Plagiarism is a type of intellectual theft.
Plagiarism is defined as copying or stealing someone else’s words or ideas and claiming or presenting them as if they were your own.
In this unit you will:
·know why we need to acknowledge sources in academic writings
·learn to be cautious about plagiarism
·know how to draw on academic sources by quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing in your academic writings
·be familiar with in-text citation and referencing systems like MLA, APA, Harvard and Chicago Manual of Style
Pre-class work
1. Have you ever heard of plagiarism? Share your understandings of plagiarism with your partners.
2. Which of the following are incidents of plagiarism?
(1) You borrow an essay written by another student and then submit it as your own work. Is this plagiarism?
A. Yes, because it’s not my own work.
B. No, because the other student gave me permission.
(2) You hand in an essay for one subject that you have already submitted for another: plagiarism?
A. Yes. Students shouldn’t “recycle” assignments.
B. No. I wrote the essay, so it’s my work.
(3) You download an article from the internet, or take a published journal article or a section of a book, and pretend that it’s your own work. Is this plagiarism?
A. Yes. B. No.
(4) You copy down exact sentences or paragraphs from someone else’s work (essay, article, book, lecture, web page, newspaper) and put them in your essay without using quotation marks or a footnote/ in-text citation. Is it plagiarism?
A. Yes. B. No.
(5) You borrow sentences or paragraphs from someone else and put them in your assignment. Although you haven’t used quotation marks, you have provided correct citations (or footnotes): so you haven’t plagiarized, have you?
A. Yes, because plagiarism applies to both words and ideas.
B. No, because I’ve cited my source.
(6) You paraphrase an idea you really like from a reading and put it in the essay you are working on. It’s in your own words, so you don’t bother with a citation. Have you plagiarized?