Plagiarism

The purpose of a research paper is to develop your abilities to organize and analyze information.  All ideas which are not your own should be referenced; all words which are not original should be in quotation marks.  The improper use of the work of others (e.g., using information or quotes without references; submitting the work of another as your own) constitutes plagiarism--which is viewed as academic dishonesty or cheating.  One common form of plagiarism is paraphrasing material from another source (i.e., changing a few words in a sentence written by another author and then including this material without quotation marks--so that it appears to be your own).  If you use ideas (as opposed to a direct quote) from another source, then you must make sure that the material is in your own words--and you must still give credit with a citation.  For additional material on plagiarism, see the examples linked to this web page.

Another increasingly common form of plagiarism is the submission of research papers downloaded from internet sites.  Please do not do this--no matter how strong the temptation!  This is perhaps the most flagrant form of cheating.  If you are caught (and I do check internet sources) you will at a minimum receive a failing grade for the course.

 I view plagiarism as a very serious matter.  IF YOUR PAPER CONTAINS A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF PLAGIARISM, YOU WILL RECEIVE A GRADE OF ZERO AND POSSIBLY BE SUBJECT TO ADDITIONAL PENALTIES!  You are responsible for ensuring that your paper is not plagiarized.  Be sure that your references are accurate.  Check to see whether or not you are merely paraphrasing one of your sources (a good tip-off is several consecutive references to the same work).  If you have any questions or concerns about this you should meet with me BEFORE you submit your paper.  For your protection, you should make and keep photocopies of pages from which you take quotations or significant amounts of material.  If there is any question of plagiarism with respect to your paper, you will be asked to submit this material.

 In addition to plagiarism, students are urged to avoid "cut and paste jobs"--papers which are little more than a collection of properly cited quotes and references.  Such papers will receive low grades.  Do not let your references write your paper for you.  Your paper should synthesize material from several sources and should contain significant original material.  If you are citing the same material several times in a row, this is often an indication that you are letting your sources write your paper.  Please keep in mind that research material should be viewed as the tools and building materials with which you construct your work.  The organization (i.e., the blueprint) and the wording should be your own.  What I am interested in is your ability to research and organize information and your thoughts and ideas on the subject matter.

 The following material provides an example of what NOT to do.  The first page is from a student paper and the second page is from a journal article.  Note the correspondence between the student paper and the journal article (the circled numbers on the student paper correspond to numbered items in the journal article).  All this student has done is to paraphrase the journal article; NOTHING reflects the student's own ideas.  PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT DO THIS!

Click here to view the plagiarism example!