Written by a judge, this simply and elegantly written book makes plagiarism easy to understand. It should be required reading for faculty and students everywhere. Author Richard A. Posner uses examples and situations from real life to illustrate the trouble we can get into as students and professionals when we plagiarize on purposely or accidentally. Find it on the Learning Commons level (second floor) of the library at 346.048 P966 L881 2007.
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This tutorial is a great way to learn about plagiarism and all the grey area between "Definitely IS Plagiarism" and "Definitely ISN'T Plagiarism".
I was thinking about you writing your research papers while I was in Cape May working on a travel article. Please watch this little video I made.
Travel brochures and flyers are gold to the travel writer. You've seen these glossy marketing tools when you visit a popular destination: they describe the place, show the location, tell how to get there, and list the hours. For a travel writer like me, these are useful not only for the information printed on them, but also to get an idea of the audience the place is likely to attract. This can help me create an article that will interest potential visitors once it is picked up by a magazine or newspaper.
BUT, I can't just borrow text from a travel brochure for my article. This text is someone else's original idea and to borrow it without permission would be plagiarism. Even if there is no author listed on the brochure, I would be betraying the good people and places I'm writing about if I steal their words. I'll have to say where I got my information whether it's from a marketing publication or an interview.
The same is true when you are writing a research paper and using scholarly journal or magazine articles as your sources. You have to cite the source, which means giving the author credit. Your professor will probably specify a "style" that you should use for this citation. Here at Bucks, the style will probably be either MLA or APA. We have guides to these styles in the reference department at all three BCCC libraries, and the Tutoring Center has really good handouts to help you create the citations you need. Look for "MLA Documentation" or "APA Documentation" in this list of Tutoring Center Writing Handouts:
Check out this zany video for a good explanation of plagiarism from Plagiarismtoday.
Here's another hilariously funny video about Plagiarism created by Shelly Edmunson. The lead actor Steve, who looks a lot like Napoleon Dynamite, explains different varieties of Plagiarism. Did you know you can plagiarize yourself?
