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6 CITING SOURCES | MODULE CONTENTS

Plagiarism?   It's Your Call!

Plagiarism ranges from copying word-for-word to paraphrasing a passage without credit and changing only a few words. Below is a sentence from a book. The original source is followed by its use in three student papers. For each student's version check the pull-down box to see if the passage would be considered plagiarism.

Original Passage
Still, the telephone was only a convenience, permitting Americans to do more casually and with less effort what they had already been doing before.1

Abbie
The telephone was a convenience, enabling Americans to do more casually and with less effort what they had already been doing before.

Brian
Daniel J. Boorstin argues that the telephone was only a convenience, permitting Americans to do more casually and with less effort what they had already been doing before.

Chad
Daniel J. Boorstin has noted that most Americans considered the telephone as simply "a convenience," an instrument that allowed them "to do more casually and with less effort what they had already been doing before."2

1 (Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, page 390.  

2 Excerpt, examples, and commentary below are from James M. McCrimmon, Writing With A Purpose, page 499.)

 

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Original (c) UNBLILT material 2003-2004 by the University of New Brunswick Libraries, Instruction Services Group. UNBLILT incorporates material from Searchpath, a tutorial developed by Western Michigan University 2001-2002, and from TILT, a tutorial developed by the Digital Information Literacy Office for the University of Texas System Digital Library 1998-2002. This material may be reproduced, distributed, or incorporated only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the UNBLILT, Searchpath, and TILT Open Publication Licenses.