This document provides information about plagiarism, including definitions, examples, and guidelines for proper citation. It defines plagiarism as stealing another's work and ideas and passing them off as one's own. This can be done intentionally by copying work verbatim or unintentionally by poorly paraphrasing or citing sources. The document emphasizes the importance of citing sources through practices such as quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing in order to avoid plagiarism. It also outlines the proper ways to cite sources in-text and in reference lists to give credit to original authors.
4. WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
(http://www.m-w.com), to plagiarize means:
to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's
own
to use (another's production) without crediting the source
to commit literary theft
to present as new and original an idea or product derived from
an existing source
In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both
stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.
www.plagiarism.org
5. Copyright
A law protecting the
intellectual property of
individuals, giving
them exclusive rights
over the distribution
and reproduction of
that material.
7. FROM UNIZULU PLAGIARISM POLICY:
(o) In matters involving students, the Tribunal may:
i) Exclude a student from UNIZULU, either permanently or for a specific
period; provided that if permanent exclusion is considered to be the
appropriate sanction, the matter must be referred to the Vice-Chancellor
for confirmation.
(ii) Withdraw a students Duly Performed certificate
(iii) Reduce the mark awarded to a student, or award a mark of zero
(iv) Order that a student should redo the work to the satisfaction of the
Head of Department and/or lecturer
(v) Issue a written warning to a student
(vi) Impose any other appropriate sanction or a combination of the above
sanctions
12. Intentional
Copying a friends work
Buying or borrowing
papers
Cutting and pasting blocks
of text from electronic
sources without
documenting
Media borrowingwithout
documentation
Web publishing without
permissions of creators
Unintentional
Careless paraphrasing
Poor documentation
Quoting excessively
Failure to use your own
voice
TWO MAIN GROUPS OF PLAGIARISM
13. EXAMPLES OF PLAGIARISM
Copying and pasting text from online
encyclopedias and any web site without
citing properly
Using photographs, video or audio without
permission or acknowledgement
Using another students or your parents
work and claiming it as your own even
with permission
Using your own work without properly
citing it!
14. MORE EXAMPLES OF PLAGIARISM
Quoting a source without using quotation
marks-even if you do cite it
Citing sources you didnt use
Getting a research paper, story, poem, or
article off the Internet
Turning in the same paper for more than one
class without the permission of both
teachers (this is called self-plagiarism)
15. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
AND ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR
When you copy you cheat yourself. You limit your
own learning.
The consequences are not worth the risks!
It is only right to give credit to authors whose
ideas you use (fair use of information)
Citing gives authority to the information you
present
Citing makes it possible for your readers to locate
your source
Cheating is unethical behavior
16. POPULAR EXCUSES
Its okay if
I dont get caught!
I was too busy to
write that paper!
(!)
My Lecturer will
not know it is not
My work
I did not
Know it is
wrong! My lecturer
Does not like
Me and
Makes
Life difficult
This assignment
was BORING!
Everyone does it!
17. HOW WILL I BE CAUGHT ?
My lecturer knows his/ her field of study
The lecturer notices when assignments are
similar
Anti-plagiarism tools will tell if I
plagiarised:
such a web search, or better still the
application of anti-plagiarism software
18. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Most cases of plagiarism can be
avoided by citing sources.
Simply acknowledging that certain
material has been borrowed, and
providing your audience with the
information necessary to find that
source, is usually enough to prevent
plagiarism.
19. HOW SHOULD I DO IT ?
Quoting
Paraphrasing
Summarizing
To blend source materials in with your
own, making sure your own voice is
heard.
20. QUOTING
Quotations are the exact words of an author, copied directly
from a source, word for word. Quotations must be cited!
If you use a direct quotation from an author, you should:
enclose this in quotation marks
give the author, date and page number(s) that the quotation
was taken from, in brackets.
Example:
"Language is subject to change, and is not caused by
unnecessary sloppiness, laziness or ignorance" (Aitchison,
1981, p.67).
21. Aitchison (1981, p.16) puts it:
Language, then, like everything else, gradually transforms itself
over the centuries. There is nothing surprising in this. In a world
where humans grow old, tadpoles change into frogs, and milk turns
into cheese, it would be strange if language alone remained
unaltered. In spite of this, large numbers of intelligent people
condemn and resent language change, regarding alterations as
due to unnecessary sloppiness, laziness or ignorance.
QUOTATION OF MORE THAN 40 WORDS
A COLON: FOLLOWS THE STATEMENT IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING A LONG QUOTATION (BLOCK
QUOTATION
22. PARAPHRASING
When you paraphrase from a source, you restate the
source's ideas in your own words. You may paraphrase a
quote or short paragraph from a source, making it more
meaningful within the context of your work.
Why do it?
