specific benefits for you the
student. Of course, a primary
benefit is that it shows you are
crediting your sources and so
avoiding the possibility of
plagiarizing.
 Even more important though is that
it gives you credit. It is concrete
documentation of the hard work
you have done in researching the
background of your topic including
the ideas other people have had on
the subject.
 Professors generally respect and
reward well-researched papers.
 Identify the source of an idea, specific words, or
other material in order to acknowledge its
contribution to your paper. It is the existence of these
acknowledgments, or lack there of, that is the
determiner of whether material has been plagiarized.
 Enable the reader to locate the original source:
 so that they may verify the accuracy of your information,
and
 so that they may use it in their own research. In fact, a
highly successful research strategy is to locate one good
source and then use the citations in it’s bibliography and
notes to identify additional relevant sources.
 Provide the reader with a sense of the relevance
and quality of the sources used in researching
the paper and, hence, a sense of the quality of
the paper. Indicators of quality include:
 the variety of sources from different viewpoints and
mediums (print and online),
 the source’s appropriateness to the topic as inferred from
the title,
 the sources objectivity as implied by the type of site (.com
vs. .edu) and sponsoring organization, and
 the authority or expertise on this topic of the author or
sponsoring organization of the Web site.

11. Citing online sources
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 The rules for citation styles
were developed for print
sources — long before
online documents were
available. So not too
surprisingly, it can be
difficult to locate identifying
information equivalent to
that available in print
publications in an online
source and fit it into a
traditional citation format.
 Sometimes you have to do
some investigation.
Understanding the basic
purposes of citation can
help you determine what
information you really need.
The three basic purposes of
citation are to:
 identify your source,
 enable others to locate
the source, and
 provide brief criteria to
evaluate the source’s
relevance and quality.

12. Citation Styles
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 Rules for citing sources and citation
formats can get complicated. A number
of style guides have been developed
that provide consistency in how
information is cited. Some of the most
common styles are APA, Chicago, and
MLA.
 Citation styles are often associated with
certain professional groups and
disciplines. For instance, APA,
American Psychological Association, is
often used in the sciences while MLA,
Modern Language Association, is
popular in the literature and humanities
area.
 Rules for citation styles change over
time, particularly recently with the
Internet, so it is important to use the
latest edition. Any library will have
some, if not all, of these style guides.
APA
 Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, 6th ed.
(2009). Washington, DC : American
Psychological Association.
 The basic format for citing Web sources
in APA style is:
Author’s name (last name, first and any
middle initials). (Date of Internet posting
or revision). Title of page. Title of
complete work [if applicable]. Retrieval
statement.
 Neyhart, D. & Karper, E. (2008). APA
formatting and style guide.
Purdue University Online
Writing Lab. Retrieved Aug. 29,
2011, from:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ow
l/resource/560 /01/
 American Psychological Association.
(2011). "Basics of
APA Style". APAStyle.org.
Retrieved Aug. 29, 2011, from:
<http://www.apastyle.org/learn/t
ut orials/basics-
tutorial.aspx>

13. Son of a citation machine
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 A lot has changed with
regard to citation. One
online source for
helping you make
citations is
Son of a citation machine.
http://citationmachine.net/i
ndex2.php?reqstyleid=2&
newstyle=2&stylebox=2
Task: Use the citation
machine to make citations
for all 6 of your sources.
You need to list them
alphabetically by last
name or title on the sheet
of paper.
Double space and use a
hanging indent from the
second line.

14. Sample Reference Page
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