Is That Your Own Idea?

Avoiding Plagiarism By Properly Citing Sources

With excerpts from:

Copyright Matters! Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. 2000.

The Ontario School Library Association: Curriculum Supports, 2002.

“Research Resources”. Turnitin, 2003. <http://www.turnitin.com>.

What’s the “P” Word?

Plagiarism is using another person’s idea and pretending it is your own.

Examples of Plagiarism

Copying and/or cutting and pasting from an electronic source.

Ideas or words copied from books, encyclopedias, and journals.

Downloading material from the Internet without acknowledging the author.

Buying essays or using another person’s essay as your own.

Incorrect, misrepresented, or missing in-text citations and/or a source list.

Plagiarism can be… Unintentional

Intentional

lack of understanding“But I didn’t know we had to ….”“ I didn’t know how to…..”

poor research skills and confidence “Finally! Here’s some information; I’ll copy it down.” “They said this better than I can!” “I don’t know what to write.”

Plagiarism is really more serious than just“borrowing” ideas of another.

Plagiarism? So what?

It is stealing someone’s work and allowing others to believe it is yours.

It is against the law.

Academic Dis honesty

Plagiarism penalties in Academic Honesty Policies:

redo the assignment with another topic,

receive a grade of zero,

removed from course without a refund ~$1500!

academic probation or expelled. At work you could be demoted, fired, and /or fined by a court of law!

Teachers Spot Plagiarism Easily

If the project…. is better than the writing you do in class, contains poorly written paragraphs at the

beginning and end, and high quality work in the middle,

sounds too familiar, has incorrect or missing citations

….. chances are you have plagiarized someone else’s work!

Be Careful!

Changing the words of an original source is still plagiarism.

If you have kept the main idea of the original work and have not cited it, you have still stolen someone’s work.

Include Your SourcesSources are listed as a is the final separate page that lists all the

resources that you referred to (or cited) in your work.

Works Cited (MLA) – English, History, the Arts Reference List (APA) – Science, Social Sciences

A Bibliography lists all of the sources used including those that you did not refer to in your project.

*Each type of these pages has a different format to present the necessary information.

Embedded / In-text Citations Direct Quotes and Paraphrased (“My Words”)

Some soldiers during World War II suffered from mental as well as physical wounds. This phenomenon was known as shell shock or battle fatigue (Cross, 2009). (APA – Author, date)

Some soldiers suffered from mental as well as physical wounds: “In the Second World War shell shock was named battle fatigue--mental breakdown caused by front-line fighting” (Cross 9).

(MLA – Author page)

“Diseases that sound fun-but really are not.”

Online graphic. 02/2010. Blog News Service

28/09/2010 <www.worldphoto.com>

Cite images too!

Works Cited (MLA sample)

Aker, Don. The First Stone. Toronto: Harper Collins, 2003.

Bankhead, Willam, R. Smith, and Gerald Ball. A History of North

America. Edmonton: Prairie Books, 2001.  Farley, C. “Queen of Media.” Time Magazine. 5 October 1998: 23-26.  Inquiry Corporation. “What s Happening to History.” Macleans.

15 March 2013:90-100. EBSCO Publishing. 24 May 2002.

<http://search.epnet.com>.  

 “Mummification.” The Encyclopedia of the Mysterious and Unknown.

Vol. 3. New York: Thomson Gale, 2002. 5 vols.  Ontario Library Association. ”White Pine Award 2013” . Ontario Library

Association. 2014 . 23 January 2014.<www.accessola.org/

whitepine/selections/2004.html>. 

To Remember…

• Type Works Cited (MLA) OR References (APA) on a separate page and insert as the last page of a project.

• List entries in alphabetical order by author’s last name or title if the author is not mentioned.

• Double space entries.

• First line starts at the left margin, second lines for the same source are indented five spaces (hanging indent).

Final Hints to Avoid Plagiarism

When notetaking use point-form notes.. If you use the author’s exact words, use quotation

marks. Cite sources properly in your work.

Create a Works Cited or Reference List.

Keep rough notes until work is marked.

If you don’t know what to do…

ASK YOUR TEACHER or TEACHER-LIBRARIAN

Resources

Noel, Wanda and Gerald Breau. Copyright Matters! Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. 2000.

The Ontario School Library Association: Curriculum Supports, 2002.

Turnitin Research Resources, 2003. <http://www.turnitin.com>.