Name: _____Bruno Richaud________________________

The Perils of Plagiarism

To answer these questions, please read the information on this web page:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html
The questions will proceed chronologically through the website. In other words, you will find answers
to the first questions at the beginning of the website, and later questions near the end.
How does this web page define plagiarism?
the uncredited use (both intentional and unintentional) of somebody else's words or ideas.

Look at Actions that might be seen as plagiarism. In your own words, please explain the difference
between Deliberate plagiarism and Possibly accidental plagiarism.
Deliberate plagiarism is when when you are trying to take credit for someone elses work and possibly
accidental plagiarism is when you are trying to paraphrase what someone else wrote but you dont
contribute with any new ideas.

You are a high school teacher. You discover that a student plagiarized material as part of an important
report. When confronted with the situation, the student says, But it was an accident! I didnt mean to
plagiarize! What would you tell the student?
if its the first time I would just tell the student to read about plagiarism to make sure he doesnt do it
again, but if it happened more than once, thats academic dishonesty and would procede as the schools
rules dictate.

Look carefully at Choosing when to credit. Put a check mark next to all of the texts for which you
MUST document their source.
4. ___+__ words from a commonly known prayer
5. ___+_words from a new song
6. ___+__reprinted diagrams
7. _____ common knowledge
8. _____ your own observations based on anothers research
9. ___+__ a unique phrase you found on the internet that expresses your ideas
10. _____ your own opinions
11. __+___ text from a newspaper
12. _____ Just a few words (less than 5) that someone else wrote

Look carefully at Making sure you are safe. Write down five things that you can do to avoid
problems with plagiarism.
13. use statements that credit the source
14. specify in your notes if what you write is your idea or someone elses
15. if you are making an interview, write down very clear which are your ideas and which are from the
person you interviewed
16. quote just what is necessary, you dont need to take a hole paragraph
17. make sure to use quotation marks on the key phrases of the autor
Please complete Exercises for practice on the next page.

Exercises for Practice

Below are some situations in which writers need to decide whether or not they are running the risk of
plagiarizing. In the Y/N column, indicate if you would need to document (Yes), or if it is not necessary
to provide quotation marks or a citation (No). If you do need to give the source credit in some way,
explain how you would handle it. If not, explain why.
Y/N
If yes, what do you do? If
PRIVATESituation
no, why?
1. You are writing new no
because it is your original
insights about your own
ideas and work.
experiences.

2. You are using an

no
editorial from your
school's newspaper with
which you disagree.

because you are going to use

statements that credit the
source in order to say where
the idea, you disagree on,
comes from.

3. You use some

yes/no
information from a source
without ever quoting it

depending on the kind of

information you would either
use statements that credit the

directly.

autor or cite properly.

4. You have no other way yes

of expressing the exact
meaning of a text without
using the original source
verbatim.

if you use more than 5 words

you have to give credit.

5. You mention that many no

people in your discipline
belong to a certain
organization.

you are not taking ideas from

anyone else.

6. You want to begin your no

paper with a story that
one of your classmates
told about her
experiences in Bosnia.

but you have to include a

statement hiving credit at the
beginning of the story.

7. The quote you want to yes

use is too long, so you
leave out a couple of
phrases.

just put three dots at the end

of the quote to indicate
omitted some of it.

8. You really like the

yes
particular phrase
somebody else made up,
so you use it.

because it is someone elses

original work.