Re: question about plagiarism

[Kathryn Frech <lib@STNY.RR.COM>]

On 11 Jan 00, at 9:47, Feld, Trish <tfeld@cbms.wdsd.k12.vt.us>
wrote:

> I was just working with a class with a teacher and parent
volunteer and
> as I was cautioning the class to use their own words in taking
notes,
> the parent asked me if there is a "rule of thumb" on phrases--
how many
> words used from a source would be considered plagiarism ?
>

One of the great difficulties the teachers complain about
in the high school where I work is that the students
coming in often think that if they just put something into
their own words, then they don't have to cite it and it's
not plagiarism.

The fact is, that *anything* that a student gets from another
source than out of their own head or something that could
be considered common knowledge MUST be cited.  If they
got the information from somewhere and didn't cite, that's
plagiarism whether they put it in their own words or not,
because they are in essence claiming knowledge they got
from someone else as their own.

So the answer is: it doesn't matter if they put it in their own
words or not; it doesn't matter how long or how short the
information is; if it's something they looked up; it has to be
cited.  The only difference putting it in their own words
makes is how the information is presented (in quotes or
block quotes as opposed to "regular" text), *not* whether
something needs to be cited.


--
Kathryn Frech, Librarian
Seton Catholic Central H.S.
Binghamton, NY  USA
(lib@stny.rr.com)

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