Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

            Chapter Seven focused on how to avoid plagiarism. The most common form of plagiarism is unintentional, mostly from the lack of quotation marks, barely altered paraphrasing, poor separation between the source’s word and the writer, and also no source citations. Intentional plagiarism can comprise of piecing multiple documents together to create one, fake citations, other works that are just slightly changed or left the same and passed off as one’s own, and also purchased documents. In situations when advice is given to the writer by others, their input can often be used without citation, but they can still be acknowledged at the end of the paper. A good way to avoid plagiarism is to follow basic research ethics. This includes acknowledging the sources, accurately representing them, and also providing the necessary source information for the readers. Not all information needs to be sourced. Common knowledge is an exception; however it is important to know for sure that it is common knowledge. Observing how others treat the information will help to determine whether it is or not. Sometimes it is necessary to ask permission to use a source. This is generally when what is being written is going to be published. For the most part, permission does not have to be asked for classroom use. To avoid plagiarism, conducting a knowledge inventory and ensuring that there is sufficient knowledge on the issue is important. It helps to prevent bad paraphrasing. Taking careful notes helps ensure that all wording is accurate. Distinguishing between the ideas in the source and the ideas from the writer can be achieved by pointing out where the information is coming from. This can be achieved using signal phrases. Citing all sources in the text and in the works cited page is essential and must be done to avoid plagiarism. If accused of plagiarism, meeting with the instructor and trying to find the problem is the correct thing to do. When speaking with the instructor, it is good to find the problem, try to find the solution if possible, and to avoid such mistakes in the future.