How to Avoid Plagiarism!!

…And Lots of Other Things You’re Just

Dying to Know

Rule #1: You must give credit to the person or source from which you

borrowed an idea or directly copied a

passage. If you don’t, you’re committing

intellectual THEFT!!

Rule #2: Your Works Cited page determines what goes in parentheses. That’s so

your reader can look at the Works Cited page, quickly

find your alphabetized entries, and get all the

publication information he needs.

Rule #3: The period ALWAYS goes AFTER the parenthetical documentation, unless it’s a long quote. Then, the period goes before the parenthetical

documentation. Example: Santa Claus

proclaims that “The twelve days of Christmas are a joke” (“Zebras

Unveiled” 12).

Rule #4: Do NOT put a comma, the word “page,” an abbreviation for

“page,” or anything else between the last name and the page number. If no page number is available, simply put the LAST name in parentheses. Note: If you have two titles by the

same author, place the last name in parentheses, followed by a comma,

the title of the work, and page number(s).

Ex. (Smellypants, I Love Skunks 23).

Rule #5: If your Works Cited entry has no author’s name, shorten the title of the article, web site, etc., and place it in

parentheses. Whatever words/names you used to alphabetize your Works Cited page

are the words/names you use for your parenthetical documentation. Or, more

simply, the word or words that come first in your Works Cited entry are the word or

words that go in your documentation. Remember: Don’t count articles like

“the,” “a,” or “an” when alphabetizing your entries AND when documenting

sources.

Rule #6: If you refer to the title of the work and/or author in your lead-in to the quoted material, you don’t need to

include it in your parenthetical documentation. Just put the page number. See example under “Long Quotes” below.

Okay, let’s pretend you’re using the following

information in your research paper. Try your hand at

parenthetical documentation using the Works Cited entries I give

you from our class example.

Example: One interesting story states that “in May 2000, a save-the-whales

activist was forced to call off his sailing voyage across

the Pacific Ocean, which he had hoped would call

attention to his cause. The reason was that his 60-foot boat was damaged by two passing whales” (Cameron

2-3).

Example: Another interesting event occurred “in June of 2000, when an 87-year-old man dropped

dead while standing in line at a government office in Bogotá, Colombia. His reason for visiting the

office was to apply for a government certificate to prove he was still alive”

(“Sleepyhead”).

Poison oak is not an oak, and poison ivy is not an ivy. Both are members of the cashew family.

Found in “Marrying

Monkeys” on page 15.

However, it is extremely interesting to note that “Poison oak is not an oak and poison ivy is not an

ivy. Both are members of the cashew family”

(“Marrying Monkeys” 15).

Harold is a strange young man, rich,

spoiled, and fascinated with the concept of death.

Found in James Cameron’s writing.

In his analysis of Harold and Maude, James

Cameron notes that “Harold is a strange

young man, rich, spoiled, and fascinated with the concept of death” (33).

Trepanation, also known as drilling

holes in your head, is believed to be

the oldest surgical practice in history.

Found in the piece by Napoleon

Dynamite and Pedro Gonzalez.

One ancient practice, which seems rather

barbaric, is “Trepanation, also known as drilling

holes in your head, [and it] is believed to be the oldest surgical practice in history” (Dynamite and Gonzalez 345).

“I know the human being and fish can

coexist peacefully.”

In “Love Affairs of Crocodiles,” George Bush is

quoted as saying this.

George Bush, in one of his brilliant speeches on the environment, stated,

“ ‘I know the human being and fish can

coexist peacefully’ ” (Wise 75-

76).

The Wok began as a Bronze Age

Mongolian helmet that doubled as a

cooking pan.

Found in Why Do You Hate Skunks?

People who enjoy stir-fry cooking may be shocked

to discover that “The Wok began as a Bronze Age Mongolian helmet

that doubled as a cooking pan”

(Smellypants, Why Do You Hate Skunks? 112).

