Week 10 Quiz- COM 101

Half n half: When you cite many sources correctly but you choose not to cite other sources.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM Citing only some sources correctly and not others is not enough. When creating a work of your own, you must cite, in every case, all authors that you directly quote or paraphrase. It's like stealing the wheels off someone's bike, adding them to your bike, and then claiming they're your wheels. You may not have taken the whole bike, but you still took something that didn't belong to you and lied about ownership. HOW TO AVOID IT Cite all sources correctly, every time. Avoid the bad habit of copying and pasting quotes into your document without citing them immediately. Whether on accident or on purpose, citing only some of your citations and not others is still plagiarism and it's a serious offense.

Mitosis: When you re-use an entire work of your own for another purpose or publication and claim it as the original.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM Even though you are the original author (and you may even claim copyright to your work), submitting a work to a publisher, teacher, or other authority as if the work is new is dishonest. In the world of publishing, if you duplicate a work that has already been published and you claim it as the original, you could have serious legal issues. In education, you may be expelled for reusing a paper for more than one class. HOW TO AVOID IT Don't reuse your own work unless you have been given express permission to do so. Clarify, in all cases, to your teacher or publisher that you are reusing the document, in its entirety, for a new purpose. If you are not given permission, do not do it.

CHERRY-PICK: When you use someone else's work, but you essentially cherry-pick words and phrases to change here and there to make it sound different. You might slip in a few synonyms or change the structure or phrasing of the sentences, just to make it sound different than the original, but you still claim it as your own.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM Even though you've changed the phrasing and sentence structure, you're still copying the ideas of someone else and taking credit for it. Changing the wording and sentence structure of someone else's work is not enough to be able to claim the work as your own. In fact, this is still a highly severe form of plagiarism. HOW TO AVOID IT When writing a document, develop the ideas from your own mind and then supplement your ideas by citing outside sources. Don't fall into the trap of simply rewriting something that has already been written by just changing some of the wording.

Information Literacy

What follows are suggestions to help you gain or refine your information literacy— the ability to read and evaluate the credibility of information.

It's All About That Audience Again

When you begin to look for resources, your audience analysis will play an important role in finding the sources that are right for your audience—and thus are right for your presentation. First, it is important to think about your audience's knowledge level—what they already know about your topic. Your audience analysis should identify this for you. Knowing what your audience knows (or doesn't know) will determine the type of information sources you need to locate. For example, if you're planning to speak to an audience about careers in medicine, you'd want to know whether they are incoming college students with little practical knowledge of the field, or if they are pre-med college juniors with more medical training and education. The entering college students need more general information, such as which science classes they should be taking and how to find a premed advisor. The more advanced students probably want information about various medical specialties and how to choose a graduate-level medical school. You would look for completely different types of resources for these two presentations even though the general topic is the same. Another consideration is identifying how technical or advanced your information sources need to be. This depends on the knowledge level of your audience as well. If they know a lot about a subject, they'll probably understand complex concepts better. If they know very little, a lot of jargon or complicated explanations will be confusing. The audience knowledge level also helps to identify the type of sources your audience considers credible. It might be appropriate to quote Time magazine's latest medical report on advances in chemotherapy treatments if you are speaking to a group of college students. But it's probably inappropriate to use a popular magazine as a source if you were speaking to oncologists (medical doctors who specialize in cancer treatments). The sources that physicians would find credible would be scientific research journals that report medical findings to those in the health field, like The New England Journal of Medicine. Finally, your audience's values and beliefs will also give you clues as to which sources to pursue. If you are speaking to a room full of hard-right Republicans about environmental issues, quoting or relying on research from Al Gore's1 environmental work will hardly sway hearts and minds. Likewise, when speaking to a room full of hard-left Democrats, citing Fox News2 as a source will not work to increase the credibility of you or your arguments. Instead, you have to find the kinds of sources that your audience will respect—the ones that are either unbiased and beyond reproach or the ones that are well respected by your specific listeners.

Misuce: When you make a mistake in your citation, such as putting the wrong author or writing the wrong words.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM While this type of plagiarism is usually an honest mistake and is less severe on the list, it doesn't appropriately give credit to the original author. Using words, phrases, and author names incorrectly may cause the person reading your paper to cite your paper incorrectly, thus distorting the original ideas. HOW TO AVOID IT Just be careful. Make sure you get all the names, pages, and other citation information correct. Miscues are often a sign of being lazy or being in a hurry, but there's still no excuse.

What is plagiarism?

"plagiarism" generally refers to when a person takes someone else's work and then takes credit for it, as if it's their own. All forms of plagiarism should be avoided, no matter what, but it's helpful to understand the many ways where you might go awry if you don't give proper credit where credit is due.

plagiarism

1. an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author. 2.a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation.

