3. Plagiarism is:
• Academic Theft
• Easy to commit unintentionally
• Grounds for University Dismissal,
Revocation of Degrees, Termination of
Employment, Civil Lawsuits, etc.
4. What is Plagiaristic?
Since teachers and administrators may not distinguish between deliberate and accidental plagiarism, the
heart of avoiding plagiarism is to make sure you give credit where it is due. This may be credit for
something somebody said, wrote, emailed, drew, or implied.
5. Famous Examples of Plagiarism
Helen Keller was accused of plagiarism as a young girl for a school
composition. Mortified, she determined to have all future
compositions screened by her friends before submission.
George Harrison was successfully sued for plagiarizing (though
perhaps unconsciously) the Chiffons' "He's So Fine" for the melody of
his own "My Sweet Lord".
Senator (now President) Joe Biden was forced to withdraw from the
1988 Democratic Presidential nominations when it was revealed that
he had failed a course in law school due to plagiarism. It was also
shown that he had copied several campaign speeches, notably those
of British Labor leader Neil Kinnock and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Popular late historian Stephen Ambrose has been criticized for
incorporating passages from the works of other authors into many of
his books.
6. Another Example of Plagiarism
• Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, has
been twice accused of plagiarism resulting in
lawsuits, but both suits were ultimately
dismissed.
Brown was accused of "appropriating the architecture" of the book The Holy
Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. A
British judge dismissed the copyright infringement claim in April 2006.
Additionally, Brown was accused by novelist Lewis Perdue for plagiarizing his
novels The Da Vinci Legacy (1983) and Daughter of God (2000). A U.S. judge
dismissed the case in August 2005.
8. In-Text Citation: When?
• Quoting
• Paraphrasing
• Summarizing
• Stating statistics, facts, or ideas obtained
from an outside source
9. When you Need to Cite
• When you use information gained through interviewing
another person
• When you copy the exact words or a "unique phrase"
from somewhere
• When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts,
and pictures
• When you use ideas that others have given you in
conversations or over email
• When you are using or referring to somebody else’s
words or ideas from a magazine, book, newspaper, song,
TV program, movie, Web page, computer program,
letter, advertisement, or any other medium
10. When you Don’t Need to Cite
• When you are writing your own experiences, your own
observations, your own insights, your own thoughts,
your own conclusions about a subject
• When you are using "common knowledge" — folklore,
common sense observations, shared information within
your field of study or cultural group
• When you are compiling generally accepted facts
• When you are writing up your own experimental
results
11. Page Numbers
• Any time you directly quote, paraphrase a
stretch of prose, or include facts, statistics or
claims drawn from one place in a text you
should include the page number or numbers
• However, many times you do not need to
refer to a specific page.
12. Page Numbers
• If you state that Mark Twain’s novel Tom Sawyer
deals with issues of race, you will not need a page
number because you drew that conclusion from the
book as a whole.
• Similarly, if you say that in her study, Deborah
Tannen examines the ways men and women
communicate differently, you will not need a page
number because it is the sense or topic of the entire
article.
• However, in both these situations you should include
the article in your Works Cited or Reference page.
14. In-Text Citation
In MLA, in-text citations are inserted in the body of your
research paper to briefly document the source of your
information. Brief in-text citations point the reader to more
complete information in the Works Cited list at the end of
the paper.
• In-text citations include the last name of the author
followed by a page number enclosed in parentheses. "Here's
a direct quote" (Smith 8).
• If the author's name is not given, then use the first word or
words of the title. Follow the same formatting that was
used in the Works Cited list, such as quotation marks. This
is a paraphrase ("Trouble" 22).
15. In-Text Citation: Format
APA in-text (Author’s Last Name, Date)
(Tannen 2002)
MLA in-text (Author’s Last Name, Pages)
(Twain 22-23)
17. Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing from One Page
Include a full in-text citation with the author name and page number (if
there is one). For example:
Mother-infant attachment became a leading topic of developmental
research following the publication of John Bowlby's studies (Hunt 65).
Paraphrasing from Multiple Pages
If the paraphrased information/idea is from several pages, include them.
