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| Skillful 3, page 36 |
As we have seen cultural and personal attitudes to what it is OK to copy from others vary across cultures and between individuals, although most people probably sometimes give in to the temptation for a bit of easy cheating by stealing. However, this is never acceptable in academic work. Learning how to avoid plagiarism is one of our important purposes in the weekly blogging we do.
Following their writing task on page 35, on page 26 of Skillful 3, Bixby and Scanlon present a short article by Stella Cottrell on the topic of plagiarism, something we have already looked at and an issue that every good university takes very seriously (2016).
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I think that everything Cottrell says is useful, from her definition in the section "What is plagiarism?" to her very practical tips on how to break the habit of copying.
- How common is plagiarism at schools or universities you have attended?
- What did you think was most useful in Cottrell's article?
- Do you think you might change any of your habits now that you have read her article?
For ten minutes, write down your ideas in response to these questions.
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Reference
I really like Cottrell's practical, detailed advice for avoiding plagiarism by copying. The only change I would make? Add a note on the Internet. I think that the Internet is the main source for information today, whether it is a newspaper, an academic journal, a blog or a cartoon. The Internet is great. I use it constantly throughout the day. But it also makes it very easy to copy and paste. It takes less than a second to press "Ctrl+C" followed by "Ctrl+V". I do it often. But usually when I'm copying and pasting, it's my own writing so that I have a record apart from where it's published. I do also copy and paste other people's work, but not so much, and then following Cottrell's suggestions on page 36: I sometimes think a short group of words are perfect, so I copy and paste them into my paraphrase or other piece of work.
ReplyDeleteI think we could expand Cottrell's concrete suggestions for avoiding dangerous copying by making a habit of not copying and pasting anything until we have fully understood our source and used the ideas in our work. If we then want to add an idea, copy and paste later.
And never look at the source when you are writing a summary!
- Read your source a couple or a few times.
- Close your source.
- Write down important ideas you remember, not looking at your source at all, not even a quick glimpse!
- (Perhaps quickly check the source.)
- Decide what order you will put the ideas in.
- Write them in your language.
(- If necessary, then check your source to see that your paraphrase is correct.)
And when I copy and paste other people's words into my work, I always type in the "quotation marks" first, and then paste in between them so that they are definitely there.
DeleteThe common plagiarism in my university is that most people don't know how to cite the source in an appropriate way. Someone think that name of author and date is enough for citing the original source which is not true because full reference citation is importance to put in the essay too.
ReplyDeleteI think that Stella Cottrell says about how to use quotations is very useful because most people don't know about how to use it properly.
I will be more carefully check my work before publish to avoid plagiarism because it may be hard time for me to say that I'm not intend to copy other's work.
How common is plagiarism at schools or universities you have attended?
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, I usually saw many students copy and paste some details from academic books.
What did you think was most useful in Cottrell's article?
In "plagiarism" she says method to avoid plagiarism and ways to changes habits of copying that are two of the most important ways to write my thesis.
Do you think you might change any of your habits now that you have read her article?
Personally, I should change my habits because I usually reading and writing at the same time that can lead me to plagiarism and sometime I cannot change some details to my own words.
When I was senior high school, my teachers always told me not to do plagiarism in any work. If I do plagiarize with no quotation mark and cite the source, my grade definitely is F. For the college, plagiarism is seriously issue. If I do it, college retired me.
ReplyDeleteI think the most useful in Cottrell's article is the method of avoidance for plagiarism.
I completely think that it is good ways to change any habits of copying. We just do understand what a context said, don't try to remember a whole thing, and change in our own words with same concept.
How common is plagiarism at schools or universities you have attended?
ReplyDeleteIn my school, I think it is quite common because in typical Thai school, there is no teaching about plagiarism and we don't know what is wrong or not. In the past, I think that plagiarism is just only copy the exact word from source without citation. However, I just know in Peter's class that it includes paraphrasing and changing some words in the source without citation. I believe that most Thai students think that it is okay to change some words in the sources without citation.
What did you think was most useful in Cottrell's article?
I think the most useful in Cottrell's article is the meaning of plagiarism. If we don't know the thing that we did is wrong, we might do the same thing without realization that it is wrong.
Do you think you might change any of your habits now that you have read her article?
I got another useful suggestion from her article which is that we should read from the source without taking note and writing down our own words when finish reading. I think this is the best way to avoid plagiarism since we will write the word only from our idea. I think that people trend to use the same word that we recently have heard or read. listening the music, for instance, when I hear someone sing a song or listen that song in cafe, I trend to sing that song automatically.
In high school that I've attended, in New Zealand, plagiarism is a serious crime and you might fail if teachers caught that you've plagiarism. In contrast of Thai schools, plagiarism is not that serious and teacher won't find out easily but I think its also depend on teachers if they serious you may fail or get detention anyway Thai schools are less serious about this crime.
ReplyDeleteThe most useful in Cottrell's article is "If you have a habit of copying" I confessed that I've plagiarism before as well when I was younger till I went to study abroad I knew I had to change this habit so I've a few things same as it written in Cottrell's article. I think everyone's know that plagiarism is a bad thing to do but what we need is how to get away from this habit.
I've already changed my habit but her suggestion contents many good ideas that I can share with other.