Plagarism Quiz

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Plagiarism Quiz

1. Three different acts are considered plagiarism. What are they?

(1) failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas, (2) failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks, and (3) failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words.

2. What is ‘common knowledge’?

Common knowledge is any information that the average, educated reader would accept as reliable without having to look it up.

3. Why is it plagiarism to fail to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks?

That language belongs to another, and quotation marks indicate that. Failure to include them asserts that the writing is one’s own.

4. How can you avoid plagiarizing when you are summarizing or paraphrasing a source?

Properly quote or cite the author.

5. Is the following passage plagiarized? Why or why not?

Original passage (from On Dumpster Diving by Lars Eighner):

People scrounge cans because they have to have a little cash. I have tried scrounging cans with an able-bodied companion. Afoot a can scrounger simply cannot make more than a few dollars in a day. One can extract the necessities of life from the Dumpsters directly with far less effort than would be required to accumulate the equivalent value in cans. (p. 309)

Paraphrase:

Eighner claims that people collect cans because they have to have some money. I have attempted to scrounge cans with a helper, but on foot a can scrounger simply cannot make more than a few dollars every day. A person could find the necessities of life from the Dumpsters directly with much less effort. (p. 309)

Yes. Improper citation.

6. Is the following passage plagiarized? Why or why not?

Original passage (from Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell):

And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man’s dominion in the East. Here was I, the white man with his gun,...