Acknowledging Sources and Academic Integrity

Jody Bailey, Reference/Instruction LibrarianUT Arlington Central Library, Rm. 312

jbailey@uta.edu817.272.7516

Adapted with permission from “Acknowledging Sources”:http://library.uta.edu/plagiarism/index.html

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What’s the point of a writing assignment?

• “Pair share” on this question!

• Discovering the dominant communication channels in a given discipline and joining that scholarly conversation

• Finding and evaluating information sources

• Learning to think for yourself and express your ideas

Jody Bailey

Image: Lavinia M

arin

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Intellectual Property• “Intellectual property (IP) refers

to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.” (“What Is Intellectual Property?” n.d.)

• In the U.S., all intellectual property is automatically copyrighted as soon as it is created and set in a fixed format.

• Acknowledging sources is thus mandatory.

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What is plagiarism?

• “When you take someone’s words or ideas and represent them as your own, you commit plagiarism. Plagiarism is using the work of others but not acknowledging the source.” (“Acknowledging Sources”)

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Plagiarism: Cultural Differences?• Students from Other Cultures:

– “When you really don’t know how to write your own composition, you can use other person’s paragraph or sentences as a student.” (Shi 275)

– “I want to use people’s expressions in English the same way because sometimes I have no other words. . . . I think [copying] a few words or a short expression is OK.” (Shi 273)

• a short expression is OK.

• U.S. Academic Culture:– Scholars work for years on

articles and books and other research; if you use their words or ideas without attribution, it’s viewed as stealing.

– By not citing your fellow scholars, you are denying them public attribution for their work and hence hindering their scholarly advancement.

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Examples• Copying/pasting text from a website.• Copying/pasting a graphic element from a website.• Copying material from printed books or magazines.• Copying someone’s spoken words or ideas.• Copying a unique or distinctive phrase.• Changing the wording of a source slightly and not citing the source.• Buying or using a paper written by someone else.• Taking another person’s ideas and acting as though they are yours.• Copying someone’s computer program.• Including artwork or music in a project without getting permission or citing the

source.• Writing a paper for Professor X’s class and using it again for Professor Y’s class; this

is called “self-plagiarism.” (“Acknowledging Sources”)You can use other people’s ideas in your own work as long as you give credit to the

original author.

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Scholastic Dishonesty at UT Arlington

• From UTA’s Office of Student Conduct, “What Constitutes Scholastic Dishonesty”

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Effects of Plagiarism

• From UTA’s Handbook of Operating Procedures, Section 2-301, “Authorized Disciplinary Actions”

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Effects of Plagiarism

• University expels 34 students for cheating: “Students not expelled were put on probation or suspended for an academic year, the second-harshest punishment, for offences such as plagiarism, or purchasing projects or papers and submitting them as their own.” (Khalaf 2010)

• Harvard Faker Adam Wheeler Pleads Guilty to 20 Counts: “indicted on 20 counts of larceny, identity fraud, falsifying an endorsement or approval, and pretending to hold a degree.” (Yu and Zauzmer 2010)

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Effects of Plagiarism• Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg: elected

to the Budestag (lower house of German parliament) in 2002.

• “In February 2011, evidence was made public that Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg had copied numerous unattributed passages from sources such as newspaper articles, speeches or term papers in his dissertation.”

• Degree revoked in late February 2011.

• zu Guttenberg resigned from the Bundestag on March 3, 2011 (“zu Guttenberg” 2011).

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Statement of Professional Ethics, Modern Language Association

• “As a community valuing free inquiry, we must be able to rely on the integrity and the good judgment of our members. For this reason, we should not . . .– plagiarize the work of others– practice deceit or fraud on the academic community or the public.”

(“Preamble” sec., par. 3)

• “A scholar who borrows from the works and ideas of others, including those of students, should acknowledge the debt, whether or not the sources are published. Unpublished scholarly material—which may be encountered when it is read aloud, circulated in manuscript, or discussed—is especially vulnerable to unacknowledged appropriation, since the lack of a printed text makes originality hard to establish.” (“Ethical Conduct in Service and Scholarship” sec., par. 2)

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How to Avoid Plagiarism?

