CM220 Unit 5 Seminar

Citing your sources: Paraphrasing, Quotations, and Summarizing

Plagiarism: What it is and how to avoid it

Seminar Discussion Questions: Plagiarism & Practicing Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing: using your own writing style, distinctive Paraphrasing: using your own writing style, distinctive word choices, and sentence structure to capture the idea word choices, and sentence structure to capture the idea of the source.of the source.

Change the form of the original quotation, using different words and word order, without in any way changing the meaning.

Try not to use any of the words in the original except for names, places, or necessary technical terms.

If you must use some of the words from the original source, put quotation marks around them even if you’re using no more than a phrase or a distinctive word.

Passages that are paraphrased must still be cited with both a parenthetical citation and an entry on the reference page. Even though the idea is written in your own words, the idea still belongs to the original writer and credit must be given.

SummarizingSummarizing

A summary is a shortened version of a text or passage. Only the main ideas and essential information are noted, while supporting details like examples and illustrations are eliminated.

Because only the essential information is stated, a summarized passage is not given as much importance as paraphrased text. Unlike a paraphrase, which is more or less the same length as the original, a summary is always shorter than the original.

QuotationsQuotations

Direct quotations are appropriate in three instances:

1. Dialogue: these words were actually spoken by someone.

2. Incredibly well-worded passages: the wording is so perfect that it cannot possibly be improved upon.

3. Critique: showing what the original author said exactly so that it can be criticized.

Quote or Paraphrase?Quote or Paraphrase?

Generally, quote very little. Quotations should be saved for special occasions, for quotes that are perfect the way they are ("Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country"), or for information that is so important to your paper that you need the extra credibility a quotation provides.

Paraphrase most of the time, especially for factual information and for information that can be stated more briefly or more clearly in your own words.

Paraphrasing ExamplesParaphrasing Examples

Using a direct quote: According to Charles Panati (1987), "the words 'Mary had a little lamb,' spoken by Thomas Edison on November 20, 1877, into his latest invention, the phonograph, were the first words of recorded human speech" (p.193).

Paraphrase #1: Thomas Edison, testing his new invention, recorded the words "Mary had a little lamb," making this poem the first recording of the human voice (Panati, 1987).

Paraphrase #2: According to Charles Panati (1987), Thomas Edison, testing his new invention, recorded the words "Mary had a little lamb," making this poem the first recording of the human voice.

PlagiarismPlagiarism

In essence, plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s ideas and work.

Whether a student copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly acknowledging the source, it is still plagiarism.

Plagiarism can happen inadvertently because of careless note taking as well.

Copying documentation from another student or from any other source without proper citation is a form of academic dishonesty, as is producing work substantially from the work of another.

Citing your sources carefully and correctly – using paraphrasing, quotation, and summarizing – will help you to avoid plagiarism.

PREWRITING

Brainstorming/Listing Bubbling/Clustering Questioning Freewriting Boomerang Outlining

Unit 5 Seminar Discussion Question #1

1. What incidents of plagiarism have you witnessed in school or on the job? How have you responded to these incidents? How have others? Have you ever been taught what does and does not constitute plagiarism?

Unit 5 Seminar Discussion Question #2

2. Practice paraphrasing the following. Remember, paraphrases keep the same ideas as the original, but put them in your own words. They also need in-text citation (last name, year).

Here's the original, written by Michael Devries in 2001: “Violent movies don't create criminals: criminals are drawn to violent movies.”

Here's the original, written by Alex Hall in 1999: “The Mercator projection, while the most common way to draw a map of the world, distorts many of its features. For example, Africa and Greenland appear to be the same size on it, but Africa is actually fourteen times larger.”