What is plagiarism? According to Joseph Gibaldi, author of the MLA Handbook, plagiarism is the use of “another person’s ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source.” Gibaldi gives the following examples of plagiarism: 1. Failur e to acknowledge another person’s ideas. 2. Failure to acknowledge another person’s wording. 3. Failure to quote a particularly effective term. 4. Failure to credit another person’s argument or line of reasoning which you have put into your own words. 5. Following the same organizational pattern sentence by sentence, even if you have made an effort to change the wording, without crediting the source .
What are the Consequences of Plagiarizing? When you submit your extended essay, you must sign the cover sheet declaring two things: “The essay I am submitting is my own work (apart from guidance allowed by the International Baccalaureate Organization).” and “I have acknowledged each use of the words, graphics or ideas of ano ther person, whether written, or oral.” If you do not sign this declaration, your extended essay will not be assessed. Without an assessed extended essay, you will not meet the requirements for an IB diploma. Furthermore, the IB Handbook of Procedures states: In order to be awarded an IB diploma, “candidates are required to act in a responsible and ethical manner. In particular candidates must avoid any form of malpractice”, an example of which is plagiarism.
How to avoid Plagiarism 1. Document your paper each time you: A. use another person’s ideas. B. use another person’s wording. C. use another person’s particularly effective term. D. use another person’s argument or line of reasoning. 2. Credit the following items: A. the authority whose information you used whether you quote it or put it in your own words. B. the author of the source in which the information was found if he/she is not the original authority ex: (Richard Peabody qtd. in Franklin 195). C. the page number on which the information was found. 3 . For each citation use either parenthetical or in-text documentation. Parenthetical: source and page in parentheses at the end of the information. In-text: source in text; page number in parentheses at the end of the information . 4. Use the MLA format for source identification. See RHS planner, MLA format handout, or these web sites: http://www.studyguide.org/MLAdocumentation.htm https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
Examples of Plagiarism and How to Avoid It Original Source: Humanity faces a quantum leap forward. It faces the deepest social upheaval and creative restructuring of all time. Without clearly recognizing it, we are engaged in building a remarkable civilization from the ground up. This is the meaning of the Third Wave. Until now the human race has undergone two great waves of change, each one largely obliterating earlier cultures or civilizations and replacing them with ways of life inconceivable to those who came before. The First Wave of change — the agricultural evolution — took thousands of years to play itself out. The Second Wave — the rise of industrial civilization — took a mere hundred years. Today, history is even more accelerative, and it is likely that the Third Wave will sweep across history and complete itself in a few decades. [Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave. New York: Bantam, 1981. 10.] Plagiarism: Making a sentence by sentence paraphrase, closely following Toffler’s unique phrasing and using his key term, “Third Wave”, without citing the source and page. The human race is now faced with making a giant leap forward . We are looking at the most significant social upheaval and creative restructuring that humanity has ever seen. Without really realizing it, we are starting to build a remarkable civilization from its very beginning. This is what is meant by the Third Wave concept.
Plagiarism: Stating Toffler’s ideas in your own words and following his line of reasoning without citing the source. The human race is about to undergo the greatest social change in history. Without being aware of it, we are in the process of totally reconstructing our civilization. So far there have been two great movements in history, each of which has completely changed the way people live: the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution. The agricultural revolution determined the course of history for thousands of years while the industrial revolution lasted only about a century. We are now on the threshold of a new period of change, one which is likely to last for only a few decades, but which will once again transform civilization as we know it. Plagiarism eliminated: The human race. . . as we know it (Toffler 10). [parenthetical documentation; no unique phrasing used] or Alvin Toffler believes that the human race. . . as we know it (10). [in-text documentation; no unique phrasing used]
Plagiarism: Crediting Toffler’s ideas, but not quoting his unique phrasing and key term, “Third Wave”. The human race is now faced with taking a giant step forward. We are looking at the most significant social upheaval and creative restructuring that humanity has ever seen. Though we are unaware of it, we are beginning to create a remarkable civilization from its very beginning. This is what is meant by the Third Wave concept (Toffler 10). Plagiarism eliminated: The human race is now faced with taking a giant step forward. We are looking at the most significant “social upheaval and creative restructuring” th at humanity has ever seen. Though we are unaware of it, we are beginning to create a “remarkable civilization’ from its very beginning. This is what is meant by the “Third Wave” concept. (Toffler 10). [parenthetical documentation; unique phrasing and key term quoted] or According to Alvin Toffler, the human race. . . “social upheaval and creative restructuring”. . . “remarkable civilization”. . . “Third Wave” concept (10). [in-text documentation; unique phrasing and key term quoted]
Documenting Your Essay I. General rules for documenting a research paper A. Every piece of information that was gotten from a source must be documented in the essay. B. Use both parenthetical and in-text forms of documentation. C. To document correctly, provide the name of the authority, the author of the source if different from the authority, the page number, and any additional necessary information (see below). D. This information must appear in one of these two ways: 1. Within parentheses at the end of the borrowed information 2. Integrated into the text of your paper (a more sophisticated method.) II. Parenthetical documentation For parenthetical documentation, the entire citation is enclosed within parentheses at the end of the information you are documenting. The author’s name is placed before the page number(s) and there is no punctuation between the two. Note that the period concluding the sentence is placed outside the closing parentheses. Bolded examples are for quick visual reference in this handout only. Do not bold the documentation in your essay. Follow the punctuation given in the examples below. A. A work by one author when you have no other books by the same author and no other authors with the same last name: During World War I, British and American women could, for the first time, earn first-class pay for first-class work (Smith 236-7). B. A work by one author when you have other books by the same author (Use the author’s name and a shortened form of the title.): (Smith, Life in Renaissance 50). C. A work by one author when there is another author with same last name (Use author’s full name): (Robert Smith 55).
D. A work by one author when you have other books by the same author, and you have books from another author with the same last name. (Robert Smith, Life in Renaissance 50). E. A work by two or three authors: (Smith and Robertson 15). (Smith, Robertson, and Franklin 75). F. A work by more than three authors: (Smith et al. 82). G. A source listed by title on your Works Cited page because there is no designated author or editor (Underline the source if it is a book; use quotation marks if it is a magazine or newspaper article.): (Life in Renaissance 63). ("Elizabethan Party Games" 2). H. A work by a corporate author: (National Commission on Natural Phenomena 18). I. Part of one volume of a multi-volume work (place volume number after the author’s name, followed by a colon and page number(s): (Flint 5: 139). J. A preface or introduction which uses Roman numerals for pagination: (Williams vi). K. More than one work in a single reference: (Crossley 12; Salvaggio 45).
L. An interview: (the last name of the interviewee). M. A video or audio source: (the last name of the person you are featuring: an actor, director, musician etc). N. An internet source: Internet sources typically have no page or paragraph numbers and web sites are often anonymous. Cite the author's name whenever possible. It may appear at the end of the page, in tiny print, or it may appear on another page of the site, such as the home page. If no author is given, use the source's title or a shortened version of it. If no page number is provided in the document itself (NOT on your printer), leave that portion of the citation blank. When the pages of a Web source are stable, as in PDF files, supply a page number in your citation.
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