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PLAGIARISM LESSON
How To Use Information Without Plagiarizing
From Karen Andresen, PJHS Library
1. If you want to use someone’s exact words or most of their ideas, use quotation marks like this: Jose Miller of Sports Illustrated says the Giants have a good chance to get in the World Series this year, “They have recruited some very strong new hitters from the farm leagues, and their outfield is much better than last year since they moved Michael Chang to first base.”
2. You can also take notes from an article in your own words, then rewrite the information completely and put the Sports Illustrated article in your Works Cited list. Using the same example I just gave you, if your rewrote it your own words you might say, “The Giants could go to the World Series this year. They will be stronger because they have changed their outfield and they have added some new players who are good hitters.”
3. What you can’t do, without committing plagiarism, is to take someone’s ideas and change a few words in each sentence without using quotation marks. That is very tempting when you cut and paste information into a document because it is so easy. So, if you write:
“I think the Giants have a good likelihood of getting into the World Series. They selected some really good hitters from the farm leagues, and putting Michael Chang at first base made their outfield much stronger,” you are plagiarizing because you are using Jose Miller’s ideas without giving him credit.
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