"Plagiarism is the act of presenting
another's words or ideas as your own writing without
acknowledging your debt to the original source," per
the definition used by the SSU English & Humanities
Department and by Senior
Seminar faculty. (more)
Plagiarism is
considered academic misconduct "...whether it occurs in the
classroom (i.e., through the use of term papers or laboratory
reports from any source other than the student’s own work) or
anywhere else within the Shawnee State community" according
to the
Shawnee
State University Student Handbook (27).
A paper or project with "stuff" that you downloaded,
cut-and-pasted, bought, or borrowed without proper
acknowledgements is plagiarized.
How to Avoid Plagiarism
When in doubt, cite
it. If you found out something and are passing it along in your paper,
document it.
Whether
you are quoting word for word or only just talking about what you
found out, make
a reference. If you are quoting
verbatim, in addition to providing a citation, either put the quote
in quotation marks or set it off as an indented block of text.
It
doesn't matter where it came from -- an article,
a TV show, the Internet, an email, a cartoon, a textbook, a table, a
webpage -- it must be cited.
What is
"Common
Knowledge"?
"Common
knowledge" is information that you know already and/or would expect
other people to know. These pieces of information may be
common knowledge:
-
Pi =
3.14....
-
Columbus
is the capital of Ohio.
-
Shaking
babies can cause irreversible brain damage.
-
Some forest
fires are set by arsonists.
-
Julia
Roberts is one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses.
-
"Dover
Beach" is probably the best-known of Matthew Arnold's
poems.
You do
not have to create a citation for information that is common
knowledge, but if you had to look up a piece of information
or if you learned it while you were doing your research, you need to cite the
source.
It is
unlikely that these pieces of information are common knowledge:
-
"Matthew
Arnold's poem 'Dover Beach' concludes with a pessimistic
lamentation relative to the possibility of human happiness in a
time bereft of faith" (Schow).
-
Julia
Roberts' husband is David Moder
(Schneider).
-
The
2002 Hayman fire in Colorado was the worst in that state's
history (Fires 619).
-
One
study of shaken baby syndrome reported that "... of those
infants who were comatose when initially examined, 60% died or
had profound mental retardation, spastic quadriplegia, or severe
motor dysfunction" (American 208).
-
1,071,524
people lived in
Franklin County, Ohio, as of July 1, 2001 (Ohio).
-
Pi is
3.03232214303… in base 5 (Trotter).
Speak
with your professor if you have any questions about providing
citations.
Acknowledging a Source
Acknowledging or
documenting a source means indicating where you got your
information. In a paper, cite your source by providing a brief
citation in the text of the paper and a corresponding full citation
in the list of sources at the end of the paper. Citations may
also be called references.
See
Citing
Resources for more information about creating citations.
The Senior
Seminar syllabus further explains plagiarism with the
following: Plagiarism
can include not only quoted material that is not cited and credited
but also summaries or paraphrases of material that are not cited and
credited. Plagiarism
can also include submitting a paper that someone else wrote or a
paper that was substantially revised by someone else.
Plagiarism can be unintentional as well as intentional.
To avoid plagiarism, submit your own work and be sure to
credit sources and properly cite them.
Plagiarism
constitutes academic misconduct according to university policy.
The consequences of plagiarism include a failing grade for
the Senior Seminar paper and a failing grade for the course. (Course)
Works
Cited
American Academy of
Pediatrics. Committee on Child Abuse
and Neglect. "Shaken Baby Syndrome: Rotational Cranial
Injuries-Technical Report." Pediatrics 108
(2001): 206-210. CINAHL.
EBSCOhost. Clark Memorial Lib., Portsmouth, OH. 6 Mar. 2003. <http://bll.epnet.com/>.
"Course
Syllabus. Senior Seminar. Interdisciplinary Studies.
IDST 490S." Shawnee State University. 11 March
2003. <http://www.shawnee.edu/off/gep/sen.html>
"Fires and Explosions." Time
Almanac 2003. 618-619.
Ohio.
Department of Development. Office of Strategic Research. Ohio
Total Population Estimates: July 1, 2001. Apr.
2002. 6 Mar. 2003. <http://www.odod.state.oh.us/research/FILES/P102.pdf>.
Schneider,
K.S. "Hideaway Bride." People
22 July 2002: 68-74.
Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated. WilsonWeb. Clark
Memorial Lib., Portsmouth, OH. 6 Mar. 2003. <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/>.
Schow,
H.W. "Arnold's Dover Beach." Explicator
57 (1998): 26-7. Humanities Abstracts.
WilsonWeb. Clark Memorial Lib., Portsmouth, OH. 7 Mar.
2003. <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/>.
"Shawnee
State University Student Handbook." 11 Mar. 2003. Shawnee
State University. <http://www.shawnee.edu/acadamics/Student%20Handbook.pdf
>
Trotter,
Terrel. "Let's Take Another Look at Pi Day." Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School
7 (2002) 374+ .
Academic Search Premier. EBSCOhost. Clark
Memorial Lib., Portsmouth, OH. 7 Mar. 2003. <http://web24.epnet.com/>.
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