Examples of Plagiarism
Student Submission #1 (student has plagiarised)
The Chinese government did not do enough in the first SARS outbreak in 2002 - in fact, they covered it up. The country is grappling with a health system that has seen limited investment and millions of rural workers who have no access to health care at all. While China has spent $1.5 billion for SARS prevention and control, it is clearly not enough.
This shows serious plagiarism (about 70%), with no citing of sources. (I have used red highlighting similar to the way the Turnitin Similarity Report would highlight copied portions.)
Original Article from CNN.com
(http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/11/15/china.sars.repeat.reut/index.html)
But however good its intentions -- and officials agree that China learned the hard way the cost of a cover-up -- the country is grappling with a health system that has seen limited investment and millions of rural workers who have no access to health care at all.
China has spent $1.5 billion for SARS prevention and control, state media has reported, but Zhong said there was a need for still greater investment.
"We should put in more money, whether in the field of flu prevention, or the improving of the monitoring systems," he said.
Student Submission #2 (this is OK)
This submission uses the same CNN article as a source, but shows correct quoting and paraphrasing.
The Chinese government did not do enough in the first SARS outbreak in 2002 - in fact, they covered it up. According to a CNN report (china.sars.repeat.reut/index.html), China's health system has experienced limited investment and many rural workers have no access to health care. This could be one of the many issues that may lead to social turmoil in China over the next few years - it contributes to the divide between the richer eastern cities and poorer rural areas.
In the same article, CNN state that "China has spent $1.5 billion for SARS prevention and control" but this is clearly not enough.
The reference list at the end of this assignment would include:
Reuters, "Fears raised over return of SARS",CNN.com International, 2004.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/11/15/china.sars.repeat.reut/index.html
(Accessed 16 Nov 2004)
In brief, assignments are about getting students to learn about the issue, think through the issues and come up with their own responses.
It is good to only have a limited number of quotes - a good rule of thumb is to give at least 2 lines of your own thoughts and reactions for each line of quote.
Quoting, parahrasing and summarising are fine - as long as the original source is correctly cited.
After all, using Turnitin is all about improving the value of your diploma...
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Further Example From NP's Student Services
How does plagiarism affect me?
Here is an example of a case of plagiarism. A student submitted an assignment which included the following paragraph:-
Concluding a negotiation well is an important part of a successful discussion. Since negotiating basically is carrying out part of a relationship, after you concluded negotiations, you’ll need to deal with that person again. Hence when you conclude the negotiation, make sure the person is happy, so that the next contract goes smoothly.
Let us examine what can go wrong in the paragraph above. This sentence is the student’s original idea:
Concluding a negotiation well is an important part of a successful discussion
However...
Since negotiating basically is carrying out part of a relationship, after you concluded negotiations, you’ll need to deal with that person again
was lifted word for word from the book How Winners Do It by Michael W. Mercher, 1994.
This is plagiarism.
Furthermore, the sentence
Hence when you conclude the negotiation, make sure the person is happy, so that the next contract goes smoothly
is paraphrased from the same book. Here is the original text:-
"Therefore, you want him to leave feeling good about you so your next contract goes smoothly."
Again, this is plagiarism.
How can I avoid plagiarism?
By acknowledging or making reference to the portions that you used from another source, you can avoid plagiarism. Let us look at the above example again. Here is how the above example should have been presented:
Concluding a negotiation well is an important part of a successful discussion In his book, How Winners Do It, M. W Mercher said, “Since negotiating basically is carrying out part of a relationship, after you concluded negotiations, you’ll need to deal with that person again." Hence when you conclude the negotiation, make sure the person is happy, so that the subsequent contracts go smoothly. (Mercher, M.W., 1994).
In addition to the references made in the text, you need to include a bibliography containing the details of author, title of the book, chapter and page number(s) and publication date. The style of making references may vary from discipline to discipline, so it is best to check with your lecturers on this.
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