Plagiarism Activity

The checklist below will help you understand when you need to cite in order to avoid plagiarism.  It is a good idea to use this checklist if you're ever in doubt about whether or not to cite something.

Here is the checklist:

1. What type of source are you using: your own independent material, common knowledge, or someone else's independent material? You must acknowledge someone else's material.

2. If you are quoting someone else's material, is the quotation exact? Have you inserted quotation marks around quotations? Have you shown omission with ellipsis and additions with brackets?

3. If you are paraphrasing or summarizing someone else's material, have you used your own words and sentence structures? Does your paraphrase or summary employ quotation marks when you resort to author's exact language? Have you represented the author's meaning without distortion?

4. Is each use of someone else's material acknowledged in your text? Are all of your source citations complete and accurate?

5. Does your list of works cited include all of the sources you have drawn from in writing your paper?
To reiterate, you don't need to acknowledge "your own independent material" or "common knowledge," but "you must acknowledge someone else's material." Also note that if you choose to paraphrase or summarize, you not only need to use "your own words," you must also use your own "sentence structures."
Plagiarism
Refer to the checklist above to complete the following true/false statements.


1. You're having trouble with a paper. Your friend took the same class last semester with a different professor and lets you look at his paper. You are writing on a different topic, but decide to borrow a couple of sentences for your introduction. This is considered plagiarism.

True False


2. You've been sick all week and were not able to meet with your group about your project and didn't help with any of the work. Your friends understand and allow you to put your name on the project even though you didn't do anything. This is considered plagiarism.

True False


3. It is always best to over-cite.

True False
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