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Plagiarism Workshop (PART I) Today you are going to do some research on plagiarism, what it is, how it is defined and how to avoid it in your academic writing. In your writing and study skills class in HED you will learn how to cite and reference properly. Your first task is to complete a web quest on plagiarism, set up by Dr Alice Christie at the Arizona State University West. Please put the following URL into your Explorer page: http://www.west.asu.edu/achristie/NASA/plagiarism.html#top You may explore any of the linked pages that you find on this site or related websites to find the answers to the questions below. Task 1 – Defining Plagiarism As outlined on the above webquest, you need to complete the following activities in pairs or teams of three: Find at least 3 of the 5 definitions of plagiarism at the various webquest links and write them here: 1. “With no environmental planning strategy for rural area to speak of, Viet Nam's villages suffer from a myriad of waste management headaches.” (“Villages swamped with environmental problems”, 2005, viewed 17 July 2007,

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=03SUN230105) 2. ____ “Plagiarism is the use of another person's work without giving proper credit. It can  happen as a result of a conscious effort to deceive, or as a result of careless research  methods”( “Striving for excellent”, 2006, viewed 20 Aug 2007, http://schools.gorge.net/whitesalmon/chs/plagiarism.htm) ___________________________________________________________________________ 3. “Plagiarism can take many forms: • • •

Copying any direct quotation from your source material without providing quotation marks or crediting your source Paraphrasing of a borrowed idea without introducing and documenting the source of the idea Copying another paper”

(“Plagiarism”, 2004, viewed 20 Aug, 2007, http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/library/infolit/guides/key/kplagiarism.htm) Task 2 – the Consequences of Plagiarism Summarize a story of at least one _______________ who plagiarized, and what happened to them to share with the class: _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ Task 3 – Acceptable and Unacceptable Paraphrasing Many students think it is okay to just change a few words, use a few synonyms and then they can call work their own. Using the links again on this webquest and its related sites, write your own definition of the following terms. Another useful site: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html Acceptable paraphrasing means _______________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ Unacceptable paraphrasing means _____________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ Task 4 – Checking your understanding of plagiarism Go to “Site 8: Is it plagiarism?” on Dr Christie’s web quest page and in your group discuss the questions that are asked there. Note any points you are unsure of below, then go back to the links and see if you can find the answers! _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________

Task 5 – RMIT Policy on plagiarism Read RMIT’s policy on plagiarism at:

http://mams.rmit.edu.au/1oavdg0bdd1.pdf

Read RMIT’s Student Discipline Regulation 6.1.1 at: http://mams.rmit.edu.au/j4lb68xx36oj1.pdf

What are some of the consequences of being charged with academic misconduct, which includes plagiarism, according to these policies? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________

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