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

There are several important types of citations your presentation will require: • Provide an oral citation of specific sources during your presentation. A verbal citation requires that you state out loud where your information came from during your presentation. There are some obvious places where you should always stop and verbally state your source, such as when you use a quotation or when you report any numbers or statistics. If you're in doubt about whether to provide an oral citation, it is better to be safe and do so. Aloud citations do not need to mimic a written APA citation in which you list the author, year, and page number. Since your audience won't be able to look up your sources on the spot, it is more important that you give them the information they need to quickly evaluate the credibility of your source. For example: "According to an article in the New York Times last Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio reported that 17 city schools have missed more than 12 days of school during February due to the snow." The author of the article and the page number on which it appeared was unimportant for the audience to decide whether or not the information was trustworthy. What was important was who provided the information (New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio), where it was published (New York Times), and when it was published (last Sunday). For some academic articles—particularly those involving the hard sciences—multiple people may be listed as authors (sometimes more than ten people). You do not need to commit those names to memory for your presentation; that's a waste of your brain space. If one or more of the authors is a well-known name in the field, then, by all means, mention them. But if the names would ring no bells for your audience, use the credibility of the journal itself to highlight the article's veracity: "A 2014 study published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis found that..." • Cite sources for all images and graphics on your visuals. Give a brief citation on, next to, or under all pictures you have borrowed for your presentation, particularly when the source of the image is not obvious. If you have or know the name of the photographer or graphic designer, use that. If it is a picture you got from the Internet without a specific caption that gives the source credit, cite the main website or the organization that posted the picture. For example: "Image from Hartford Chamber of Commerce website." • Compile all full source citations in a separate reference list. Just as you need to provide a full references list of all your sources at the end of a paper, you need to have a full citations list for your presentations. The citations should not the last slide of your PowerPoint (no one will have time to look up those sources in the few seconds you leave it on the screen). Rather, the citations list should be on a separate sheet of paper or as a separate document to be submitted to your instructor. If you were giving a presentation to a professional audience, you should likewise have a list of all your sources, just in case one or more audience members wanted to verify the information for themselves.

Evaluating Your Sources: Sorting through CRAAP

Whenever you find a source—whether it is in print or online—you should use your critical-thinking skills to evaluate its credibility. Just because someone wrote it and posted or published it, that does not make it accurate, reliable, or true. If you in turn quote or cite sources that have little credibility on your own, it is likely that at least someone in your audience will pick up on that, which will cast doubt on all the points you make and your own credibility as a presenter.

The Quest for Reliable Sources: Where to Look for Your Research

After you've carefully considered your audience and your intent, you need to begin your quest for appropriate types of sources. Your search will most likely include the campus library (either physically or electronically) and the Internet. Let's consider both of these avenues.

Keep your presentation intent in mind

Remind yourself what your goal is for your presentation. In order to keep your audience interested and engaged, they need to be learning something new. One of the frequent challenges during the research process is: information overload, which occurs when you become overwhelmed by too many sources and too much information. When that happens, it becomes difficult to determine what information is appropriate for your presentation and what is not. This is where a clear statement of intent can help keep you focused. Here's a helpful tip: write or type your statement of intent on a note card or piece of paper and keep it in front of you while you do research. Whenever you feel yourself getting lost in the details or overwhelmed with too much information, refer back to your statement of intent. If the research does not directly support your presentation intent, move on to the next source.

The More You Know: Finding and Using Research to Build Credibility: Opening

Research is the first step in building a solid argument; it helps you find the information that will speak directly to your audience, and it allows you to build up your own knowledge and speaker credibility. good research is much more involved than typing a search term into Google and using the first three entries that pop up. This article is aimed at helping you effectively conduct the researching process and find information that is credible, valuable, and relevant.

Let's Get Started: How to Begin the Researching Process

Research should be the first step in planning your message (the M of AIMC). If you do some reading and research before your ideas are completely formed, you'll be able to integrate your outside sources into your content as it develops. Keep in mind that every main idea you offer needs supporting evidence, so it makes sense to consider what information you have available as you determine what those main talking points will be. That saves you the hassle of scrambling to find sources to back up the things you're saying. If your ideas come directly from a source, you already have some of the support you need. In addition to your topic ideas, you need two key pieces of information before you choose potential resources: your audience analysis and your statement of intent.

Loving the Library: In Person and Online

The best general or multidisciplinary database to use to find articles from a wide range of resources is: Academic Search Premier (EBSCO). Two other exceptional electronic resources that deal with current issues and usually provide balanced coverage as well as facts and statistics are: CQ Researcher and Opposing Viewpoints.