You are demonstrating that you have understood what you have
read, and the relevance of those ideas to your essay, assignment
or research.
Example:
Original: For the times when silk stocking were not be had "for
love or money," women had to make do.
Paraphrase: As Kirkham (2005, p. 221) points out, during the War
there were times when silk stockings could not be obtained by
any means and so women were forced to find alternatives.
23. SUMMARIZING
Summarising involves repeating the main ideas of a passage
in your own words. A summary concentrates on the
important points rather than the details.
Example:
Stanley Milgram (1974) reports that ordinarily compassionate people
will be cruel to each other if they are commanded to be by an
authority figure. In his experiment, a group of participants were
asked to administer electric shocks to people who made errors on a
simple test. In spite of signs that those receiving shock were
experiencing great physical pain, 25 of 40 subjects continued to
administer electric shocks.
This is a summary of Stanley Milgram's 1974 essay, "The Perils of
Obedience. It provides a brief overview of Milgram's 12-page essay
24. WHAT IS A CITATION
What is citation?
A "citation" is the way you tell your readers that certain
material in your work came from another source. It also
gives your readers the information necessary to find that
source again, including:
information about the author
the title of the work
the name and location of the company that published the
source
the date of publishing
the page numbers of the material
25. Why should I cite sources?
Giving credit to the original author by citing sources is the
only way to use other people's work without plagiarizing. But
there are a number of other reasons to cite sources:
citations are extremely helpful to anyone who wants to find
out more about your ideas and where they came from
not all sources are good or right -- your own ideas may
often be more accurate or interesting than those of your
sources. Proper citation will keep you from taking the rap
for someone else's bad ideas
citing sources shows the amount of research you've done
citing sources strengthens your work by lending outside
support to your ideas
26. CITATIONS IN TEXT
Definition
Citations in text identify the source of quotations or a personal
communication used in research like this (authors last name,
publication date, and page number). 1
2 3
Purpose
1. Whether paraphrasing or quoting an
author directly, the source must be
credited.
2. Citations enable the reader to locate the
source of the quotation in References.
27. Format
1.Citations are included in the same
sentence or paragraph as the
quotation.
2.The sentence and the citation together
must provide the authors last name,
the publication date and the page(s)
from which the quotation was taken
28. CITATION EXAMPLE 1
He states, anything takes on a new
meaning when we think of it as a
monument (Boorstin, 1987, p. 215)
and adds that monuments can be both
man-made and natural.
Note punctuation
29. CITATION EXAMPLE 2
Johnston and Cutchins (1988) state that life is
hard for animal babies of all kinds, but for young
reptiles, surviving their first year is especially
difficult (p. 36).
To put two authors in the brackets
(Johnston & Cutchins, 1988, p. 36)
For more than 3 authors, you may use the Latin
phrase et al which means and the rest
(Abrams, et al, 1999, p. 345)
30. SECONDARY REFERENCES (HARVARD)
If you are reading a source by one author (McKechnie (1998))
and they cite or quote work by another author (Wing, Lee and
Chen (1994)) you may in turn cite or quote the original work
(e.g. that of Wing et al. (1994)) as a SECONDARY REFERENCE.
A study by Wing, Lee and Chen (1994 cited by McKechnie, 1998)
discussed sleep paralysis in the Chinese
OR
McKechnie (1998) cites the work of Wing, Lee and Chen (1994) which
looks at sleep paralysis in the Chinese population.
Reference List Example
McKechnie, J. (1998) Incidence and diagnosis of sleep paralysis.
Nursing Times 94(22): pp.50-51
31. COMMON KNOWLEDGE
Information that is readily available from a number of
sources or so well-known that its sources do not have to
be cited.
The fact that carrots are a source of Vitamin A is
common knowledge, and you could include this
information in your work without attributing it to a
source. However, any information regarding the effects
of Vitamin A on the human body are likely to be the
products of original research and would have to be cited.
www.plagiarism.org
Facts that are widely known, or
Information or judgments considered
common knowledge
Do NOT have to be documented.
Hooray for
common
knowledge!
32. FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Plagiarism Sites, English Department, Jacksonville State University, Alabama,
http://www.jsu.edu/depart/english/treed/plagiarism.html. A compiled list of
sites dealing with plagiarism.
Plagiarism in the News, Bridgewater College Online Writing Lab, Bridgewater,
Virginia,
http://www.bridgewater.edu/WritingCenter/Workshops/PlagiarismCases.htm. A
discussion of recent legal cases involving plagiarism. This presentation has been prepared by
Joyce A. Brannan, Julia Tutwiler Library, University of West Alabama, Livingston, Alabama, 35470. 2004.
What is Plagiarism? Georgetown University.
http://www.georgetown.edu/honor/plagiarism.html. Covers many aspects of
plagiarism in an often humorous manner.