I was amazed by what I learned through the two plagiarism articles. I thought I pretty much knew what plagiarism was. I thought plagiarism was not giving credit to someone when you used their words. Early on in the reading, I found out that using just a few words from someone else’s work without proper citation, can be considered plagiarism. Paraphrasing, which I always thought was somewhat safe to do, is also considered plagiarism. You can re-word, re-phrase, and re-assemble your own version of a read passage, but it is still plagiarism, even though you think you “wrote it in your own words.”
The best way to avoid getting into trouble is by citing everything you used to create the paper you are working on. Whether it be a concept, idea, or simply a few specific words that the author used, you absolutely have to cite the sources. Citing is not all that difficult. All you have to do is directly cite the source in the text, or you can create some footnotes. It’s OK to use other people’s idea/concepts to help form your own argument/opinion; however, you must give credit to any and everything you used to support/form your argument/opinion. These articles taught me quite a bit. Plagiarism is taken very seriously in college, and academic dishonesty goes on your permanent academic record. From now on, I know very well the importance of citing my sources, and I will do my best to avoid plagiarism.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteYes, that’s generally a good rule of thumb—if you aren’t sure about whether or not you should cite something, cite it. However, it’s important to know why we’re citing., and one of the biggest reasons is to “pay tribute” to someone else’s ideas and work. Another reason is to show that you’ve “done your homework”—ie that you’re well read in a given subject. A third reason is to allow your reader to follow your “paper trail” so that they can verify the credibility of your sources.
Jumping back to an older blog post—I’m glad to see that you’re interested in studying abroad. We’re going to have a presentation from UCSB’s study abroad program on 9/6, so make sure that you’re there in section!
Keep up the good work, Alex.
Zack