The CRAAP Test

The test helps you evaluate your sources through five different criteria: Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose (see table below). While the test's first two criteria of Currency and Relevance apply to all types of resources you consider, the criteria of Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose are especially crucial when you evaluate Internet resources.

Feeling and Sounding Smart: The Importance of Research in a Presentation

To create logical arguments (Aristotle's call for logos) and build trust with your audience (ethos), you need to research your topic. Even those people widely proclaimed as experts in their fields research the work of others. Why? To put it simply, locating and using reliable sources of information about your topic can help build your confidence, create a stronger and more interesting message, and establish your credibility as a presenter. First: you want to feel confident when you talk to your audience. Research is the most direct way for you to learn more about your topic. If you do it well, you will know more about the subject than most of those sitting in your audience. And when you share new knowledge with your audience, they will start to look at you as the expert—as the person in charge—and that vote of confidence in your knowledge and ability will most certainly give you a large boost of confidence. Second: knowing a lot about your topic also helps to dispel some of the fears surrounding questions from your audience. Those most afraid of what the audience may ask are generally those who have the fewest answers to give. If you have "done your homework" on your topic and learned more than just the bare minimum needed to "fake it" through the main presentation, you will feel far more prepared and self-assured when you present. Third, the content of your presentation matters. If you've ever sat through a boring presentation, you know this is true. Giving your audience information they already know is uninspiring and dull; your presentation needs to include information that is interesting enough to grab and hold your audience's attention. If the content of your presentation is based solely on your personal knowledge and experience, you are likely to repeat common information or well-known facts. "Boring! We already know this!" On the other hand, solid research allows you to do things like quote a well-known expert, provide a startling statistic, or give an example from current events. Research helps you find those key pieces of information that make your presentation both meaningful and worthwhile for your audience. Finally: research builds your credibility as a speaker. Being credible means you demonstrate that you are a trustworthy presenter and that the content of your message is reliable. It is the ethos in Aristotle's three-pronged approach to persuasion. Your increased knowledge of the topic and the research findings you share will help your audience to see you as an expert. When you refer to specific resources you've found, you assure your audience that you took time to do your homework, and you demonstrate that the information you are presenting can be backed up by outside sources. This builds your credibility as a speaker, which is essential if you want them to listen (and believe!) what you have to say.

Warp: When you misinterpret or cite a source out of context.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM If you cite a source incorrectly, you're at least headed in the right direction because you've cited the source. But if you misinterpreted the information or you cite the source out of context for your own purposes, you are assigning ideas to a person who never claimed those ideas. You are, in other words, misleading your reader into believing that your ideas are validated by someone who never said them. HOW TO AVOID IT Verify, in every case, that when you're citing someone else, that you understand the original intended message. Don't attribute ideas or thoughts to someone that really aren't the case. This makes it look like you simply made stuff up to fit your argument.

Half-hearted: When you cite sources mostly correct but you get sloppy and leave portions of the citations out.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM If you're citing your sources, you are at least being honest. However, when you put a half-hearted effort into citing your sources, you may make it difficult or impossible for your reader to locate the original source if they want to. Not putting a publisher's name or a page number in the citation, for example, makes it difficult for readers to know if your source is accurate or if it exists at all. HOW TO AVOID IT Include enough necessary information, for all of your sources, that a reader could easily locate the original sources on their own. In most cases, it is best to follow a recognized style guide, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago in order to include all important information.

Ghost citation: When you make up a citation to make your work sound more credible or you say things that the original source never said.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM Making up citations to make your paper sound credible is dishonest and misleading. Readers assume that you have put appropriate time into doing your research; claiming something was said by someone who never said it distorts where information is coming from, similar to lying about using someone else's work and not giving them credit. While not quite as severe stealing someone else's work and claiming it as your own, this is still very deceptive and a serious form of plagiarism. HOW TO AVOID IT Recognize that ghost citations sometimes happen on accident. Be sure you know if a person actually said what you think they said (look it up!) Never, in any case, simply attribute a quote to another person that you can't verify if they actually said it. Making up quotes for other people is highly unethical and dishonest.

Recycle: When you reuse portions or sections of your own work and you don't cite your previous works (essentially claiming the reused portions as original.)

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM Similar to Mitosis, you are being dishonest about what you created for the current publisher, teacher, or authority. If you re-use material that you have published or submitted previously and you don't make it clear that you have done so, you are misleading the person or institution giving you credit for original work. HOW TO AVOID IT Cite yourself like you would cite any other work. Self-citation is really common and it is expected when you do it. There is nothing wrong with citing yourself; just be sure to do so.

