CEL 2103

WRITING ACADEMIC TEXTS

SEMESTER 1, 2020/2021

CLASS MATERIAL WEEK 7

Plagiarism

A work is often considered as plagiarised when it contains another person’s ideas, processes,
results, data or words without giving appropriate credit to the owner. In other words,
plagiarism is when you claim someone else’s thought and work as your own. In the academic
world, this is a crime and can be heavily penalised.

Activity 1
Read these situations carefully and decide whether they are acts of plagiarism or not. State your
reason in the space provided.

No. Situation Answer

A student uses an internet article in researching her Yes / No

paper. She finds several of the ideas in the article
Reason:
useful and develops them in her own paper. Since she
1
does not quote from the text, she does not cite in her
paper, but she does put the reference in the
bibliography.

You are taking a class that a friend has already taken. Yes / No
She lets you read her paper for you to get some ideas
Reason:
2 and tells you to use any parts of the paper you find
useful. You incorporate some of her paragraphs into
your paper without citation.

A friend offers to let you read his paper to help you get Yes / No
some ideas and tells you to use any parts of the paper
Reason:
you find useful. You incorporate one of his paragraphs
3 into your paper, and you are careful to include all of
the citations from his paper in your footnotes so that
readers will be able to find the original source of the
information.

A student finds a picture on the web that perfectly Yes / No

4 illustrates a point she wants to make in her paper. She
Reason:
downloads the picture but does not use the website’s
analysis; in addition, she writes her own caption for the

1
 picture. Since the analysis and caption are her own,
she does not include a citation for the picture.

You are discussing your term paper with your Yes / No

professor. She gives you an interesting idea about
Reason:
how you might interpret some of the materials you
5 have been studying. Since the discussion was
informal and does not pertain to an area in which your
professor intends you to publish, you incorporate her
suggestions without acknowledgement.

Avoiding Plagiarism

One of the ways to avoid plagiarism is to give acknowledgement to the originator(s) of the idea(s).
This can be done by using proper citation and referencing technique.

Activity 2
Other than to avoid plagiarism, what are other purposes of including a citation in your writing?

1. ________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________

Activity 3
Identify the errors in each of the citation below.

1.

“The cold ocean water around Antarctica flows north to mix with warmer water from the
tropics, and its upwellings help to cool both the surface water and our atmosphere. Yet
the fragility of this regulating system is now threatened by human activity” (Jane Auduboy,
1990).

Error(s): _______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

2
2.
Eastmond states that distance learning is an increasingly important aspect of higher
education because it meets the needs of an expanding pool of nontraditional students
who find education necessary for jobs in today’s information age.

Error(s): _______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

3.

According to Celik (2015), he found that managing the learning environment in

classrooms with students of a range of ability levels or achievement is one of the tough
issues faced by many teachers.

Error(s): _______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

4.

One study concluded that wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85
percent. In an accident, a bike helmet absorbs the shock and cushions the head.
(Consumer Reports:1990)

Error(s): _______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

5.

Armstrong (2004) suggests that historical cost accounting has "passed its use-by date".

Error(s): _______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

3
 Reporting Verbs

One of the most common ways to incorporate citations into your writing is to use reporting verbs.
They are needed in order to connect the in-text citation to the information which you are citing.
Before selecting a verb, it is vital that you carefully read the source and clearly understand the
author’s claim(s).

Activity 4
Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate reporting verb.

1. Greenberg (2001) _______________ the importance of taking a liberal approach.

2. Alam et al. (2004) _______________ patients diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes for a minimum
of 8 years.

3. Toms (1982) _______________ the common belief that humans have five senses. In his
research, he finds that there are in fact nine senses.

4. Hanks (2004) _______________ an idiom as an expression whose “meaning . . . is distinct

5. from the sum of its parts” (p. 257).

6. Jirapanakorn (2012) _______________ the use of reporting verbs in international journals

and Thai journals, and found that there were fewer uses of reporting verbs in the Thai journals.

4
Activity 5
Write the in-text citations in APA style by using the information below.

1. Author: Michelle Warn

Date: February 20, 2014

Paraphrase: Identifying potential plagiarism creates an opportunity for dialogue, or

a “teachable moment,” where students and faculty can explore
issues of academic integrity.

In-text citation:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

2. Author: Dr Nadya Yakovchuk, Dr Jo Badge and Dr Jon Scott

Title: Moving beyond plagiarism detection towards a culture of academic

integrity

Date: 2011

Paraphrase: Cut and slide plagiarism is committed when only a portion of the
source is appropriately documented. The rest of the source is
downgraded in importance and split off or moved to a footnote or an
appendix.

In-text citation:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

5
3. Author: Allen Jameison, Susan Plette, Mike Bullet, Huston Leo, Hams
Pesagor and Danial Mark

Title: A Quick Look at the Symptoms of Adult-Onset Cardiac Disease

in Diabetics

Date: 2013

Paraphrase: The patients showed few symptoms of adult-onset diabetes

after two weeks of treatment.

In-text citation:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

4. Author: Mokhtar bin Ramli, Khoo Kheng-Hor and Azira binti Hashim

Date: 2002

Paraphrase: The most common and popular electronic information resource was
the Internet.

In-text citation:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

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 5. Author Jane E. Brody

Title Mental reserves keep brains agile

Date 11 December 2007

URL http://www.nytimes.com

Paraphrase Like every other part of the body, the brain changes with age,
and those changes can affect the agility of the brain.

In-text citation:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Activity 6
Each entry on the reference list below contains TWO errors. Identify and correct those errors.

1. Allison, b. (2004). The student’s guide to preparing dissertations and theses (2nd ed.).
Routledge Falmer : London, England.

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

2. Azirah binti Hashim. (2005). How to write a thesis: The thesis writing journey from start to
finish. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: University of Malaya Press

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

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3. Blum, C., Borglund, S., & Parcells, D. (2010). High-fidelity nursing simulation: Impact on
student self-confidence and clinical competence. International Journal of Nursing Education
Scholarship, 7(1), 1-14. doi: 10.2202?1548-923X.2035.

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

4. Moll, L, C., Saez, R. & Dworin, J. (2001, November 14). Exploring biliteracy: Two student case
examples of writing as a social practice. The Elementary School Journal, 101, 437-449.

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

5. Carol Jane Amato. (1998). The world’s easiest guide to using the APA (2nd ed.).
Westminster, CA: Stargazer Pub.

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________