{"id":114,"date":"2020-02-25T23:15:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T04:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/chapter\/learning-about-plagiarism\/"},"modified":"2021-08-06T16:40:05","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T20:40:05","slug":"learning-about-plagiarism","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/chapter\/learning-about-plagiarism\/","title":{"raw":"Learning About Plagiarism and Guidelines for Using Information","rendered":"Learning About Plagiarism and Guidelines for Using Information"},"content":{"raw":"
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Plagiarism: What It Is and How to Avoid It<\/h1>\r\nPlagiarism occurs when you use someone else\u2019s [pb_glossary id=\"256\"]intellectual property[\/pb_glossary] without giving them credit\u2014when you use material as if it is your own creation for the purpose of the current assignment. There are other ways to plagiarize as well, such as submitting your own previously marked work as a new assignment in a different course. Make sure you always understand your own institution's plagiarism and cheating guidelines.\r\n\r\nAcademic institutions take plagiarism seriously; many discipline or even expel students who have plagiarized.\r\n
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Exercise<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n\r\nThere are a number of different practices which could lead to or be defined as plagiarism, so it's important that you understand what constitutes plagiarism and what doesn't. Which of the following would be a kind of plagiarism?\r\n
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  1. \r\n
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    1. Overhearing someone\u2019s great idea while riding in an elevator and then later sharing the idea and saying it was yours.<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. Finding a beautiful photograph on the Web and using it as your profile picture on social media without showing the photographer\u2019s name.<\/li>\r\n \t
    3. Citing lines of poetry in a blog post without mentioning the poet.<\/li>\r\n \t
    4. Copying and pasting the source analysis from an old essay into a new one for a new class.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nHow can you avoid plagiarism? It's not hard once you know what you are doing. I always use what I call the \"Chocolate Bar Analogy\" when I talk to my students about plagiarism. It goes like this:\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
      The Chocolate Bar Analogy<\/caption>\r\n
      Would you do this?<\/th>\r\nThen why would you do this?<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      You want a chocolate bar, you need a chocolate bar, so you head into the local convenience store just to \"see\" what kinds of chocolate bars there are.<\/td>\r\nYou want material for your assignment, you need material, so you head over to the computer just to \"see\" what is out there on your topic.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      You find a good chocolate bar\u2014it's just what you need\u2014so you put it in your pocket because you don't want to \"lose\" it.<\/td>\r\nYou find some good material\u2014it's just what you need\u2014so you copy and paste it into your assignment so you won't \"lose\" it.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      You head to the counter to pay for the rest of the stuff you found at the store, but you a) aren't sure how to properly pay for the chocolate bar, so you just leave it in your pocket or b) you \"forget\" all about it.<\/td>\r\nYou head to the printer to print out your final assignment, but you a) aren't sure how to properly cite the material you found online so you just leave it in your assignment or b) you \"forget\" all about it.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
      You would not do this!<\/td>\r\nSo don't do this!<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\nWhen I am teaching students to credit source material by citing properly, I say, \"Don't put the chocolate bar in your pocket!\"\r\n
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      1. Do your own work<\/strong>. In other words, always start by writing what you know about a subject, turning to sources only when you need to support your own ideas with authoritative backing, when there\u2019s a knowledge gap you cannot fill on your own, or to satisfy requirements that you use a certain number of sources in an assignment.<\/li>\r\n \t
      2. Cite the work immediately<\/strong>. If you add source material to your work, mark it or identify it in such a way that you will know<\/em> it\u2019s from a source and add it to your works cited list. It doesn't matter as much if your citations are correct<\/em> as long as they are present<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nStudents studying English or writing will use Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines to format their papers and handle sources. MLA is discussed elsewhere in this text (see the appendices Resources for Working with MLA<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Creating a Works Cited Page<\/a>) but understand for now that to properly cite intellectual property\u2014also called source materials\u2014in your writing, you must do the following:\r\n