Avoid Plagiarism

Definition and warning

• “Plagiarism” = Stealing someone’s words or ideas
• Don’t copy paste!
• Usual reason is doing homework at 3am the day before a 9am deadline. Time management!
  • If you need an extension, ask for it!
  • -1 point for late work is better than -100% for copy-paste
• If you copy-paste, I will see it, Google it, and find it. It’s easy to spot.
• See university policy for consequences of plagiarism.
• It can have more serious consequences, especially after first year or during study abroad. Don’t become a famous example of cheating!

Types of plagiarism

Original sentence (direct quote):

“He renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton” (Nobel Foundation, 1922).

Type 1 Plagiarism: Copy-paste with no citation and no quotes

The next year, Einstein renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America, where he worked at Princeton.

Type 2 Plagiarism: Copy-paste with quotes but no citation

The next year Einstein “renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America” where he worked at Princeton.

Type 3 Plagiarism: Copy-paste with citation but no quotes

The next year he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America (Nobel Foundation, 1922) where he worked at Princeton.

Type 4 Plagiarism: Copy-paste and just change a few words

He gave up his citizenship for some reasons and emigrated to the US to take the position of teacher of Theoretical Physics at Princeton (Nobel Foundation, 1922).

Type 5 Plagiarism: Too many quotes (“Patchwriting”)

Deforestation is also a major source of greenhouse gases since “Approximately a third of all human related greenhouse gas emissions are absorbed by the oceans” (SEE Turtles, n.d.). Also, “WWF works around the world to establish marine protected areas (MPA) to ensure sea turtles have a safe place to nest, feed and migrate freely” (WWF, n.d.), and there is a treaty about the international business of the endangered wild animals and plants. However, “despite their current protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and many national laws, there is still a disturbingly large amount of illegal trade in hawksbill shells and products” (WWF, n.d.).

Solution

• Cite every idea, not once per paragraph.
• Use Google Classroom originality report
  • Instructions in English
  • Instructions in Japanese
  • Type 2 plagiarism is still bad! Turn on “cited or quoted” option! “引用された文を含むテキストをハイライト表示するには、[引用した文章が # 件あります] の横にあるスイッチをオン にします”
• No Google Classroom?
  • Grammarly can at least give you a warning.
  • Some classes might use Turnitin instead.

What is the solution?

Best solution - never copy paste anything, ever!

• Take notes in Japanese, or using only keywords in English
• Write in English sentences in your own words.

Quoting: OK solution (occasionally)

• if you really need to quote, do it, but be careful
• Quote ONLY a FEW SHORT and IMPORTANT phrases. Too much = type 5 plagiarism.
  • Don’t forget quotemarks “ “, citation, and possibly page number
  • After this, he “renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton” (Nobel Foundation, 1922, p. 23)
• You can make SMALL changes to quotes if they don’t change the meaning:
  • Original: “He doesn’t like cats, and although they are friendly he doesn’t like dogs either”
  • Shorter: “He doesn’t like cats … he doesn’t like dogs either”
  • Grammar: “He doesn’t like cats … [or] dogs”
  • Names: “[Bob] doesn’t like cats, … [or] dogs”
  • Don’t change meaning though.

BAD solution: Copy-paste-then-Paraphrase

• Please don’t. If you copy paste then try to fix it:
  • You’re learning nothing. My feedback on your grammar is wasted.
  • It’s easy to miss a bit and get flagged
  • It’s easy to not change it enough and get flagged
• If you have to, change everything!
  • Change the words. Careful with using a thesaurus - the words are probably wrong
  • Change the word order. Fix the grammar you’ve just broken.
  • Change tense in indirect quotes
    • “Imagination is more important than knowledge” (Einstein, 1931, p. 31)
    • Einstein (1931) said that imagination was more important than knowledge
  • Doing this right is harder than just writing your own summary. Again, try not to!