Recognizing Plagiarism
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the act of presenting the words, ideas, images, sounds, creations of others as your own.
How can you give credit to an idea that you researched that you want to include in your writing/project?
Cite it!
A student copy and pasted writing they found online, and submitted it for their assignment. What might their consequences be at school?
- Have to redo the assignment.
- Don't receive credit for the assignment.
- Office Referral
- Parent Contacted
Plagiarism or Not?
A student uses AI to brainstorm ideas for a story they have to write. They use one of the ideas to write their story.
Not Plagiarism - As long as the student wrote the story in their own words and didn't copy the writing from an AI generator, they are okay.
I found information online for my project that I put into my own words, so I don't need to cite it.
True or False
FALSE! Paraphrased information (put into your own words) still needs to be cited to give credit to the original creator.
What punctuation marks are needed around a statement to show that it is not your writing?
Quotation Marks
Consequences increase as you get into high school and college. What consequences could a student face at these levels for plagiarism?
- Getting a "0" on the assignment
- Failing the class
- Lose scholarships
- Get kicked out of a program/school.
A student rewrote the research they found about their topic into their own words. They did not include a citation.
Plagiarism! This student paraphrased the information, so they still took the idea from the original creator and that should be cited in their paper.
Intentional plagiarism is when someone knowingly takes work that is not their own. What might be an example of intentional plagiarism?
- Copying a friend's homework
- Looking off someone's test
- Copying writing off the internet (without quoting, paraphrasing, or citations)
What do you need to have at the end of an essay or project that lists all of the sources you used?
Works Cited Page
Eric totally forgot to do his RACE paragraph assignment for ELA, so Kyle lets Eric copy his paragraph before class. Who would face consequences?
Both students. Eric plagiarized by copying Kyle's work. While Kyle did not commit plagiarism, he knowingly gave Eric his work to copy, which is academic dishonesty.
Plagiarism or Not?
A student copies and pastes a piece of research into their paper. They include a citation, but they don't put quotation marks around it.
Plagiarism! Any statement that is not your own should be in quotation marks.
If someone forgets to cite their research or doesn't understand how to paraphrase is it still considered plagiarism?
Yes! This would be considered unintentional plagiarism, but it is still wrong and can have consequences to fix the plagiarism.
You've forgotten to complete an assignment for class, so a friend offers to let you copy theirs beforehand. How do you avoid plagiarism in this situation?
Don't copy your friend's work.
Jill has gotten away with using AI to write each of her homework essays so far this year, but next week she has an in-class essay that she can't use her computer. How do you predict the in-class essay will go for Jill?
The in-class essay will be more difficult for Jill because she hasn't practiced writing the essays herself.
Her teacher will also recognize that this essay doesn't match the writing style of the homework essays she turned in.
A teacher has noticed that Kara's essay does not sound like her writing. It uses words that Kara never uses and her sentences are very robotic. The teacher calls Kara over to ask her if this was her own writing?
Kara did copy writing from the internet and use AI on her assignment. How should she respond to her teacher?
Kara should be honest about how she completed the assignment and that it wasn't her writing.
Lying about plagiarism can lead to greater consequences, and make it harder to be trusted with other assignments.
Why is it easy for teachers to recognize plagiarism in student writing?
It doesn't sound like you! Everyone has their own writing voice/style. Copying writing from the internet, and especially from AI generators will have a different voice from yours!
Bonus: How do content creators avoid plagiarism when sharing their version of a dance or social media trend?
They tag the original creator.
What consequence might a professional face if they plagiarize something at their job?
- Sued for copyright infringement
- Fired from job
- Owe money
- Bad reputation
Why should we care about avoiding plagiarism?
- We want to respect the original creator's work
- We miss out on learning when we take shortcuts
- We want to build an honest reputation