Western Libraries
Western Libraries Western Washington University Bellingham, WA
Plagiarism Lesson
from University at Albany Libraries, on YouTube
why cite
from Western Libraries, on YouTube
Why Cite
Avoiding plagiarism may be your initial motivation for wanting to properly cite your sources, but you should now realize that there are many other reasons to cite your sources.
GROWING AN IDEA
Building on the knowledge, research, work and ideas of others is a central aspect of academic research.
Academic research may present new finding, results, and interpretations, but these new developments are always presented as being part of a larger conversation within the field.
When you research a topic you will want to use information from various sources - articles, books, and Internet sources to support and give context your ideas.
Cite your sources to show what has come before and build upon the ideas and knowledge of other people.
What is plagiarism?
You are expected to use and build upon the work of others, but you must be explicit about what is your work and what is the work of others.
If you don't clearly credit the creator, you are committing a type of theft called plagiarism. Plagiarism is derived from Greek and Latin terms for kidnapping.
photo by m.aquila, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA
WWU Definition
"Plagiarism is presenting as one's own in whole or in part the argument, language, creations, conclusions, or scientific data of another without explicit acknowledgement." - WWU Academic Honesty Policy and Procedure
Basically, plagiarism is using the ideas and words of others without clearly and properly acknowledging that those ideas and words came from someone else.
Plagiarism or not?
<insert questions or something>
Other dangers
There are other forms of plagiarism, like self plagiarism. Self plagiarism, sometimes called "double dipping," includes things like writing one paper for two different classes. Why is this plagiarism? The simplest answer is that it isn't original work for that class or that assignment. If you want to reuse work from one class in another, talk to your professors.
Also, be aware that many professors use plagiarism-detection programs like TurnItIn that check your papers against other student papers, Web sites, and articles.
How would you feel?
Take a minute to read this message from an artist whose art was stolen for profit by a large wholesale company.
image from lisacongdon.com
Lesson
Sure the theft of Lisa Congdon's art is an obvious and extreme example, but just remember how you would feel if someone else passed off your work and ideas as their own - giving you no credit at all.
How do I avoid Plagiarism?
Cite and give credit
Cite to Avoid Plagiarism
Use citations whenever you quote, paraphrase or summarize information from your sources. Even outside of school and beyond academic research papers you need to credit sources by either citations, hyperlinks, or other methods of referring and linking to the original.
Standards for web writing are still being developed, but hyperlinking to sources is a best practice and like citations, it actually strengthens the impact and credibility of your writing.
Give credit when you
- use idea, opinion or theory of others
- quote the words of others
- paraphrase the words of others
- summarize the words or concepts of others
- use facts, statistics, graphs, drawing, or other information that is not common knowledge
Note-taking
When taking notes, include complete citation information for each item you use.
Be sure to indicate what is quoted directly from the source, what is paraphrased from the source and what are your original comments.
To do this, you may wish to use different colors to distinguish.
Plagiarism Quiz Link
Plagiarism
By Western Libraries
Plagiarism
This plagiarism lesson is part of the larger Academic Integrity set of lessons that includes citations and intellectual property lessons.
