Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: Correctly Citing Information in an MLA Research Paper in Order to Avoid Plagiarism

1
Giving Credit Where Credit Is DueCorrectly
Citing Information in an MLA Research Paper in
Order to Avoid Plagiarism

• Lawrence County High School Library Media Center
• Mrs. Ball/Ms. Cleghorn
• October 6, 2009

2
Plagiarism

• The uncredited use (both intentional and
  unintentional) of somebody else's words or ideas
• www.owl.english.purdue.edu

3
University of Alabama Academic Honor Pledge

• I promise or affirm that I will not at any time
  be involved with cheating, plagiarism,
  fabrication, or misrepresentation while enrolled
  as a student at The University of Alabama. I have
  read the Academic Honor Code, which explains
  disciplinary procedures that will result from the
  aforementioned. I understand that violation of
  this code will result in penalties as severe as
  indefinite suspension from the University.
• http//facultysenate.ua.edu/handbook/append-c.html
  
• http//facultysenate.ua.edu/handbook/append-c.html

4
DONT!!!

• Buy, steal, or borrow a paper
• Hire someone to write your paper
• Copy large sections of someone elses work
  without giving them the proper credit

5
When to Give Credit

• Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book,
  newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page,
  computer program, letter, advertisement, or any
  other medium
• Information you gain through interviewing or
  conversing with another person, face to face,
  over the phone, or in writing
• When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase
• When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations,
  charts, pictures, or other visual materials
• When you reuse or repost any electronically-availa
  ble media, including images, audio, video, or
  other media

6
You Dont Have to Give Credit When...

• Writing your own lived experiences, your own
  observations and insights, your own thoughts, and
  your own conclusions about a subject
• When you are writing up your own results obtained
  through lab or field experiments
• When you use your own artwork, digital
  photographs, video, audio, etc.
• When you are using "common knowledge," things
  like folklore, common sense observations, myths,
  urban legends, and historical events (but not
  historical documents)
• When you are using generally-accepted facts,
  e.g., pollution is bad for the environment

7
Common Knowledge

• Generally, something is common knowledge when it
  appears undocumented in at least five other
  reputable sources

8
Paraphrasing

• Use a statement that credits the source somewhere
  in the paraphrase or summary, e.g., According to
  Jonathan Kozol, ....
• If you're having trouble summarizing, try writing
  your paraphrase or summary of a text without
  looking at the original, relying only on your
  memory and notes
• Check your paraphrase or summary against the
  original text correct any errors in content
  accuracy, and be sure to use quotation marks to
  set off any exact phrases from the original text
• Check your paraphrase or summary against sentence
  and paragraph structure, as copying those is also
  considered plagiarism.
• Put quotation marks around any unique words or
  phrases that you cannot or do not want to change,
  e.g., "savage inequalities" exist throughout our
  educational system (Kozol).

9
Three Types of In-Text Citations(MLA)

• Give the author credit in the sentence, include a
  quote from the author, then put the page number
  where the information was found at the end
• Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked
  by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"
  (263).
• Give the author credit at the end of the
  sentence, including the page number where the
  information was found
• Romantic poetry is characterized by the
  "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"
  (Wordsworth 263).
• Give the author credit for an idea he/she had in
  the sentence, and include the page number where
  it was found at the end.
• Wordsworth extensively explored the role of
  emotion in the creative process (263).

10
Direct Quotations

• Short quotations (less than four lines)
• Is it possible that dreams may express "profound
  aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?
• Long quotations (more than four lines)
• Indent the entire quotation one inch from the
  left margin
• Maintain double spacing
• Dont use quotation marks
• Cite at the end of the quotation as usual, right
  after the closing quotation mark

11
Example of a Long Quotation

• They entirely refused to have it in bed with
  them, or even in their room, and I had no more
  sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs,
  hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance,
  or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept
  to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on
  quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to
  how it got there I was obliged to confess, and
  in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was
  sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

12
Adding to a Quotation/Omitting Words from a
Quotation

• If you add to a quotation, put what you added in
  brackets
• Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban
  legends, states "some individuals who retell
  urban legends make a point of learning every
  rumor or tale" (78).
• If you omit words from a quotation, replace the
  omitted words with elipses (three dots )
• In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand
  notes that "some individuals make a point of
  learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in
  a short time a lively exchange of details occurs"
  (78).

13
When There is No Author

• Use an abbreviated title
• We see so many global warming hotspots in North
  America likely because this region has more
  readily accessible climatic data and more
  comprehensive programs to monitor and study
  environmental change . . . (Impact of Global
  Warming 6).
• Actual citation from works cited page of above
• The Impact of Global Warming in North America.
  GLOBAL WARMING Early Signs. 1999. Web. 23 Mar.
  2009.

14
Online Writing Lab at Purdue

• All of this information, unless noted elsewhere,
  came from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue
  University, which is an invaluable source for
  writing.
• www.owl.english.purdue.edu
• For help with correctly formatting your works
  cited page, visit
• www.citationmachine.net