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MLA Sample Citations(from Modern Language Association of America 193, 149)

• Journal article from an online database:Chan, Evans. “Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema.” Postmodern Culture 10.3 (2000): n. pag. Project Muse. Web. 5 June 2008.

• Print book:Franke, Damon. Modernist Heresies: British Literary History, 1883-1924. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2008. Print.

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Sample In-Text Citations (from Modern Language Association of America 216)

• AUTHOR’S NAME IN TEXTTannen has argued this point (178-85).

• AUTHOR’S NAME IN REFERENCEThis point has already been argued (Tannen 178-85).

• AUTHORS’ NAMES IN TEXTOthers, like Jakobsen and Waugh (210-15) . . . .

• AUTHORS’ NAMES IN REFERENCEOthers hold the opposite point of view (Jakobsen and Waugh 210-15).

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What do I cite?

• Quotations? • Common knowledge?• Graphics, charts, tables?• Your original ideas?• Your original research

(e.g., surveys, experiments)?

• Paraphrases of others’ ideas?

YESNO

YES

NO

NO

YES

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Tips for Quoting & Paraphrasing

• Quote accurately! • Paraphrase correctly; do not

use the structure or language of the original– Pretend to explain the source

to someone else– Summarize the source

without looking at it– If it’s too hard to paraphrase,

then quote!– Don’t just replace a word

here and there using a thesaurus!

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Correct ParaphrasingSource:

But it is important to remember that Allende consciously gives the world of magic realism a feminine touch, since it is the women who have a sixth sense and not the men. Indeed, Esteban Trueba seems to spend much of his time attempting to stop the neighbours finding out about Clara’s and Blanca’s powers of divination because of the public scandal this may produce. Likewise the novel specifically refers to the spiritual powers that the women possess as allowing them to construct a new solidarity between women, in effect, a passport to survival in a man’s world. (Hart 119)

Paraphrase: Which is better?• In Allende’s The House of the

Spirits, the author overtly stamps her fictional world of magical realism with a feminine touch, imbuing her female characters with spiritual powers and a new solidarity.

• In Allende’s The House of the Spirits, the author fashions her female characters as powerful women, if not physically then spiritually, allowing them to survive in a world dominated by men.

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What do faculty do if they think someone has plagiarized?

• TurnItIn.com• Google/Google Scholar• Wikipedia• Research databases

(e.g., MLA International Bibliography)

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“How to Tell If You’re a Plagiarist”1. DID YOU WRITE IT? [Yes/ No]2. DID YOU CITE IT? [Yes/ No]ANSWER KEY• If you answered Yes, No, you are

an honest student.• If you answered No, Yes, you are

an honest student.• If you answered No, No, you are

a plagiarist.• If you answered Yes, Yes, that

doesn't even make sense.(Nolan, 2010)• http://gawker.com/5602360/ho

w-to-tell-if-youre-a-plagiarist

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References

Acknowledging Sources. University of Texas at Arlington, 2005. Web. 2 March 2010. Hart, Stephen M. “Magical Realism in the Americas: Politicised Ghosts in One Hundred Years of Solitude,

The House of the Spirits, and Beloved.” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies 9.2 (2003): 115-123. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 3 March 2010.

Khalaf, Hala. “University expels 34 students for cheating.” The National. The National, 27 Dec. 2010. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.

Modern Language Association of America. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: MLA, 2009. Print.

Nolan, Hamilton. “How to Tell If You're a Plagiarist.” Gawker. Gawker, 2 Aug. 2010. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.Shi, Ling. “Cultural Backgrounds and Textual Appropriation.” Language Awareness 15.4 (2006): 264-282.

ERIC. Web. 2 March 2010.Statement of Professional Ethics. Modern Language Association of America, 2010. Web. 2 March 2010.What Is Intellectual Property? World Intellectual Property Organization, n.d. Web. 2 March 2010.Yu, Xi, and Zauzmer, Julie M. “Harvard Faker Adam Wheeler Pleads Guilty to 20 Counts.” Harvard

Crimson. Harvard Crimson, 16 Dec. 2010. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.“zu Guttenberg, Karl-Theodor.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 3 Mar. 2011. Web. 3 Mar. 2011.

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