Quotes within QuotesThirty percent of

Americans avoid public restrooms, citing “fear

of germs” as the primary reason.

A recent study found that “Thirty percent of Americans avoid public restrooms, citing ‘fear of germs’ as the primary reason” (Smith 122, 146).

Francis Scott Key, author of the United

States’ national anthem and the words, “O’er the land of the free,”

was a slave owner.

One of the horrors in American history is that

“Francis Scott Key, author of the United

States’ national anthem and the words, ‘O’er the land of the free,’ was a

slave owner” (Jones 33).

Alteration of Sources: The Ellipsis…

A Tampa, Florida, burglar who decided to rob a 24-hour convenience store

didn’t know the store was open 24 hours. He cut a hole in the roof, and then

fell through onto the coffee pot just as a police officer was buying some coffee.

One burglar's luck ran out when he “decided to rob a 24-hour…store [and] didn’t know [it] was open 24 hours. He…

then fell through onto the coffee pot as a police officer was buying coffee” (“Zebras

Unveiled”).

Perhaps one of the most unfortunate crooks was a man “who decided to rob a 24-hour convenience store [but] didn’t know the store was open 24

hours. He cut a hole in the roof, and then fell through…just as a police officer was buying some

coffee” (Smith 17).

Alteration of Sources: The Brackets [ ]

The blast was heard all the way to Canada. The

energy released was equal to 27,000

Hiroshima-sized bombs dropped at the rate of

one per second for nine hours.

(Referring to the Mt. St. Helens eruption of 1980)

Scientists report that “The blast [of the 1980 eruption

of Mt. St. Helens] was heard all the way to Canada. The

energy [the volcano] released was equal to

27,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs dropped at the rate of one per second for nine

hours” (CBS News).

Long QuotesIf a quote runs to more than four lines in

your paper, set it off from your text beginning a new line, indenting one inch (2 tabs) from the left margin, and typing it double-spaced, without any quotation

marks. A colon generally sets up the quote. Parenthetical documentation follows the last line of the quotation.

The period comes before the documentation. This is an exception to

Rule #3.

Example:At the conclusion of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ralph and the other boys realize the horror of their actions: The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. (186)And then the rest of your text goes back to the original left margin. Neato, huh? And you just keep writing your little research paper and thinking to yourself, “Wow! I could be swinging in a hammock on some Hawaiian island right now!” See? That’s what the long quote thing looks like.

Okay, now it’s your turn. Here’s a long quote for you:

A person with short thumbs is stubborn; a person with long thumbs has a strong sense of purpose. Straight thumbs indicate generosity; crooked thumbs indicate selfishness. If your thumbs are hairy, but the rest of your fingers aren’t, you’re a genius. If all of your fingers are hairy, you’re bad-tempered.

According to Robert Smellypants in I Love Skunks, scholars who have noticed

a relationship between a person’s hands and his or her personality have

observed:

A person with short thumbs is stubborn; a person with long thumbs has

a strong sense of purpose. Straight thumbs indicate generosity;

crooked thumbs indicate selfishness. If your thumbs are hairy, but the

rest of your fingers aren’t, you’re a genius. If all of your fingers are

hairy, you’re bad-tempered. (34)

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While some serial killers rely on violence and the element of surprise to trap their victims, others, like Ted Bundy, use a much more sinister means of attack: their charisma. In his book Serial Killers, Tom Smith claims that when the alluring Ted Bundy kidnapped two ladies from the crowded recreation area of Lake Sammamish, his killing reached its climax in a truly heinous way. Rather than brute force, Bundy manipulated his victims with his dashing magnetism and smooth cunning, a technique that obviously worked well, since he was able to swipe and kill two girls in one day. Furthermore, his bold arrogance was quite obvious in his actually telling people his real name (194), disbelieving that he could possibly be caught. Even more lethal than a savage who uses force to destroy his victims is a wicked beast like Bundy who uses enchanting deception and the façade of good looks as his tools of destruction.