Alessandra Aguirre, Diego Jiménez, Rachel Ballard
Is this plagiarism or not?
A. Directions: Read the following scenarios and decide whether it is a case of plagiarism or
not. (Y or N) and explain why.
__N___ 1. Kyoko needs to write a report on American politics. She looks up Barack Obama in
Wikipedia and discovers he is the 44th president of the United States. She includes this
information in her report but doesn’t mention Wikipedia.
___Y__2. Tam is writing a paper on a novel for his English class. Since the whole class is reading
the same book, he doesn’t need to use a citation.
__Y___3. Sugi wrote a paper for his European history class last semester and got an A on the
paper. This semester, his Political Science class is addressing some of the same issues that are in his History paper. He checks with his professor first who agrees with Sugi, so he uses the
material from his History paper.
__Y___4. Ramiro, Stephan, April, and Chris are working on a group project. Chris submits his
work and the others suspect that some of it came from the Internet, but it sounds good, so they
submit it.
__Y___5. Maria finds a lot of good information for her paper on the Internet. She carefully
changes the wording and prepares a good paraphrase. She doesn’t copy anything verbatim.
not. (Y or N) and explain why.
__N___ 1. Kyoko needs to write a report on American politics. She looks up Barack Obama in
Wikipedia and discovers he is the 44th president of the United States. She includes this
information in her report but doesn’t mention Wikipedia.
___Y__2. Tam is writing a paper on a novel for his English class. Since the whole class is reading
the same book, he doesn’t need to use a citation.
__Y___3. Sugi wrote a paper for his European history class last semester and got an A on the
paper. This semester, his Political Science class is addressing some of the same issues that are in his History paper. He checks with his professor first who agrees with Sugi, so he uses the
material from his History paper.
__Y___4. Ramiro, Stephan, April, and Chris are working on a group project. Chris submits his
work and the others suspect that some of it came from the Internet, but it sounds good, so they
submit it.
__Y___5. Maria finds a lot of good information for her paper on the Internet. She carefully
changes the wording and prepares a good paraphrase. She doesn’t copy anything verbatim.
B. Directions: Decide whether the information described in each scenario will require
citation of the source (Y or N) and explain why.
__Y___1. You clearly identify the source at the beginning of a paragraph that summarizes the
author’s ideas about teenage drinking. Since readers will naturally assume all of the ideas in
the paragraph are from the source, no additional citation is necessary.
__Y___2. In your paper on the history of aviation you state the date of the Wright brothers’ first
successful flight at Kitty Hawk.
__Y___3. In a paper on the civil rights movement you find some general, well-known background
information in an encyclopedia. It is obviously common knowledge, so you copy the
information and include it in your paper.
__N___4. You ask your mother about the steps she went through in obtaining a bank load for a
new car. You include this information in your paper.
__Y___5. You skim a 325-page book entitled Using the Internet. A major theme throughout the
book is that the Internet is an important technological achievement. You include this in your
paper.
citation of the source (Y or N) and explain why.
__Y___1. You clearly identify the source at the beginning of a paragraph that summarizes the
author’s ideas about teenage drinking. Since readers will naturally assume all of the ideas in
the paragraph are from the source, no additional citation is necessary.
__Y___2. In your paper on the history of aviation you state the date of the Wright brothers’ first
successful flight at Kitty Hawk.
__Y___3. In a paper on the civil rights movement you find some general, well-known background
information in an encyclopedia. It is obviously common knowledge, so you copy the
information and include it in your paper.
__N___4. You ask your mother about the steps she went through in obtaining a bank load for a
new car. You include this information in your paper.
__Y___5. You skim a 325-page book entitled Using the Internet. A major theme throughout the
book is that the Internet is an important technological achievement. You include this in your
paper.
__Y___6. You find an article that takes the same position you have taken on the subject of gun
control. To save time you summarize in your paper a portion of the argument from the article,
since the author’s ideas are identical to your own.
(Excerpts above are from the following text: Clines, R.H & Cobb, E. R. (2012) Research Writing
Simplified, 7th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.)
control. To save time you summarize in your paper a portion of the argument from the article,
since the author’s ideas are identical to your own.
(Excerpts above are from the following text: Clines, R.H & Cobb, E. R. (2012) Research Writing
Simplified, 7th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.)