What it takes to avoid plagiarism

Ladaea Rylander

Academic Support Centre

29 August 2019

Academic Support Centre

english.support@stu.lu.se

Academic writing

Presenting

Study skills

www.lunduniversity.lu.se/academic-support

Open and free for all!

What is plagiarism?

2012 policy says…

“Plagiarism is a lack of independence in the design and/or wording of academic work presented by a student compared to the level of independence required by the educational context.”

2012 policy says…

“Deceitful plagiarism is a lack of independence combined with an intent on the part of the student to present the work of others as his or her own.”

Thinking Critically• Analyze & interpret the task• Immerse yourself in the topic• Ask questions research question• Make connections• Understand the topic from several perspectives• Understand the topic in light of relevant theoretical

frameworks• Design an experiment and/or develop a position

and an argument to support it (=write a paper!)Modified From N.A. (2011). “Critical Thinking.” Griffith University. [Online document]. 15 Jan 2014. http://www.griffith.edu.au.

Remember…The ultimate goal of academic writing is not to avoid plagiarism.

The goal is to ask an original question and answer it, collect and analyze data in order to make a claim about a topic, discuss that claim with and in relation to others and through that discussion to advance research and thinking in your field.

In order to accomplish that goal, you have to first be able to do some other things successfully. And it just so happens that if you can do those things, you will avoid plagiarizing altogether.

read

commandlanguage

build an argument

incorporate sources

understand your reader

incorporate sources

They say……I say

why?

Readers need to be able to

follow the conversation, to

see who is speaking when

incorporate sources

The source…• gives a definition or theoretical proposition • explains a context• provides evidence for something• provides a counterargument or counter-evidence• is text that you will analyze• others?

why?

incorporate sources

• Summarize• Paraphrase•Quote

how

Reference

incorporate sources

• Summarize• Paraphrase•Quote

Reference

Acknowledgment of source use both in-text and in a reference

list at the end of your text.Harvard, IEEE, APA, Vancouver,

MLA…

Tip!

Ask a librarian about looking for sources and referencing systems!

incorporate sources

• Summarize• Paraphrase•Quote

Focuses on main ideas in the text as a whole

Reference

incorporate sources

• Summarize• Paraphrase•Quote

Rewording of a sentence-level detail

in a source’s text

incorporate sources

• Summarize• Paraphrase•Quote

ReferenceSource’s exact words and punctuation in quotation marks.

“…”

Not used as often in technical fields compared with Humanities + Social Science fields.

Tip!Summarize and paraphrase more than quote directly.

A proper paraphrase uses less than ~20% of source’s language + sentence structure.* More than 20% is patchwriting.

*The 20% guideline isn’t exact, but it’s easier to understand than vague descriptions like “different enough.”This guideline was used by The Citation Project to code student texts as “paraphrasing” or “patchwriting” (see http://www.citationproject.net/)

From Jamieson, S. and R.M. Howard (2013). “Sentence-Mining: Uncovering the Amount of Reading and Reading Comprehension in College Writers’ Researched Writing.” The New Digital Scholar: exploring and enriching the research and writing practices of NextGen students. New Jersey: American Society for Information Science and Technology. P. 109-131

Paraphrase

Patchwriting

Is this plagiarism? Quiz!

Usu

• Put away the original

• Use a combination of strategies:1. Use synonyms

2. Use different parts of speech

3. Change the order of ideas

4. Break long sentences into shorter ones or combine shorter sentences into longer ones

5. Make abstract ideas concrete

Paraphrasing strategies

The more strategies you use simultaneously, the better!

Usu

1. Use synonyms• think aboutmull over

• huge impacts great effects

• standard process usual steps

Paraphrasing strategies

Challenge with this strategy: not all synonyms are equal!

If you’re in doubt, look up the synonym in an English dictionary and find examples of it used in other sentences. You can use SKELL for this: search for the target word and find lots of examples of it in use. Use phraseup* to search for potential words to fill in a blank in your phrase or sentence.

Usu

1. Use synonyms2. Use different parts of speech

• Marx’s ideas Marxist ideas (noun adjective)• had an impact impacted (noun verb)• X conducted a study _________ (noun verb)

Paraphrasing strategies

Usu

1. Use synonyms2. Use different parts of speech3. Change the order of ideas

• Effects of climate change include ______ and ______ Climate change has caused ______ and ________ _____ and ____ are results of climate change.

Paraphrasing strategies

Reminder: just this change will not yield a successful paraphrase, but it’s one of several to use at the same time!

Usu

1. Use synonyms

2. Use different parts of speech

3. Change the order of ideas

4. Break long sentences into shorter ones or combine shorter sentences into longer ones

Paraphrasing strategies

Usu

4. Break long sentences into shorter ones or combine shorter sentences into longer ones

• “With regards to food safety, it was found that viscous, fibrous and starchy fruit purées are more likely to dry inhomogeneously compared to fruit juices. The inhomogeneous drying may result in local wet spots and/or crust formation which could pose as a food safety risk.” (Phinney, R. 2017 abstract*)

• Fruit purées, more often than juices, dry unevenly, which creates a potential food safety risk when the drying process yields “local wet spots and/or crust formation” (Phinney 2017, abstract). (paraphrase + quote)

Paraphrasing strategies

*LTH Food Tech Licentiate Thesis, abstract here: https://portal.research.lu.se/portal/en/publications/solar-assisted-pervaporation-sap(371f9bf1-bfb3-4af4-bf7a-ef432fe16780).html

Usu

1. Use synonyms2. Use different parts of speech3. Change the order of ideas4. Break long sentences into shorter ones or combine

shorter sentences into longer ones5. Make abstract ideas concrete

• The data are inconclusive on the superiority of either mode of measurement. Neither method A nor method B measured ______ better than the other.

Paraphrasing strategies

What should Natasha do?Based on a real scenario

Go to menti.com, code: 63 64 20

1. Submit nothing and talk again with the prof2. Submit a text with a combo of own ideas & the class lit.,

using refs sometimes but not every single time3. Submit a statement about the group, not the assignment4. Find a finished essay online and submit it

Avoid the temptation to: Plagiarize or patchwrite because you’re stressed and worried about letting down your professor or group members or family members or yourself by submitting a late assignment.

Use too much of an original source without telling your readers because your English skills aren’t “good enough.”

Grammar mistakes are way less offensive than plagiarism!

Remember…The ultimate goal of academic writing is not to avoid plagiarism.

The goal is to ask an original question and answer it, collect and analyze data in order to make a claim about a topic, discuss that claim with and in relation to others and through that discussion to advance research and thinking in your field.

At the ASC

For more info and to sign up: www.lunduniversity.lu.se/academic-support

At the ASC

Sign upon website!

Academic Support Centre

english.support@stu.lu.se

Academic writing

Presenting

Study skills

www.lunduniversity.lu.se/academic-support

Open and free for all!