WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?

WHO CARES?
KEY TERMS

▪Plagiarism
▪Source
▪Citation
▪Common Knowledge

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 WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
“Copying the language, structure, ideas
and/or thoughts of another and adopting the
same as one’s own original work.”

-From the Student Handbook online

http://www.ecu.edu/studenthandboo
k/policies.htm

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 WHAT IS A “SOURCE”?
Any person or text (online, print, broadcast, etc.) from which
you get information that you use in your writing.

▪ A friend/coworker you interview

▪ A website you find through Google
▪ A comment made by someone else in a chatroom
▪ A newspaper or magazine article (online or in print)
▪ An article from a scholarly journal (online or in print)
▪ A television show. etc.

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 WHAT DOES “CITATION”
MEAN?
➢Citation, in this context, simply means clearly giving
credit where credit is due.
➢Proper citation involves clearly indicating
▪ the author, title, and publication information for the print,
online, broadcast, and interview-based texts that you use
▪ which words and ideas come from which sources (Include in-
text citations or footnote/endnote notations)
▪ when you are moving from your own words and ideas to the
words and/or ideas of another (Include source writer’s name
and signal phrase)

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 WHAT IS “COMMON
KNOWLEDGE”?
➢A well-known fact.
➢Information that is likely to appear in numerous sources
and to be familiar to large numbers of people.
➢This is the only time you do not need to cite information,
provided that you do not copy that information word-for-
word from a source.
➢If you are not sure if the information you want to use meets
these definitions, cite it.

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Examples of statements that are common
knowledge

▪ Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

▪ University of Johannesburg is located in Johannesburg, GP

and is a comprehensive university.
▪ Smoking can cause respiratory diseases such as cancer.

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Examples of Statements that are NOT
Common Knowledge

➢The family of Martin Luther King, Jr. retained the same

attorney as his accused assassin, James Earl Ray, because
they do not believe that Ray had anything to do with King’s
death.

➢UJ enrolled 30,000 full-time undergraduate students in 2011

and 50,000 in 2008.

➢Drinking and driving accounts for 90% of all road accident

deaths in South Africa.

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 WHY IS CITING SOURCES
SUCH A BIG DEAL?
1. Source Writer’s Perspective: The perspective of
someone whose words and/or ideas are being used
by someone else
2. Source User’s Perspective: The perspective of
someone who uses the words and/or ideas from a
source

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SOURCE WRITER’S PERSPECTIVE
It is important that others cite my words
and ideas so that

1. My work can have a broader impact

and can lead to further research and
the advancement of knowledge

2. Other people will know where to go

to get more information

3. I will get the credit (intellectually

and, sometimes, financially) and
recognition I deserve
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SOURCE USER’S PERSPECTIVE
▪ To give credit where it is due

▪ To show that research has been done and

to build credibility

▪ To help readers identify what else they

might wish to read (“research trail”)

▪ To demonstrate the relevance and

importance of the topic being addressed.

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 WHY DO PEOPLE PLAGIARIZE?
▪ They don’t know why it is important to cite their sources.
▪ They lack confidence in their own ideas and writing
abilities.
▪ They cannot figure out how to respond to the writing
assignment/task.
▪ They have never used and are intimidated by handbooks
that explain citation styles
▪ They have procrastinated too long

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 MOTIVATIONS FOR
PLAGIARISM

1. Conscious Plagiarism
2. Unintentional Plagiarism

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TYPE 1: CONSCIOUS PLAGIARISM
The deliberate misrepresentation of someone else’s material
as one’s own. This form of plagiarism is subject to the most
severe academic punishment. Don’t do it.

Examples
▪ Submitting an essay purchased from a term paper service
▪ Intentionally copying another student’s work
▪ Having someone else write your paper for you
▪ Claiming copied material in your paper as your own
TYPE 2: UNINTENTIONAL PLAGIARISM
1. Failing, accidentally, to provide sufficient information
about a source from which you have used language and/or
ideas
2. Failing, accidentally, to clearly differentiate between your
words and ideas and the words and ideas that you get from
other sources
3. Making errors in the placement and use of quotation
marks

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TYPES OF PLAGIARISM

1. Wholesale
2. Patchwork
3. Idea-based
4.Sprinkle

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TYPE 1: WHOLESALE PLAGIARISM

▪ Copying an entire source or a

large section of a source and
passing it off as one’s own work.
TYPE 2: PATCHWORK PLAGIARISM

▪ Copying portions of multiple

sources, connecting them
together, and submitting the
resulting document as one’s
own work.
TYPE 3 - IDEA-BASED PLAGIARISM
▪ Presenting someone else’s
unique interpretation, theory,
or analysis as one’s own.
▪ This constitutes plagiarism
even if the wording has been
changed.
TYPE 4 - SPRINKLE PLAGIARISM

▪ Occasional failure to cite

properly through missing
information, errors in
punctuation, etc.
▪ Often unintentional.
 PARAPHRASE
▪What is a paraphrase?

