Plagiarism Spring 2006
Each semester I send at least one student to the Dean of Students for plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic honesty and I have a zero policy for plagiarism in my courses. Some cases are extremely blatant, such as purchasing a paper from an online source or copying text verbatim. Other cases are subtle, such as changing words in a sentence from the textbook or not properly citing sources. It is your responsibility as a student to be aware of what plagiarism is and know how to properly incorporate and cite sources in your papers.
Plagiarism Defined
Plagiarism is defined as “to steal and use the writings or ideas of another as one’s own” (American Heritage Dictionary). If you invent something, you get a patent, and anyone who tries to steal or pass off your invention as their own is taken to court for violating the patent law. In academia, our inventions are our ideas, research and words. These inventions are protected by copyright, which is essentially a patent on your ideas and words. Copying someone else’s ideas, words or research and passing them off as your own is violating the “patent” or copyright.
Examples of Plagiarism
- Turning in a document that you have not written or researched yourself.
- Copying and pasting direct sentences or paragraphs from internet sources without proper quotations or citation in the text.
- Changing orders of sentences, but maintaining original sentence structure.
- Changing words within a sentence but maintaining original sentence structure.
- Paraphrasing – putting someone else’s ideas into your own words without crediting the source.
- Turing in a document where the majority of ideas are not your own, but in your own words.
As you can see, some examples of plagiarism are very overt and some are more subtle. Yet they are all equally serious because you are stealing someone else’s intellectual property. In some cultures, the practice of copying the written work of an author is an acceptable one. This is not the case in the United States.
For more information, see You can access this link from my website.
Example
Text: A common local wind system along tropical coastlines and to a lesser extent during the summer in midlatitude coastal areas is the cycles of sea breezes during the day and land breezes at night.
Student:Land and sea breezes are a common local wind system along tropical coastlines and to a lesser extent in midlatitude coastal areas during the summer. Sea breezes happen during the day and land breezes at night.
Citation of Sources
To avoid plagiarism, you need to get in the habit of tracking and citing sources when you research and write papers. This is a skill that takes time and practice, but it is necessary if you want to avoid being turned in for plagiarism. More importantly, you want to be a student with ethics and integrity.
Citation is how you give credit for the words or ideas of other authors used in your research and writing. In addition, citation lets the reader evaluate and determine if your sources are credible. This helps the evaluator know how you used your sources to bolster your argument or position. It helps to evaluate your critical thinking skills. Without proper citation, the evaluator cannot judge the validity of your research.
All disciplines cite sources differently. As a student you are responsible for finding out the proper citation style for or your class or discipline. In some cases the instructor will tell you what format they expect. If not, then use your class textbook as a guide, because it is probably written using the conventional style for the discipline. This will become increasingly important when you transfer – there are more than just the APA and MLA citation styles.
The website has great information about the various citation styles.
Citation in Geography
Geography’s interdisciplinary nature means that geographers publish in social science, psychology, science and technical journals. I will be requiring you to use the Chicago Style for any assignments and projects that you turn in with a bibliography. I have a handout for you on this citation style and you can find examples at
When to Cite Sources in Your Paper
As you read your paper, ask yourself “where did I get this?” or “how do I know this”, because that is what I will be asking as I read it. Here are some good general rules:
- Definitions of terms or concepts
- Statistics and data
- The research is a major foundation to your paper’s topic, argument or conclusion
How to Cite Sources in the Text
Place your citation directly in the text at the end of the sentence where the information is referenced and before you go on to your own ideas or words or refer to another source.
- Use parentheses with the authors name and year published (Rowntree, 2003).
- For direct quotes also include the page number when the quote is found
Ex.(McKnight, 2004, 26).
- For direct quotes from internet sources without page numbers include the paragraph number. Ex. (CIA Factbook, para 10)
- For quotes or references that do not have an author, use the source and date.
Ex. (LA Times, 12 February)