Aphrodite Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 This little word is the bane of my life, from the second i hand an essay in all i ever do is worry that i havent referneced it properly, and that i'll be charged with plagerism! The thing that gets me on it, is that you are supposed to reference to show that you are not taking anothers idea and using it as your won, ut when the body of your work is made up from reading books written by authors expressing their oppinon on history how do you know how to strike a balance! Ahh very stressful, but luckily ive noever been pulled up on it so i must be appraoching it right... but still... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 This little word is the bane of my life, from the second i hand an essay in all i ever do is worry that i havent referneced it properly, and that i'll be charged with plagerism! The thing that gets me on it, is that you are supposed to reference to show that you are not taking anothers idea and using it as your won, ut when the body of your work is made up from reading books written by authors expressing their oppinon on history how do you know how to strike a balance! Ahh very stressful, but luckily ive noever been pulled up on it so i must be appraoching it right... but still... Yes, intellectual ideas can be a difficult challenge. If you agree completely with an author's ideas, there are still ways to express the same idea without using the author's exact expressions. As an example I personally tend to lean on the ancients more than modern authors (when possible of course) so I generally have less concern over plagiarising another's work. When I do use verbatim text though I put it into quotes, or italicize etc. and indicate its origin. Vesuvius and the Destruction of Pompeii provides an example as I've completely recounted Pliny's letters to Tacitus. One way to understand if you are plagiarising it to actually practice. Take a simple essay from anywhere on any subject, any author, any place, etc, but it make it on something that you generally agree with or are willing to accept as correct. Take this full essay and paste it right into your word processing program. Rearrange, rewrite and edit it, but don't add anything new to it, simply edit the text of the original. When you are finished, ask yourself... does this look like the same paragraph? No, it probably looks different and could pass off as your own, but it still says the exact same thing and would be considered plagiarism of a literary idea. Now. Take the original essay and try to find two more similar simple essays by different authors on the same subject. Copy and paste them into your word processor if it makes it easier to reference them, but do not actually edit, copy, or alter in any way the actual text in your own writing. You will find that all 3 may have similar qualities but the individual ideas of the authors should come through... making the formulation of your own opinion more challening but also making it easier to avoid plagiarism. Start writing a single paragraph from scratch based on the 3 sources, even if you use the actual text of your source material as a guide, you will find that you start interjecting your own thoughts and ideas into the writing. If you copy one author verbatim, you might find that the second authors work contradicts it, forcing you to change what you've written. Your own style should be evident and you should find that its easier to develop a uniqueness that still might express the same facts, but presents it in such a way that includes your own thought processes and would probably not be plagiarism (though it depends on how well you did I suppose). If the original source is so strong in some opinion or statement of fact, that's when you quote it directly and provide the appropriate credit. I'm not sure if thats very helpful or not or if I am clearly expressing myself here, but I guess what I am trying to say is, just like any other task, practice makes perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 (edited) "Nothing is said that has not been said before." Edited March 21, 2006 by Pantagathus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost_Warrior Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 I had great fun with this once...I wrote a "research paper" on the Greater Indian Sea Snipe (read: a creative essay. the "greater indian sea snipe" does not exist.) The teacher just smirked at me but the "theme reader" (yes, my school hired a specific person to read student writing and help the teachers grade it) thought I had researched it, and actually thought I had written it for a science class and had just used it for an English essay. She wanted to know my sources and made it a point to tell me that if I did not cite them, it was considered plagerism. I did not enlighten her (and laughed out loud at the thought of her bringing it up in a staff meeting...and having someone ELSE point out that what I had done was actually "creative writing" on a nonexistant species of bird) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aphrodite Posted March 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Good advice, thank Primus! Alot of what i'm trying to do with my academic writing is to be more confident to use my own oppinons on the source materials, that will get me higher grades, I'm geting 2:1's at the moment though which is really good, but i want at least one essay to come back as a First! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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