Reflection: When you cite all sources correctly, but your work appears very similar to someone else's.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM Similar to Mosaic, when you cite your sources, you're at least being honest about where the information is coming from. But when you write a work that is very similar to someone else's, it's a subtly dishonest approach because the reader may not be aware of the original work that yours reflects, thus they may assume the ideas are entirely yours. HOW TO AVOID IT Be aware of what else is out there that may be like your work. If you are aware of a similar work, make it different enough that you can claim it as original thought. It's okay to build on others' ideas, but when what you write looks like a muddy reflection of someone else's work, it's problematic.

IDENTITY THEFT: When you copy, steal, or purchase an entire document that someone else wrote and you claim it as your own. This is the most severe form of plagiarism.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM Using someone else's work and claiming it as your own is the very definition of plagiarism. When you deliberately use someone else's work and claim it to be your own, original work, you are being blatantly dishonest. HOW TO AVOID IT While this is the most severe form of plagiarism, it is also the easiest to avoid. Do not ever purchase, steal, or copy a document and put your name on it.

mosaic: When you cite all of your sources but you have very little of your own thoughts.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM While this is a less severe form of plagiarism because you've cited all of your sources (and you're not lying about who said them), you are still attempting to claim a work as your own even though it's really just a collection of other people's ideas. When you can claim very little is your own work, it misleads a reader who may not pay close attention to the citations, making it a subtly dishonest (even if accidental) way of communicating. HOW TO AVOID IT While this is similar to Remix, this case you have actually cited your sources. Still, when you just collect a bunch of ideas without adding hardly anything original, your work is still somewhat misleading. Be sure to write as much as you can from your own head, only supplementing with others' works.

Remix: When you paraphrase multiple sources and stitch them together without citation, making it sound entirely like your own.

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM While this may sound like an effective way to synthesize information, if you aren't citing your sources and you're compiling a collection of other people's thoughts, it makes it sound like you created all those thoughts. You cannot simply paraphrase others' works and call them your own, even if the remix is original. It's like remixing several songs together—the remix may be an interesting collection, but you can't claim that the original artists are you. HOW TO AVOID IT Every time you paraphrase someone, be sure to cite them as the original source. Avoid writing a paper that relies entirely on paraphrasing, but rather, writer your own ideas and then supplement with others' ideas.

COPYCAT: When you copy major portions of someone else's document and claim them as your own work. You may not have copied someone else's entire work, but you've copied many sentences, paragraphs, and sections and claimed them as your own

WHY IT'S PLAGIARISM Even if you don't copy the entire work of someone else, you're still being dishonest about the portions you did use. Using someone else's work and claiming you wrote it—even if you only use portions— is just as dishonest as using the entire document. There's just less material. HOW TO AVOID IT Don't duplicate or reuse any material that you didn't create. If it's important to your work to use a large portion of someone else's, you must, in all cases, be very open, honest, and clear about what sections were not your own and then correctly cite the original author or artist.

Using the Internet: Beyond Just Googling It

When you look on the Internet for sources, you most likely start with Google, Yahoo, or some other popular search engine out of habit. These search engines comb through websites, blogs, social media postings, and other information outlets to return the most relevant and most popular results. Relevance and popularity, though, do not make the sources credible. Much of what you find on the Internet is opinion—information that is unverified, exaggerated, or outright wrong. Just using Google as your guide will likely lead you astray. You need to employ critical thinking in your research and approach Internet searches more systematically to find sources worth your audience's while. Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia generated by expert and non-expert users. Wikipedia is often a good place to start but it is not appropriate to use as one of your references. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that is written and edited by the general public, so it is not a credible source to claim as a reference. A better way to search the Internet for suitable articles is to use a specialized search engine like Google Scholar (scholar.google.com). This searches the Internet, but it specifically targets information on educational websites (usually posted by professors and librarians) so it will generally locate a higher quality of information than the results of a regular Google search. If you truly need up-to-the-minute information on current events, Google also offers a news database (news.google.com). Another idea is to use a search engine that looks only at a particular type of Internet source like www.usa.gov, which delivers search results taken only from government agency websites

WHY SHOULD I AVOID PLAGIARIZING?

because it's deceptive and dishonest Even honest mistakes (like forgetting to cite a source) are problematic because they appear like you were trying to be deceptive and because they still take credit where credit isn't due. When you take credit for someone else's work, you're not giving them proper recognition for the time, effort, and creativity they spent into creating something. it's unethical to assume it's okay if you do it to them. In many ways, plagiarism is just like stealing, only with intellectual property instead of physical property it's fairly easy to track if you have plagiarized. schools and organizations take plagiarizing very seriously and you may face failing a project or course or even expulsion from an organization if caught. plagiarizing someone else's work doesn't allow you to grow and develop intellectually