HomeFirst Things First
. . .
What is
plagiarism?
Who cares?
Why is plagiarism difficult to avoid?
Definite don'ts
What happens if you are accused?
How to Avoid Plagiarism
Use valid, credible sources for information
Take careful notes
Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing
Giving Credit
Papers
► Presentations, websites, etc.
Citation styles
Is it plagiarism?
(interactive game)
Copyright
What's the deal with the © ?
Is it copyright
infringement?
(interactive game)
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Giving Credit - Presentations, Websites, etc.
When you incorporate someone else's work (words,
statistics, graphs, charts, images, audio, video, etc.) into a
presentation you are preparing or a website you are creating, it is extremely important to give credit
where credit is due.
Why? First of all, it is just common courtesy. If you
have used someone else's work, the least you can do is offer thanks by acknowledging
him/her. In addition to courtesy, giving credit will help you to avoid
plagiarizing. Using someone's else's ideas, words, or other creations without
clearly acknowledging where they came from is plagiarism. (It may also be an
infringement of copyright. While plagiarism is unethical, infringing copyright is
illegal. For more information on copyright, see the What's
the deal with the © ?
section of this website.)
To avoid plagiarizing, you must give credit whenever you use any
piece of information that is not common
knowledge. This includes
- facts, statistics, graphs, charts, images, audio, video, etc.
generated/created by someone other than you
When you present information that
is not in a paper, it is vital that you relay to your audience where the
information came from. Giving credit to your sources can be
accomplished through words and/or what you include on PowerPoint slides or
other visual aids.
Whether you are presenting information to a
classroom of peers or a meeting room of professionals, several situations
will arise in which you must credit sources:
Speeches
You are writing a speech on the topic
of homelessness and find some great statistics from the Institute for
Children on Poverty. Below are two sample passages for your speech
that incorporate these statistics. Which one gives credit to the
source?
Last year, 37% of families on welfare had their benefits
reduced or terminated. Of those, 20% said that
contributed directly to their homelessness.
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A survey of homeless shelters around the US
last year by the Institute for Children in Poverty found that
37% of families on welfare had their benefits reduced or
terminated. Of those, 20% said that contributed directly
to their homelessness.
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The second one, right?! This
passage will let the audience know exactly where the information came
from.
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Presentations
You are preparing
a PowerPoint presentation on homeschooling. You find some data
from the National Center for Education Statistics you want to include.
Below are two sample PowerPoint slides. Which one gives credit to
the source?
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How Many Children are Homeschooled in the US?
According to the
National Center for Education Statistics:
- 850,000 in Spring 1999 (= 1.7% of
students, ages 5 to 17)
- 82% homeschooled only
- 18% enrolled in public or private
schools part time
- 75% were white, non-Hispanic
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How Many Children are Homeschooled in the US?
- 850,000 in Spring 1999 (= 1.7% of
students, ages 5 to 17)
- 82% homeschooled only
- 18% enrolled in public or private
schools part time
- 75% were white, non-hispanic
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If you said the first slide, you're
right!
Giving credit also applies to images,
charts, graphs, audio, video etc., not created by you, that you
incorporate into your presentations. Somewhere near the item
(above, below, or next to), be sure to indicate the source. For
example, you are putting together a PowerPoint presentation on milfoil.
You found a great picture of it on the Maine Department of Environmental
Protection's website. Here's how you could put it on a PowerPoint
slide and give credit.
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Eurasian Watermilfoil
(Myriophyllum spicatum)
Source: Maine Department of
Environmental Protection,
Bureau of Land and Water Quality
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Websites
For websites and pages, the form
giving credit takes varies.
If your Web page reads like a
research paper or documented essay, you should give credit as you
would in a typed paper - with either parenthetical in-text
references or footnotes. (For more information on how
create these, see the Giving Credit - Papers
page.) Here are some examples of Web pages that incorporate
in-text parenthetical references or footnotes.
Bilingualism and Bilingual
Education: A Research Perspective
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/focus/focus1.htm
Note the use of in-text
parenthetical references and the presence of an alphabetical list of
the cited resources at the bottom of the page.
Fatality Facts: Motorcycles
http://www.iihs.org/research/fatality_facts/motorcycles.html
Note the use of superscript
(raised) numbers throughout the text and a listing of footnotes at
the bottom of the page.
Another option for giving credit
in web pages is to include the sources of information within the
text.
Obesity and Diabetes in Children
http://www.drgreene.com/21_939.html
Note, in the text, the reference to the March
14, 2002 issue of New England Journal of Medicine.
If you create and incorporate
tables or graphs in your web page, be sure to indicate the source(s)
of the data.
Violent Juvenile Crime in
California
http://www.hrw.org/prisons/ca/graph1.htm
Note the list of Sources
below the graph.
