Here is a copy of the plagiarism assignment with my comments, answers and examples of how I would fix them.
Read over each of the following passages, and respond on your own
or as a class as to whether or not it uses citations accurately. If it doesn't,
what would you do to improve the passage so it's properly cited?
1.
Last summer, my family and I traveled to Chicago, which was quite different
from the rural area I grew up in. We saw the dinosaur Sue at the Field Museum,
and ate pizza at Gino's East. There is nothing to cite here as the
author is only speaking of personal experiences with no quoting, or use of any
statistical data.
2.
Americans want to create a more perfect union; they also want to establish
justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for everybody. Nothing
needed here either as many American people may desire many of the same things
listed here this could be considered common knowledge.
3.
I find it ridiculous that 57% of high school students think their teachers
assign too much homework. The statistic given of 57% of high school
students needs to be cited. The author would have to indicate where this
statistic came from.
At
the end of the sentence given with the statistic a correct example using MLA
style if this were a newspaper article would be to cite like this -- Reed,John. “High School Students and Homework”
USA Today 2 Dec. 2010: A1. Print.
Numbers 4, 5, and 6 all refer to the following passage from Martin
Luther King's "Letter from the Birmingham Jail":
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But
your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the
conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you
would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that
deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is
unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even
more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community
with no alternative.
4.
Martin Luther King was certain that nobody would want to be contented with a
surfacy type of social analysis that concerns itself only with effects and
doesn't deal with root causes. This would be considered paraphrasing
and needs to be cited. The message is pretty much the same but the words have
been changed.
5.
Martin Luther King wrote that the city of Birmingham's "white power
structure" left African-Americans there "no alternative" but to
demonstrate ("Letter from the Birmingham Jail" para. 5). The
source seems to be cited but does not seem to be in the correct format
according to APA, MLA, Chicago manual of style, the ACS or the CSE. The Author
needs to cite a letter according to where the edited copy was obtained from.
An
MLA example would be King, Martin Luther. “My Dear Fellow Clergymen.” 16 APR.
1963. Letter From the Birmingham Jail. Ed.
Ali B. Ali-Dinar, ph.D. African Studies Center-University of Pennsylvania
6.
In "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," King writes to fellow clergy
saying that although they "deplore the demonstrations taking place in
Birmingham, your statement fails to express a similar concern for the
conditions that brought about the demonstrations." Quotations
not correctly used and is not properly cited. An example using MLA would be the
same as number 5. King, Martin Luther. “My Dear Fellow Clergymen.” 16 APR.
1963. Letter From the Birmingham Jail. Ed.
Ali B. Ali-Dinar, ph.D. African Studies Center-University of Pennsylvania
7.
My friend Kara told me that she loves living so close to the ocean.
There is nothing to cite
here as the author is speaking of a friends ideas.
8.
Americans are guaranteed the right to freely gather for peaceful meetings.
This could be a tricky
one as this information given can be cited as information taken from the first
amendment of the constitution; however it could also be considered common
knowledge and then would therefore not have to be cited.
When writing papers and using information from various sources you need to know when to acknowledge certain sources and there are sources that do not need to be acknowledged. sources that do not need to be acknowledged are your own ideas, discoveries, opinions and views, and facts that are common knowledge. Things that do need to be acknowledged are Quoting someone or another authors writings word for word "quoting", paraphrasing or an authors arguable assertions. Other information that must be acknowledged are Statistics, charts, tables and graphs and you must acknowledge graphics, photos and other visual material. This is done by following citation standards according to the styles of MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style, the ACS style guide, and the CSE from the Council of Science Editors. One good rule to follow when writing is to follow the citation COP. The citation cop is Collect,Organize, and Puncuation. This is an easy way to remember the three things you need to know in order to cite properly.
