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What exactly is plagiarism?
Plagiarism means representing another person's original
words or ideas as being one's own. It can therefore take on many forms,
from literally copying-and-pasting material from another source without
using quotation marks and a citation, to paraphrasing without acknowledgement,
or even just acknowledging another source insufficiently.
Taking text from from a source on the the Internet and pasting it into your paper without quotation marks and a citation is plagiarism.
Taking another student's writing, replacing key words with synonyms, and presenting it as one's own work is plagiarism.
Be sure you know the rules. As happens
when you are pulled over in your car by a cop (and in much of the rest
of life), claiming that you did not know you were breaking the rules usually does not get you very far, even when the claim is sincere. It is your responsibility to
learn what constitutes plagiarism.
What format should I use for citations?
You may use any standard style of citation you would like. The UCSB Library has put together a handy chart with
samples of how to cite a book, book chapter, journal article, newspaper
article, Internet resource, or full-text article via electronic database.
Following the examples is a list of recommended style guides for writing
research papers (both print and electronic references) and where to locate
them.http://www.library.ucsb.edu/ref/online-ref.html#help
How do you check whether my paper adheres to UCSB's standard for academic integrity?
In PS 12, you will submit your paper electronically, and we will use software developed at UCSB to compare every word in your paper to every word in every other student's paper in this class, and also to every paper in select previous offerings of this class and others at UCSB. Any papers that bear striking similarities will be flagged by the software, and then we will read these flagged papers ourselves side-by-side to look for possible plagiarism. We will also make electronic comparisions of Internet-based sources of student papers.
What happens if I am caught plagiarizing?
If this course, if you are caught plagiarizing
even one paragraph in a paper you probably fail the entire course and
will be referred to the Dean of Students for investigation and a formal hearing
by the Student-Faculty Committee on Student Conduct.
Cheating is not taken lightly and it is not
uncommon for a first-time offender to be suspended from the University
for two quarters for committing one act of cheating or plagiarism. In the past, a small number of students
in PS 12 have been caught plagiarizing on term papers and have been suspended
from UCSB with an F in the course.
Yes, it is true: Copy just a little of your friend's work and paste it into your paper and you may end up suspended from UCSB. This penalty surprises many students in its severity, and it is without question an extremely sad outcome for the student and for me as your professor.
Fortunately, the vast majority of students play by the rules in PS 12 and so these issues do not arise.
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