Chapter 7-Avoiding Plagiarism

This chapter is all about plagiarism and the ways to avoid it. Knowing what plagiarism is the first step in avoiding it. The book defines it as "either unintentionally using someone else's work without properly acknowledging where the ideas or information came from or intentionally passing of someone else's work as your own" (121).

When you unintentionally plagiarize you don't use quotation marks, paraphrase that it's barely noticeable as any different from the original source, you don't make it super clear which words are yours and which aren't, and lastly you don't cite your source. When a writer gets caught unintentionally plagiarizing there are usually consequences. There is also intentional plagiarism.   This is when you take bits and pieces from more than one source and combining them without distinguishing what is what and where it came from. Also making up your own citations, copying  passages or an entire document and saying they're your own, and lastly buying a paper. Another potential way of plagiarizing is in groups.

Another part to understanding plagiarism is research ethics. This is defined as "an honest exchange of information, ideas, and arguments among writers and readers who share an interest in an issue" (124). There are three basic rules. First is to show some respect by acknowledging where your sources came from. Second, keep your information accurate. And third, use citations. We should also know what common knowledge means, which is " information that is widely known, or it might be the kind of knowledge that people working in a particular field use on a regular basis" (124).

If you are accused of plagiarism just be sure to go back to your sources and make sure you have used citations and double check the information you used, as well as talking to your teacher about ways that you can fix the problem.

Most importantly to avoid plagiarism the book suggests "conduct a knowledge inventory, take notes carefully, distinguish between your ideas and those drawn from your sources, cite sources in the text and in a works cited or reference list, recognize the misconceptions about intentional plagiarism" (126).