English Language Arts
Grade 9
15 min
Identify plagiarism
Identify plagiarism
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Introduction & Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
Define plagiarism and its different forms, including direct, mosaic, and self-plagiarism.
Differentiate between proper paraphrasing, direct quoting, and plagiarized content.
Identify instances of plagiarism in sample student writing by comparing it to original source material.
Explain the ethical and academic consequences of plagiarism.
Apply basic MLA citation rules to give proper credit to sources.
Distinguish between common knowledge and information that requires citation.
Ever seen a movie that felt like a total copy of another one? 🤔 In academic and professional writing, that's called plagiarism, and it has serious consequences.
This tutorial will teach you how to identify plagiarism in all its forms. Understanding these rules is crucial for m...
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Key Concepts & Vocabulary
TermDefinitionExample
PlagiarismThe act of presenting someone else's words, ideas, or work as your own without giving them proper credit.Copying a paragraph from a website and putting it in your essay without citing the source.
Direct PlagiarismCopying another person's work word-for-word without using quotation marks or providing a citation.Student essay: The novel explores the loss of the American Dream. Original source: The novel explores the loss of the American Dream. (No quotation marks or credit given).
Mosaic Plagiarism (Patchwriting)Borrowing phrases and ideas from a source and weaving them into your own writing by changing a few words, but keeping the original structure and meaning without proper citation.Original: 'The fragile ecosystem is collapsing due to rising...
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Key Rules & Conventions
The Quotation Rule
If you use the exact words from a source, you MUST enclose them in quotation marks " " and provide a citation.
Use this for powerful, unique, or memorable language from a source that you want to include in your essay. Never use someone's exact words without both quotation marks and a citation.
The Citation Rule
Any idea, statistic, image, or piece of information that is not your own original thought and is not common knowledge MUST be followed by a citation.
This applies to both direct quotes and paraphrases. When in doubt, cite your source. It shows you've done your research and gives credit where it's due.
The Paraphrasing Rule
A true paraphrase must significantly alter the original wording AND sentence structure. Simply sw...
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Challenging
Original Source: "The Industrial Revolution, while a period of immense technological innovation, created a stark new division between the wealthy factory owners and the impoverished laboring class." (Davis 112). Student's Paragraph: The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change. While it led to new technology, Davis notes it "created a stark new division between the wealthy factory owners and the impoverished laboring class" (112). This economic gap caused widespread social unrest. What is the primary academic integrity error in the student's paragraph?
A.The student did not introduce the quote properly.
B.The student should have paraphrased the entire idea instead of quoting.
C.The student correctly quoted and cited the source, so there is no error.
D.The student did not cite the paraphrased idea in the first sentence, which is derived from the source.
Challenging
A student argues that since an article on a blog has no listed author and is free to read, the ideas are in the 'public domain' and don't need a citation. Based on the tutorial's principles, why is this reasoning flawed?
A.The reasoning is not flawed; blogs are considered common knowledge.
B.It is flawed because 'public domain' only applies to works over 100 years old, and all other works require citation regardless of format or author.
C.It is flawed because plagiarism is about using proper MLA format, not about whether something is free.
D.It is flawed because only information from printed books needs to be cited.
Challenging
Original Source: "Solar power generation, contingent upon consistent sunlight and significant initial investment, offers a sustainable but intermittent energy alternative." (Chen 4). Student's Writing: A green but sometimes unreliable energy choice is solar power, which requires a lot of sun and a large upfront cost to get started (Chen 4). Why is this sentence a borderline or sophisticated case of mosaic plagiarism and not a proper paraphrase?
A.The student forgot to use quotation marks.
B.The student's paraphrase is longer than the original source.
C.The student perfectly paraphrased the source and there is no plagiarism.
D.The student closely followed the original's sequence of ideas (sustainable but intermittent, sunlight, investment) without creating a truly new sentence structure.
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