In a paraphrase, your goal is to rewrite a statement into

different words and with a different sentence structure
without losing the original meaning of the text and while
maintaining the same general length as the original.

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PARAPHRASING PROPERLY
▪ Using phrases directly from the source without putting them
in quotation marks constitutes plagiarism.
▪ Following the same sentence structure while changing only
a few words also constitutes plagiarism.

Original From Lester, James D. Writing Research Poor Paraphrase

Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.

“Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking
notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final
paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript
should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you
should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of
source materials while taking notes” (Lester 46).
Students often use too many direct quotations when they
take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final
research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the
final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So
it is important to limit the amount of source material
copied while taking notes (Lester 46).

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Original From Lester, James D. Writing Poor Paraphrase
Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
“Students frequently overuse direct
quotation in taking notes, and as a result
they overuse quotations in the final
paper. Probably only about 10% of your
final manuscript should appear as
directly quoted matter. Therefore, you
should strive to limit the amount of exact
transcribing of source materials while
taking notes” (Lester 46).
Students often use too many direct
quotations when they take notes,
resulting in too many of them in the final
research paper. In fact, probably only
about 10% of the final copy should
consist of directly quoted material. So it
is important to limit the amount of
source material copied while taking
notes (Lester 46).
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Original From Lester, James D. Writing Good Paraphrase
Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
“Students frequently overuse direct
quotation in taking notes, and as a result
they overuse quotations in the final
paper. Probably only about 10% of your
final manuscript should appear as
directly quoted matter. Therefore, you
should strive to limit the amount of exact
transcribing of source materials while
taking notes” (Lester 46).
In research papers students often quote
excessively, failing to keep quoted
material down to a desirable level. Since
the problem usually originates during
note taking, it is essential to minimize
the material recorded verbatim (Lester
46).
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 SIGNAL PHRASES
▪ A Signal Phrase is a word or group of words that let your
reader know when words and ideas in your writing come
from another source.
Example (signal phrases indicated in red):
The Construction Industry Board (1997) stated that Value Management
(VM) is a structured approach to establish what value means to a client
while trying to meet a perceived need, through clearly defining and
agreeing on the project objectives and establishing how they can best
be achieved. Kelly et al. (2004) opined that VM can be seen as an
effective design management method that can reduce unnecessary
capital and life cycle costs. Abidin and Pasquire (2005) further
observed that in VM, although clients tend to put pressure on cost
reduction, their vision would still be the same, i.e. value for money,
better quality, profitability and positive business image

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 SOME SIGNAL PHRASES
▪ Reports
▪ Acknowledges
▪ Argues
▪ Comments
▪ Notes
▪ Reasons
▪ Suggests
▪ Adds
▪ Observes
▪ Compares
▪ Thinks
▪ Refutes
▪ Claims
▪ Admits
▪ Emphasizes
▪ Confirms
▪ Points out
▪ Illustrates
▪ Writes
▪ Agrees

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WHEN DO I NEED TO WORRY
ABOUT PLAGIARISM?
▪ You should avoid plagiarizing in
all of your research, in all of your
modules.
▪ Plagiarism is not just something
your lecturer cares about—it is
something that all instructors in
all disciplines care about.

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TIPS FOR AVOIDING CONSCIOUS
PLAGIARISM
▪ Do not procrastinate—start early!
▪ If the project allows for some freedom,
find a subject that actually interests you
▪ Use prewriting strategies
(Brainstorming, free-writing, clustering)
to generate YOUR ideas on the subject
BEFORE you start reading about what
others say.
▪ Realize how easy it is for an examiner
to discover a plagiarized paper
▪ Realize the severity of the
consequences

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TIPS FOR AVOIDING UNINTENTIONAL
PLAGIARISM

▪ Do not procrastinate—start early!

▪ Use prewriting strategies
▪ Take careful notes & follow a structured note-taking
procedure.
▪ Be very careful copying and pasting from
online/electronic sources!
▪ Indicate clearly in your notes where different ideas
come from (try color-coding things you copy or
paraphrase from different sources or use some form of
margin notations, such as “M” for “my thoughts” and
“S1” for “source #1,” etc.).

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Avoiding Unintentional Plagiarism (cont’d)

▪ Indicate clearly which ideas are your ideas and which

ideas come from another source
▪ Save draft versions of your writing as you proceed so
that if you accidentally delete a citation while revising,
you can go back and get it.
▪ Befriend a citation handbook
▪ Don’t forget the quotation marks & the parenthetical
references!
http://www.smccd.edu/accounts/csmlibrary/tutorials/pa
renthetical.html
http://www.easybib.com/help/paren

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UNIVERSITY RESOURCES
▪ http://www.uj.ac.za/EN/Library/AcademicSu
pport/Pages/ResearchTools.aspx

▪ REFERENCE TECHNIQUES: HARVARD style

▪ University Writing Center

▪ All other courses

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