Week 10/7 Plagiarism

The Plagiarism Module defines plagiarism, gives examples of plagiarism, stresses integrity in your academics, and teaches proper citation. 

A) What is Plagiarism?

• I believe that plagiarism is stealing someone else's work and claiming it as your own. Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional.
• The module explains that simply changing a few words, putting sentences from several different sources together, and paraphrasing are plagiarism. Failure to put quotations around a direct quote or using the idea of another person without proper citation is plagiarism.

Example of Plagiarism:

• In 2002 Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, an assistant history professor at Ohio State University, found that her 1998 dissertation had been plagiarized and published in a new anthology of the American West by Benson Tong, an assistant history professor at Wichita State University. The book was never retracted leaving Ms. Wu feeling victimized.

B-C) Why is Academic Integrity Important?

• Plagiarism deserves a generous amount of attention. Besides the fact that plagiarism is illegal, proper citation gives you more credibility, helps the reader locate your sources, shows respect to original authors, and keeps you out of trouble. It comes down to personal morals of doing what is right and honesty. 

Proper Citation:

• You can use several different formats to cite your sources including APA, MLA, and Turabian. The Plagiarism Module say that your citations/ bibliography should include the following: the author's name, the name of the book or journal, the publisher, the date and city of publication, and the page number of the quotation. Parenthetical citation within your paper is provided to credit the original source and help locate the source in the bibliography. 

D) When can you imagine high school or college students struggling with plagiarism? 

• An overachieving student with a busy schedule may plagiarize intentionally or even unintentionally for example when stressing to finish and submit a paper by the 12 o'clock deadline. Sometimes when you've had an exhausting day and finally sit down to write your paper, your brain seems to shut down. It would be easier to just plagiarize but it would not be moral to do so.