Plagiarism Activity Questions

Huge numbers of immigrant workers stream into the United States each year looking for jobs in landscaping or construction, house cleaning or childcare.

Could be considered plagiarism

Original Source: Do temperamentally violent kids seek out shows that express feelings they already have, or are they in it for the adrenaline boost? --Maggie Cutler

"Do temperamentally violent kids seek out shows that express feelings they already have . . . ?" Cutler asks (64).

For the workers who do not have the luxury to care about salary or prestige, there are many work choices (Ehrenreich 202).

Could be considered plagiarism

Stern and Stern explain that for farmers a visit with neighbors "meant putting on dress clothes and serving cakes and lemonade and gathering politely in the parlor" (103).

Uses the source appropriately

Original Source: The Internet has turned teenagers into honest documentarians of their own lives--reporters embedded in their homes, their schools, their own heads. But this is also why it's dangerous, why we can't seem to recognize that it's just a medium. We're afraid. Our kids know things we don't. --Amy Goldwasser

According to Goldwasser, the cause for fear is that Internet access "has turned teenagers into honest documentarians of their own lives. . . . Our kids know things we don't" (667).

Original Source: To be very clear, then, I am not criticizing the work of Habitat for Humanity. --Diana George

Although George criticizes the visuals that advertise Habitat for Humanity, she is careful to state, "I am not criticizing the work of Habitat for Humanity" (623).

According to Ehrenreich, these "survival jobs" are something to do while waiting for a real job to come along.

Could be considered plagiarism

After the invention of radio, Stern and Stern observe, farm women could do chores with pleasant programs in the background while men could toil in the barn, listening to farm and weather reports.

Could be considered plagiarism

In the twenties, radio was a source of music and fun, information and weather reports (Stern and Stern 103).

Could be considered plagiarism

Original Source: Following a rule of good manners may mean doing something you do not want to do, and the weird rhetoric of our self-indulgent age resists the idea that we have such things as obligations to others. --Stephen L. Carter

Describing a decline in the behavior of young people, Stephen L. Carter worries that "the weird rhetoric of [this] self-indulgent age resists the idea" of self-control and good manners (672).

Original Source: Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. --Joan Didion

Didion suggests that "[g]rief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it" (929).

Original Source: Most [magazine] editors test their covers in focus groups in an endless search for the magic that will make their magazines fly off the shelves--and to avoid costly mistakes. --Katharine Q. Seelye

Seelye argues that magazine editors seek "the magic that will make their magazines fly off the shelves" (604).

Original Source: I haven't found a soul who tried this machine who wasn't appalled, baffled, or both. --David Pogue

When evaluating the BlackBerry, Pogue complains "I haven't found a soul who tried this machine who wasn't appalled, baffled, or both" (D7).

According to Stern and Stern, the radio offered busy farm families companionship that was easier than traditional socializing, which could be difficult or time-consuming to organize (103).

Uses the source appropriately

Ehrenreich explains that in the current economy, "[e]ven in the absence of new job creation, high turnover . . . guarantees a steady supply of openings" for low-paying jobs (202-03).

Uses the source appropriately

Original source: Radio was a new thrill for many Americans in the 1920s, but it had extraordinary value for the isolated farm families of the Midwest, for whom solitude loomed as a daily problem. Radio was a source of music and fun, information and weather reports, and it was an easy way to enjoy the pleasure of other people's company. In-person visiting was a special event that often meant putting on dress clothes and serving cakes and lemonade and gathering politely in the parlor; frequently the press of chores or bad weather made that impossible. But with a radio, women could continue their housework as they listened to a friendly voice; men working in the barn had access to weather reports and farm programs. From: Stern, Jane, and Michael Stern. Two for the Road: Our Love Affair with American Food. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. The passage appears on page 103. Using the source: Jane Stern and Michael Stern note that because many midwestern farm families were isolated, radio provided a new thrill and extraordinary value (103).

Uses the source appropriately

Original Source: Anecdotally, adolescent vegetarianism seems to be rising, thanks in part to YouTube animal slaughter videos that shock the developing sensibilities of many U.S. children. But there isn't enough long-term data to prove that [the trend is real], according to government researchers. --Mike Stobbe

If more adolescents are becoming vegetarian, this trend may be related to "YouTube animal slaughter videos that shock the developing sensibilities of many U.S. children" (Stobbe 649).

Original source: For those who can't afford to be fussy about status or pay, there are of course plenty of jobs in America. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants crowd into the country every year to work in lawn maintenance, on construction crews, or as housecleaners, nannies, and meat packers. Even in the absence of new job creation, high turnover in the low-wage job sector guarantees a steady supply of openings to the swift and the desperate. To white-collar job seekers, these are known as "survival jobs"--something to do while waiting for a "real" job to come along. From: Ehrenreich, Barbara. Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. Metropolitan Books, 2005. The passage appears on pages 202-03. Using the source: Ehrenreich cites a consistent pool of low-paying jobs that some white-collar workers disdain and regard as jobs of last resort (202-03).

Uses the source appropriately