For example:
Mother-infant attachment became a leading topic of developmental
research following the publication of John Bowlby's studies (Hunt 50, 55,
65-71).
18. Unknown Author
Where you'd normally put the author's last name, instead use the first
one, two, or three words from the title. Don't count initial articles like
"A", "An" or "The". You should provide enough words to make it clear which
work you're referring to from your Works Cited list.
If the title in the Works Cited list is in italics, italicize the words from the
title in the in-text citation.
If the title in the Works Cited list is in quotation marks, put quotation
marks around the words from the title in the in-text citation.
Examples:
(Cell Biology 12)
("Nursing" 12)
19. MLA FORMAT
• Mark Twain’s novel, Tom Sawyer, deals with issues of
race.
• In Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Aunt Polly says, “Who
knows, he may grow up to be President someday,
unless they hang him first!” (20).
• Tom Sawyer says, “Now we’ll start this band of robbers
and call it Tom Sawyer’s gang. Everybody that wants to
join has got to take an oath, and write his name in
blood” (Twain 20).
20. APA Format
Tannen (2002) studies the ways in which men and
women communicate differently.
Tannen (2002) finds that men are 80% more likely to
interrupt than women (p. 23).
Men are 80% more likely to interrupt than women
(Tannen 2002, p. 23).
For more information on communicative strategies see
(Joseph 1999; Randall 2001; Tannen 2002)
21. Punctuating Citations
• “Place the period after your citation” (cite).
• “But don’t dare forget to put exclamation points
and question marks which are found in the original
inside the quote!” (cite).
• Is it correct to “place your punctuation after the
citation” (cite)? --- The answer is yes.
22. Repeated Use of Sources
If you're using information from a single source more than
once in succession (i.e., no other sources referred to in
between), you can use a simplified in-text citation.
Example:
Cell biology is an area of science that focuses on the
structure and function of cells (Smith 15). It revolves
around the idea that the cell is a "fundamental unit of
life" (17). Many important scientists have contributed to
the evolution of cell biology. Mattias Jakob Schleiden and
Theodor Schwann, for example, were scientists
who formulated cell theory in 1838 (20).
23. Reference Pages
• MLA has a Works Cited page
• APA has a References page
• Include everything that you have cited in the text
• Include sources consulted but not necessarily directly
cited in-text
NOTE: Even if you cannot get complete bibliographic
information, list what you have.
24. Basic Reference Page Entries
Books
APA Last Name, First initial. (year). Title (pp). Place: Publisher.
Twain, M. (1830). Tom Sawyer (pp.170-187). New York, NY:
McGraw & Hill.
MLA Last name, First name. Title. Edition, Publisher,
Year, page number.
Twain, Mark. Tom Sawyer. 1 ed., McGraw & Hill,
1830, pp. 16-25.
25. Basic Reference Page Entries
Journal Articles
APA Last name, First initial. (date). Title of article. Journal,
vol(no), pages.
Twain, M. (1830, May 2). Jumping Frog. American Fiction,
42(3), 170-187.
MLA Last name, first name. “Title of Article.” Journal
vol., no., date, pages.
Twain, Mark. “Jumping Frog.” American Fiction
vol. 42, no. 3, 2 May 1830, 170-87.
26. Internet Sources
• To cite properly, you need to know:
• Address (http://…) and/or database name
• Date you found it
• Title of webpage
• Try to know:
• Author(s) of webpage
• Last date page was updated
27. Citing Internet Sources on
Reference Pages
Webpage
MLA Last name, first name. “Title of Article.” Website
Title, Publisher, Date published. Full URL.
Accessed Date Mon. Year.
Nelson-Coffey, Katherine. "The Science of Happiness in Positive Psychology 101."
PositivePsychology, PositivePsychology.com, 9 Jan. 2020,
positivepsychology.com/happiness/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2021.
28. Common problems
• What order do I list things in?
• Alphabetical
(However, other styles may require other systems and you should consult your
manual for more detailed information).
• What if I don’t know author/title/other?
• Try to find it via catalogs/databases
• If unavailable, just leave that section out
• What if I have too much information?
• Consult your style manual re: editors, editions,
translations, etc.
