What Is Plagiarism and How to Avoid It

What is Plagiarism and How to Avoid It

New Providence MS/HS Library Media Center

Definition of Plagiarism: In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source. (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism, wpacouncil.org)

How to Avoid Plagiarism:

*Use your own words and ideas.

*Make sure to give credit to copied, paraphrased, or adapted material (in-text citations and works cited)

*Avoid using others’ work with minor changes. (includes other student’s work)

*You don’t have to cite common knowledge, but the fact must really be commonly known, President George Washington was the first president.

(Walrath, http://www.tuhsd.k12.az.us)

Make sure when using information, that you take notes. You can do this on paper or in

Noodle Tools in the electronic note card section. You can mark your notes with

Q-for information your are quoting, ME – for your own ideas, and S – for information

taken from a source (paraphrase). When you are quoting or taking information from a

source, make sure to include your source citation in your notes. This could be the URL of

a web site or the author of a book, you can do the complete citation in Noodle Tools as

you proceed in your research. When paraphrasing, use your source in your paraphrase.

For example, According to Mrs. Bair, ….. and indicate the page number or URL in your

parenthetical citation (283 or Wikipedia.org). When writing about another’s ideas, use

the name of the source in your parenthetical citation. i.e. (Bair, 276)

Web Resources on Plagiarism and Writing a Research Paper:

Owl at Purdue University: MLA 7th edition Formatting and Style Guide 2009

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Owl at Purdue University: Avoiding Plagiarism:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/

ALN 10/09

Works Cited:

“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices.” Council of

Writing Program Administrators. January 2003. Web 13 October 2009.

http://www.wpacouncil.org/node/9

Walrath, Sheila. “Plagiarism: Don’t Do It!”. Marcos de Niza High School. n.d. PPT

Web. 13 October 2009.

http://www.tuhsd.k12.az.us/Marcos_de_Niza_HS/Depts/Departments/lrc/plagiarism.ppt