Exercise 1: Which of these do you consider to be unacceptable?
1. Change some of the words and sentences in a text, but keep the overall structure of the text and the vocabulary the same as in the original text.
2. Take some short fixed phrases from several different sources and put them together with some of your own words.
3. Copy a paragraph directly from the source with no changes.
4. Copy a paragraph making only small changes. For example, replace some words with words with similar meanings.
5. Copy out an article from a journal or textbook and submit it as a piece of your own coursework.
6. Cut and paste a paragraph: use the sentences of the original but put one or two in a different order and leave one or two out.
7. Paraphrase a paragraph: rewrite the paragraph but change the language, organisation and detail, and give your own examples.
8. Quote a paragraph by placing it in quotation marks and acknowledge the source.
9. Rewrite a passage from another writer and present it as your own work.
10. Take just one word or phrase from a text because it is very well expressed.
11. Use another author's organisation and way of arguing.
Exercise 2: Types of Plagiarism:Indentify the types of plagiarism in the following texts:
1.
Original Text
You have to tread quite a fine line between being accused, on the one hand, of not making enough use of the writers you have been reading on the course, and, on the other, of having followed them too slavishly, to the point of plagiarising them. One of your early tasks as a student is to get a feel for how to strike the right balance.
(Northedge, 1990, p. 190)
Student's text
You have to tread quite a fine line between being accused, on the one hand, of not making enough use of the writers you have been reading on the course, and, on the other, of having followed them too slavishly, to the point of plagiarising them. One of your early tasks as a student is to get a feel for how to strike the right balance.
2.
Original Text
You have to tread quite a fine line between being accused, on the one hand, of not making enough use of the writers you have been reading on the course, and, on the other, of having followed them too slavishly, to the point of plagiarising them. One of your early tasks as a student is to get a feel for how to strike the right balance.
(Northedge, 1990, p. 190)
Student's text
You must be careful of being blamed for not using the information you have read on your course, and, in contrast, of having used the information too much so that it looks like you have plagiarised. One of your first jobs as a student is to learn how to balance these two extremes
3.
Original Text
You have to tread quite a fine line between being accused, on the one hand, of not making enough use of the writers you have been reading on the course, and, on the other, of having followed them too slavishly, to the point of plagiarising them. One of your early tasks as a student is to get a feel for how to strike the right balance.
(Northedge, 1990, p. 190)
Student's text
When you are writing you need to be careful to use the information you have read well. At one extreme you may be blamed for not making enough use of the writers you have been reading on the course.While at the other extreme, you may be accused of having followed them too slavishly, to the point of plagiarising them. Early on as a student you need to balance these two extremes.
4.
Original Text
You have to tread quite a fine line between being accused, on the one hand, of not making enough use of the writers you have been reading on the course, and, on the other, of having followed then too slavishly, to the point of plagiarising them. One of your early tasks as a student is to get a feel for how to strike the right balance.
(Northedge, 1990, p. 190)
Student's text
When you are writing you need to be careful to use the information you have read well. However, there is a difficult area here because, as a student, when you are doing assignments, you need to use what you have read or been taught in your lectures. It is important, however, not to make too much use of this information or you may be accused of having followed them too slavishly. Early on in your life as a student, you need to balance these two extremes.
Exercise 3: Read the following text (Flower, 1990. p. v)
The study presented here takes an unusually comprehensive look at one critical point of entry into academic performance. It shows a group of freshmen in the transition into the academic discourse of college, looking at the ways in which they interpret and negotiate an assignment that calls for reading-to-write. On such tasks, students are reading to create a text of their own, trying to integrate information from sources with ideas of their own, and attempting to do so under the guidance of a purpose they must themselves create. Because these reading-to-write tasks ask students to integrate reading, writing, and rhetorical purpose, they open a door to critical literacy. Yet this same interaction often makes reading-to-write a difficult process for students to learn and to manage.
