Plagiarism and cheating

Plagiarism and cheating

Plagiarism and cheating will not be tolerated. Any student caught plagiarizing or cheating will be turned into the Committee on Academic Dishonesty and will not pass the class. If anyone is uncertain about the proper way to reference others' work in their papers, please read the following information or come see me about this. It’s simple, but very important. Please make no mistake about this, as cheaters will not be tolerated.

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism happens when one writer intentionally or unintentionally takes the words or the idea of another writer and uses them without crediting the original writer. The material that is taken can come from books, articles, speeches, websites and other material. Plagiarism can happen for a variety of reasons, but we should focus on a few of them in particular.

Of course, some plagiarism happens intentionally and stems from poor time management, lack of engagement with an assignment, etc. In other words, some plagiarism stems from students taking an illegitimate shortcut to complete a written assignment. This needs very little discussion. Often, plagiarism stems from a poor understanding of what requires citation and/or how to do the citation correctly.

What requires a citation?

Since the notion of “another writer’s ideas” is so broad, it can be confusing to determine what actually requires citation. To be safe, it is best to begin with the assumption that everything--except the ideas you personally create—require citation. Since there are seemingly very few truly new ideas, this means a LOT of citation. Some things that will ALWAYS require a citation, under all circumstances include (but are not limited to) the following:

When you use someone else’s exact words. This is called a direct quotation. You must cite not only the author and publication information, but also the page number for printed material or the paragraph number for html formats.
When you provide statistics of any kind. These will always require citation, even the statistic seems well known or obvious.
When you are making a contentious point—one that not everyone agrees with.
When you are using expert opinions/ideas to support your own argument.
When you are using the ideas of another person.

Once we start thinking this way, we may want to change the question to “What does NOT require a citation?” Here are a few general rules about what does not require a citation.

When you are writing to an informed audience. For example, you are not required to cite a definition of probation to your criminal justice professors.
When the idea is “common knowledge.” If you believe that the general public, with no additional training or knowledge, would already know the idea you are presenting, then you may not need a citation. For example, most people already know that there are sentencing guidelines in place. You wouldn’t need to cite this. However, very few would know that a guideline has increased or decreased for a particular offense, and so this probably would require a citation. “Common knowledge” is a somewhat loose standard, so it is better to err on the side of caution and provide a citation if you aren’t sure.
It is always to your benefit to provide the citation when you aren’t sure.

How often must I provide the citation?

Sometimes, you will want to paraphrase a longer idea. It might take you a paragraph to explain the other writer’s idea. You do not need to provide a citation after each sentence, but can simply provide the citation at the end of the paragraph (before the period for the last sentence). However, if the idea comes from more than one source, you’ll need to provide citations for the sentence that goes with each source. Say you are building up to something by combining ideas. You’d give the first idea and cite its origin, the second idea with a citation and then the third with its origin. Again, if each idea comes from the same source and you’re paraphrasing, you can hold it until the end. If direct quotes or a change in authorship is involved, you must provide the information along the way.

What information should I provide?

You can reference the handout called “Using Outside Sources” for details about the grammar of citations.

An example

Suppose you read the following in a book:

“Racial disparities, especially affecting Blacks, have long bedeviled the criminal justice system. Many hundreds of studies of disparities have been conducted and there is now widespread agreement among researchers about causes. Racial bias and stereotyping no doubt play some role, but they are not the major cause. In the longer term, disparities in jail and prison are mainly the result of racial differences in offending patterns. In the shorter term, the worsening disparities since 1980 are not primarily the result of differences in offending but were foreseeable effects of the War on Drugs and the movement toward increased use of incarceration” (Tonry, 2002: 74 ).

The full citation for this paragraph is:

Tonry, Michael. “Racial Politics, Racial Disparities, and the War on Crime,” in Charles E. Reasons, Darlene J. Conley and Julius Debro. (2002.) Race, Class, Gender and Justice in the United States. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

If I write this, does it require a citation?

1. There are racial disparities in American jails and prisons.

2. The War on Drugs exacerbates racial disparities in American jails and prisons.

3. Racial disparities are not generally believed to be caused by racial bias.

4. Increased racial disparities should have been anticipated by zero-tolerance policy makers.

5. Racial disparities, especially affecting Blacks, have long bedeviled the criminal justice system.

1. No-common knowledge. 2. For an expert audiences (i.e. CJ professors) no, but for any other audience, yes. 3. Yes, you’re paraphrasing a contentious point. 4. Yes, you’re paraphrasing a contentious point. 5. Yes, you’re using someone else’s exact words. This on also requires a page number.