Step One: How do I know the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism?

Read, very carefully, the Dean of Students' Web page about the subject.  Read and study this page carefully down to the subheading that says "Multiple Submissions."  (It's not a bad idea to read the rest, but it won't be as relevant to this class.)  This page starts out with some slightly scary warnings about all the terrible things that might happen to you if you get caught, but then it eases up and gives what I think are some excellent examples of right and wrong ways to use information you read.  After you have read the Dean's page, come back here and scroll down the page for some information on how to apply those regulations to this particular class.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Step Two:  How do I avoid accidental plagiarism in this class?

• For this class, you do NOT have to put in footnotes or include the bibliographic information in parenthetical references, because you're giving me hard copies of your sources.  You DO have to indicate which information you are taking from your articles.  Fortunately, you can do this in a pretty simple way that will, at the same time, get you more points on the "demonstrates that articles were read and understood" section of your grade.  When you're talking about something that is not common knowledge and is not really your own insight, you simply tell whose idea it was as you mention it, using terms like "according to" and "From the first article I learned that..." and "John Doe said/declared/proposed/thought" etc.  This is particularly effective if two or more of your sources disagree on something.  Do NOT fall into the trap of writing "The festival comes to a heart-stopping, breath-taking conclusion when..." unless you've been to that festival and you know that it is heart-stopping and breath-taking.  Otherwise, you have to say, "The festival comes to a conclusion that Sue Author calls "heart-stopping."

Since many of you are using Web sites, it may not be easy to find an author's name.  For other types of papers, you would have to find some way to identify the writer or at least the publisher.  For this one, if there's no author's name, you can use the title of the article, some distinguishing feature (the newspaper article says X, the Web site says Y, and the book excerpt insists that it's Z), or even just label your articles with a number or letter.
 
• Don't have the articles in front of you when you write.  This is going to be easier than you think, really! Remember that the writing assignment doesn't ask you to recite every little detail; it's a general overview.  Trust yourself to digest and re-tell the information.  If you really don't feel you can do that, then take notes IN ENGLISH and use those as you write.  You can put an occasional single word in Spanish in your notes, especially names and technical terms, but not phrases or sentences.  Basically, you shouldn't have any sentence in your written assignment that you couldn't reproduce without looking at the article.  Some of the people who got in trouble on assignment 1 were copying sentences that they were perfectly capable of re-phrasing on their own.  They understood what they had read, and if they had set aside the articles, they would have given the same information in their own words in a perfectly acceptable way.


The other advantage of doing it that way is that then you'll have half the work for your presentation done. In the presentation, you'll have to simplify and re-tell, because you won't be able to remember the original text.
 

• Don't quote anything you don't entirely understand.  (If there is something you can't figure out, write me a little note and highlight it on your copies, and I'll help you figure it out.  Leave it out of your written assignment, though.)

How do I avoid the temptation to plagiarize deliberately?

• Maintain your perspective on how much of your final grade each assignment is worth.  Even though I'm not giving any extensions on these projects, you're still better off taking a zero than risking a violation of academic integrity (especially since, if you get caught, you get a zero AND a disciplinary record.)
• Don't use really hard articles.  If you don't understand a source, or if it's incredibly long, don't use it.  Find something else-- even change topics if you have to.  Of course, in order to have that option, you'll have to...
• Get an early start.  Try to have your sources chosen at least a week before the assignment is due.  If you spend more time finding and selecting your sources, you'll spend less time on the rest of the assignment.