Unit 2: Plagiarism

I viewed all the videos and web pages referenced in the Plagiarism Video Fest on the Moodle course page at https://moodle.clark.edu/course/view.php?id=17973.  This might sound rather dry, but in truth was fun.  Those sources were carefully chosen to keep the interest of the audience, and to inform at the same time.

  I also went to the IRIS site for Clark College at http://www.clark.edu/Library/iris/ and went through all the information recommended by the instructor, including the quiz at the end.  That experience was a dry one, but not everything can be entertaining, so I did it and survived.  At least I had the satisfaction of taking the quiz at the end and knowing I was absorbing all the material correctly.

  The following are my responses to the “Safe Practices” exercise at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/04/.  This should be interesting.

1.  This first passage appears to be correct without the use of a citation.  The author is relaying to the audience personal experiences  while traveling, and only relays information about things in the realm of common knowledge.

2.       This passage needs a citation.  If memory serves me correctly, this author is paraphrasing the Declaration of Independence.  Such a citation in text, and in the MLA style, would look like this: (Jefferson et al).  It would of course need a bibliographical entry, which might look like this:

Jefferson, T., et all.  The Declaration of Independence.  Paragraph 2.  1776.  Print.

An argument could be made as to whether or not this information is in the public domain and as such is common knowledge, but to be on the safe side I would cite my sources.

3.       It would appear that the author of this passage is quoting a statistic.  As such, the source of that statistic would need to be cited in the text as well as in the bibliography.

4.       The author of this passage needed to cite his source within the text and in the bibliography because s/he is paraphrasing the previously mentioned passage from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”.

5.       This passage, also from the M.L.King. Jr. letter, is correctly cited, with the omission of one detail.  It includes the original speaker’s name, but the suffix of Junior was omitted.

6.       Again, the suffix of Junior was omitted in this passage.  Also, the paragraph number would need to be cited at the end of the passage.  Otherwise, this passage looks to have been done correctly.

7.       The author of this bit would not need to cite his/her source as it is stated in the text that this is only a friend, and the comment seems to be of a casual nature.

8.   The author paraphrased this passage from The Bill of Rights.  There should have been a citation in the text, as well as a bibliographical entry, which should include the title, authors, place, and year.  The publisher can be omitted from the bibliography as this document was originally printed in the late 1700s, and as such is now in the public domain.  However, even a document or book in the public domain needs to be correctly attributed.


  I wrote the preceding entry in Word, but when I copied it to here the formatting was changed considerably.  I've never had that happen before.  Next time I compose something in Word I will use as little formatting as possible so that it will copy to this blog more easily.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate what I have learned.
  It's important to cite your sources, both in text and in a bibliography, so that it is clear that you respect the work of others.  If you respect the work of others then your work will be more likely to be taken seriously.  You should always state in your sources the title of the work, the name of the author, the publisher, the place it was published, and the year it was published.  I will, as I have always done, make every effort to establish all the facts I can about my sources and always cite them properly.
  -- Writer