Fixing Common Student Plagiarism Situations

Part 1: Fixing Common Student Plagiarism Situations

For each situation below, tell me 1) Is this plagiarism, or is this OK? 2) How can the student avoid it, or what should s/he do, who should she talk to, etc.? Keep in mind that most problems can be addressed in several different ways.

Problem 1: Jane

Jane loves reality TV.  In high school, Jane wrote a paper on women in reality TV that received an A.  Jane would like to keep thinking about this issue in FI, and in fact, her first paper assignment would be perfectly suited for this task.  Jane wants to use her A paper as a first draft for her FI class.  Can she?  Why/not?  What, if anything, should Jane do if she wants to write about this, but also wants to avoid academic dishonesty?

Problem 2: Miranda and Cesar

Two friends are working together on similar papers.  Cesar is a great writer and knows a lot about the subject.  Miranda is not as confident.  After studying together and workshopping in the library, both go home.  Miranda reads her introduction and realizes that even though she typed the words, most of the ideas and a lot of the language came from Cesar.  Is it okay for her to turn this paper in?  What, if anything, should she do if she wants to avoid academic dishonesty?

Problem 3: Mike

Mike has to write about Just Mercy, last fall’s common book, but he lost his book a long time ago.  He remembers the book pretty well, though, and he has his notes from classroom discussion about the book.  His blog post contains the following:

Stephenson is very clever at inviting the reader into his community by showing them how he became a part of it.  In particular, the scene where he first goes to talk to someone on death row in jail, and stays for hours is very effective at creating community identity.  When the incarcerated man sings at the end, Stephenson is profoundly moved by the man’s humanity.

Mike is pretty sure that his descriptions are accurate because he wrote them down during class.  Should Mike post this blog entry? It’s not a formal paper, just a weekly blog.  What, if anything, should he do if he wants to avoid academic dishonesty?

Problem 4: Kia

Kia has written a paper that opens with the following:

TREKKIE: noun.  One who is a fan of Star Trek and has vast knowledge of the canon.  Usually participates in conventions, fan clubs, etc.  Not to be confused with “Trekker,” one who lives the life of a Starfleet Officer. My name is Kia, and I’m a Trekkie!

Kia’s teacher is concerned that this is plagiarism, but it is not.  Why is Kia’s teacher worried?  Should he be?  What, if anything, should Kia do if he wants to avoid academic dishonesty?

Part 2: Learning How (Not To!) Plagiarize!

Step 1 Blatant Plagiarism: Go find something on the Internet that you like, opening it in a new window.  Keep that window open and then come back to your blog post.  Copy and paste a chunk of that text into your post, like this, with no links, etc., leaving your audience wondering what is happening:

1: Final Fantasy 12 met with mixed reactions at launch. Professional critics almost unanimously lauded it with positive reviews, but players struggled to find consensus. For every fan who loved, say, the game’s hands-off approach to combat or the way its story offered a ground-level perspective on a grand saga, another considered those elements anathema to the very concept of Final Fantasy.

Step 2: Falsification: Surround that copy-pasted text with your own words, tricking the audience into thinking you wrote it, like this:

2: I love Final Fantasy games and am a long-time player.  Final Fantasy 12 met with mixed reactions at launch. Professional critics almost unanimously lauded it with positive reviews, but players struggled to find consensus. For every fan who loved, say, the game’s hands-off approach to combat or the way its story offered a ground-level perspective on a grand saga, another considered those elements anathema to the very concept of Final Fantasy. Even though it was a controversial game, I really loved it.

Step 3: Inappropriate Source Use: Give us a signal phrase* that tells us where you found the text, and then paste the text into the box.  This is a helpful effort towards correctly identifying sources, but is still plagiarism:

3. I read an article on Polygon talking about Final Fantasy 12, which said that Final Fantasy 12 met with mixed reactions at launch. Professional critics almost unanimously lauded it with positive reviews, but players struggled to find consensus. For every fan who loved, say, the game’s hands-off approach to combat or the way its story offered a ground-level perspective on a grand saga, another considered those elements anathema to the very concept of Final Fantasy.

*Signal phrases are short expressions that help us know when your ideas stop and someone else’s starts.  Common ones are “According to the Name of this Source” or “The Name of the Article discusses” or “Name said that.”  They can be very formal or very informal, as mine above is, but they let the audience know that AP isn’t talking anymore; instead, this Polygon article is taking over.

Step 4: Appropriate Source Use: Introduce your source with a signal phrase, put quotation marks around all the words that come from a source, and include an MLA-style parenthetical citation.  This is what all your in-text uses of sources should look like:

4: According to Jeremy Parish, who wrote “The making of Final Fantasy 12” for Polygon, “Final Fantasy 12 met with mixed reactions at launch. Professional critics almost unanimously lauded it with positive reviews, but players struggled to find consensus. For every fan who loved, say, the game’s hands-off approach to combat or the way its story offered a ground-level perspective on a grand saga, another considered those elements anathema to the very concept of Final Fantasy” (Parish).

Step 5: Include a Works Cited entry for your source: Copy and paste what you wrote in step 4, then add a Works Cited entry.  Most of you will probably be using web pages, so here’s the format for a page on a website:

Author Last name, First name or Publisher of Site. “Title of Page.” Title of site in italics, Date of Publication, URL. Access date.

5. According to Jeremy Parish, who wrote “The making of Final Fantasy 12” for Polygon, “Final Fantasy 12 met with mixed reactions at launch. Professional critics almost unanimously lauded it with positive reviews, but players struggled to find consensus. For every fan who loved, say, the game’s hands-off approach to combat or the way its story offered a ground-level perspective on a grand saga, another considered those elements anathema to the very concept of Final Fantasy” (Parish).

Parish, Jeremy. “The making of Final Fantasy 12.” Polygon. 5 July 2017. polygon.com/features/2017/7/5/15916862/the-making-of-final-fantasy-12. Accessed 6 July 2017.