By: Katie, Ruby, Daisy
Is this plagiarism or not?
1. Directions: Read the following scenarios and decide whether it is a case of plagiarism or not. (Y or N) and explain why.
Y 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.
- This is plagiarism because she did not cite the source she used which was 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.
- This is plagiarism because Tam is writing about a book and needs to cite the source no matter what.
N 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.
- This is not plagiarism because Sugi used his prior knowledge and information.
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.
- Yes this is plagiarism because every member should be clear on the information talked about and if an Internet source was used it needs to be cited.
N 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.
- No this is not plagiarism because she put the information into her own words and did not quote the Internet.
2. 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.
- This needs a citation because any time you use information from a source you need to cite it throughout the whole paper.
N 2. In your paper on the history of aviation you state the date of the Wright brothers’ first successful flight at Kitty Hawk.
- No this doesn’t need a citation because it seems to be prior knowledge.
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.
- This needs a citation because although its common knowledge the person found the information from the encyclopedia which is a source.
Y 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.
- Yes this needs a citation because the mother would be considered the source of the information.
Y/N 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.
- This would need a citation if you directly talk about the source. If you are using the major theme as just an idea for a paper you don’t need to cite it.
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.
- Even though the ideas are very similar, information was used from another source and that needs to be cited.
