| These questions about plagiarism were posed by 2001 summer school students at St. Lawrence University. They reflect a small cross section of students, and they reflect the issues related to plagiarism that concerned them. The official University statement on Academic Honesty can be found on pages 152-153 of the SLU Student Handbook. | |
Why are we even
talking about plagiarism; who cares?
Did you know that the word "plagiarism" comes from the Latin
word for kidnapper? Stealing is stealing,
and stealing ideas, publicly or privately, is no different than stealing property.
I wrote this
paper, how could it have been plagiarized?
Because you are responsible for it-you are responsible for all the work you
do while at university, and, in a sense, all the work you do reflects upon you.
Even if you have plagiarized unknowingly by forgetting to put quotation marks
around another author's words
or forgetting to include a source citation, you are accountable for it.
How do I know
the difference between "general knowledge"
and something that has to be quoted?
The difference is the interjection of an idea. A concept in the general pool
of knowledge-Columbus is the capital of Ohio-is up for grabs because
it doesn't signify someone else's work. The concept that Columbus' arrival
in the Americas signifies a world-wide shift in power does because it is
infused with opinion, and presumably, a
sequence of ideas to back it up. This sequence of ideas belongs to someone
else, and that someone else should get credit for those ideas and conclusions.
Look, this is
just a two page paper, it's not going to be published in the New York Times,
why are we getting tied up in such a knot?
Just because there aren't any witnesses doesn't mean that a theft is something
else. If you value the work you're doing, and if you are taking your work seriously,
you will consider your instructor an audience worth original work. That's not
to say that every two page paper has to shatter
icebergs, but it be an honest wrangling with the topic.
What if my ideas
are the same as another persons-the idea of some other author may be part of
my argument.
If you are aware that someone else shares your ideas, you must acknowledge that
by citing them.
What is legal
paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing
is simply setting someone's argument down in your own words. This may be very
helpful, because it can make your work more concise,
but even though it's your wording it's still the first author's idea. Because
of that you still have to give credit to the originator of the ideas, even as
you figure out wording to present them.
If I gave the
URL for a web site in the sentence I wrote, isn't that enough?
No. Web pages are sources shoulder to shoulder with book, journals, or magazines.
Like any of those media there are rules for including Internet-born material
in your research. These rules are available in any of the style guides or at
the writing center.
Isn't stuff
published on the Internet all free anyway?
Even if the material on the Internet is available
at no cost, that doesn't mean it is authorless, orphaned material. Documents
on the Internet need to be treated like other published material. Often
authors on the Internet don't enforce copyright, but that doesn't mean that
they don't want credit for the ideas they've created.
How can I quote if my toenail hurts?
If I follow
all the rules won't I be citing every sentence, every word in the paper?
You shouldn't, if you've got a well written paper. When you write a research
paper, you coordinate information from three kinds of sources: (1) your independent
thoughts and experiences; (2) common knowledge, the basic knowledge people share;
and (3) other people's independent thoughts and experiences. Of the three, you
must acknowledge the third, the work of others (from The Little, Brown Handbook,
5th edition). However, the work of others should not make up the bulk of your
paper-thus, you won't be citing every word and every sentence in the paper.
 |
Aren't
footnotes a bibliography? Endnotes are a bibliography; footnotes are something different. Footnotes are notations that give you chance to expand on a point that you might not otherwise. Footnotes should be used judiciously. |
Which set of
rules for a bibliography should I use?
Depends. In a particular course will very likely have a style guide you want
to use. Many courses use Diane Hacker's book A Writer's Reference as
a resource on bibliographic styles. More information can be found at the SLU
Libraries Citing Source page, which has links to electronic style guides,
as well as citations for print.
If a plagiarist
gets on a train in Cleveland and heads east at 60mph, while a second plagiarist
gets on a train in Pittsburgh and travels west at 40mph, and Cleveland and Pittsburgh
are 60 miles apart, when will they meet?
Browns 21, Steelers 7.
Other places to find answers to questions about bibliographies, citing sources, and plagiarism include:
How Not to Plagiarize (University of Toronto)
Avoiding Plagiarism (Purdue University)
Avoiding Plagiarism (UC Davis)
posted 8/13/01
page posted
and maintained by Rebecca Bliss
& Paul Doty. Please address questions
or comments
to the authors