Images, Audio, and Video
In a classroom setting, a
multimedia presentation you create (with a program like PowerPoint)
has a limited audience - the instructor and/or your classmates.
Images, graphs/charts, and audio and video clips from other sources
may be incorporated provided the sources are cited properly.
When you create a Web page and
publish it on the World Wide Web, it immediately becomes available
to anyone in the world with Web access. Incorporating images,
audio, and/or video not created by you and citing them properly may
keep you from plagiarizing, however, this may not prevent you from
committing copyright infringement. (While plagiarizing
is unethical, copyright infringement is illegal. For
more information on copyright, see the What's
the deal with the © ?
section of this website.)
An example - You are taking a
nutrition class and, as a project, you are creating a website on
veganism. You own a cookbook with vegan recipes and have
decided to include some of them in your site. To avoid
plagiarism, you cited the sources of the recipes, but have you
infringed copyright?
By making recipes freely
available on the Web from a cookbook that would have otherwise had
to be purchased, you may be in violation of copyright.
Another example - You are taking
a geography class, and as a project, you are creating a website on
Norway. On the Web, you found a great graphic - an outline of
the country with the flag in the middle. You copy this graphic
and paste it into your Web page. To avoid plagiarism, you cite
the source of the graphic, but have you infringed copyright?
Making a derivative work (a Web
page that includes a copy of a copyrighted image), is a violation of
copyright. The copyright owner has the exclusive right "to prepare
derivative works based upon the copyrighted work." (Title 17, U.S.C.,
Section 106).
Is it possible to create a Web
page that includes images, audio and/or video created by someone
other than you and avoid copyright infringement? Of course!
Here are three ways.
1. Take steps to ensure
your use of an image or audio or video clip falls within the "fair
use" guidelines. The fair use provision of the copyright
statute allows for the reproduction of parts of copyrighted
materials without permission of the copyright owner.
(See the
What is "fair use?" page of this website for more information.)
For example, each spring the
Mantor Library
organizes a
One
Book, One Campus program. The website that is put together
with information on the program and events always includes a
downloaded or scanned image of the cover of the book. This use
of a copyrighted image falls under the fair use guidelines.
2. Get permission from the
copyright holder to use the image or audio or video clip.
Contact the person or
organization that is making the image or audio or video clip
available on the Web. Ask for permission to incorporate it
into your Web page. In your request, assure the person or
organization that if granted permission, you will cite the resource
properly and indicate that permission was granted.
3. Link to the image or
audio or video clip instead of making it available on your own Web
page.
For example, you are taking a
music class and creating a Web page on the didgeridoo. You
found a great audio clip of someone playing this musical instrument
on a Web page. Instead of downloading the file and making it
available from your Web page, create a link from your Web page to
the Web page with the audio clip.
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Articles
Articles written for newspapers,
popular magazines, and newsletters do not contain formal citations
as research papers or documented essays would. Instead, the
author includes sources of information within the text of the
article.
Excerpt from a newspaper article
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta said in Minneapolis on
Monday he wants to restore people's faith in flying and make air travel convenient, but he
said racial profiling is not the answer to ensuring security at the nation's commercial
airports.
"People have said, 'Why not racially profile?' Security
analysts have told us in-depth, racially profiling by itself is not going to do the
job," said Mineta, who was sent to live in an internment camp during World War II
because of his Japanese ancestry.
"Racial profiling will not be a method of doing
enforcement," he said. Instead, strange behavior will be among the things security
screeners look at, he said.
His remarks came during a conference at the University of
Minnesota on how transportation should change after Sept. 11.
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(Source)
In this example, the author has identified the
speaker (Norm Mineta), quoted his remarks, and stated where
(University of Minnesota), when (Monday), and in what context (conference
on how transportation should change after Sept. 11) the remarks were made.
Excerpt from a newsletter article
A new national poll from the Children's Institute International (CII)
in Los Angeles reveals that a majority of adults believe that
children sometimes need a "good, hard spanking." The survey found
that 82 percent of adults surveyed were spanked as children and
that 55 percent believe spanking is necessary.
"It's worrisome that spanking remains such a
part of the American culture, in view of scientific evidence
demonstrating its ill effects," says Steve Ambrose, Ph.D.,
clinical psychologist and director of research at CII. "This
suggests the need for continued public education. There is a
wealth of research data showing that violent parenting produces
violent children; so does negligent parenting. We are not saying
parents shouldn't discipline their children, but there are more
appropriate and effective ways than hitting them."
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(Source)
In this example, the author
indicates the source of the statistics (a CII poll) and the name
and credentials of the person quoted (Steve Ambrose, Ph.D, clinical
psychologist and director of research at CII.)
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