CEL 2103 WRITING ACADEMIC TEXTS

SEMESTER 2, 2020/2021

CLASS MATERIAL WEEK 7

Plagiarism

A work is often considered as plagiarised when it contains another person’s ideas,

processes, results, data or words without giving appropriate credit to the owner. In other
words, plagiarism is when you claim someone else’s thoughts and work as your own. In the
academic world, this is a crime and can be heavily penalised.

Activity 1
Read these situations carefully and decide whether they are acts of plagiarism or not. State
your reason in the space provided.

No
Situation Answer
.
A student uses an internet article in researching her Yes / No
paper. She finds several of the ideas in the article Reason: She
useful and develops them in her own paper. Since does not put
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she does not quote from the text, she does not cite citation or in-text
in her paper, but she does put the reference in the citation in her
bibliography. writing.
Yes / No
You are taking a class that a friend has already Reason:
taken. She lets you read her paper for you to get because I am
2 some ideas and tells you to use any parts of the not putting any
paper you find useful. You incorporate some of her citation when I’m
paragraphs into your paper without citation. using their
paragraphs.
A friend offers to let you read his paper to help you Yes / No
get some ideas and tells you to use any parts of the Reason:
paper you find useful. You incorporate one of his Citations are put
3 paragraphs into your paper, and you are careful to in the writing.
include all of the citations from his paper in your
footnotes so that readers will be able to find the
original source of the information.
4 A student finds a picture on the web that perfectly Yes / No

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 illustrates a point she wants to make in her paper. Reason:
She downloads the picture but does not use the
website’s analysis; in addition, she writes her own
caption for the
picture. Since the analysis and caption are her own,
she does not include a citation for the picture.
You are discussing your term paper with your Yes / No
professor. She gives you an interesting idea about Reason:
how you might interpret some of the materials you
have been studying. Since the discussion was
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informal and does not pertain to an area in which
your professor intends you to publish, you
incorporate her suggestions without
acknowledgement.

Avoiding Plagiarism

One of the ways to avoid plagiarism is to give acknowledgement to the originator(s) of the
idea(s). This can be done by using proper citation and referencing techniques.

Activity 2
Other than to avoid plagiarism, what are other purposes of including a citation in your writing?

1. ________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________

Activity 3
Identify the errors in each of the citation below.
1.
“The cold ocean water around Antarctica flows north to mix with warmer water from the
tropics, and its upwellings help to cool both the surface water and our atmosphere. Yet
the fragility of this regulating system is now threatened by human activity” (Jane
Auduboy, 1990).

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 Error(s): Page number of source article that consists the quotation used is not stated in
the citation.

2.
Eastmond states that distance learning is an increasingly important aspect of higher
education because it meets the needs of an expanding pool of nontraditional students
who find education necessary for jobs in today’s information age.

Error(s): The year of publication and page number are not stated, making the citation
incomplete.

3.

According to Celik (2015), he found that managing the learning environment in

classrooms with students of a range of ability levels or achievement is one of the tough
issues faced by many teachers.

Error(s): Incomplete citation, page number is not stated at the end of the sentence.

4.

One study concluded that wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85
percent. In an accident, a bike helmet absorbs the shock and cushions the head.
(Consumer Reports:1990)

Error(s): Citation is put in the wrong place (at the end of the wrong sentence) and error
in the syntax used in the citation “:”

5.

Armstrong (2004) suggests that historical cost accounting has "passed its use-by date".

Error(s): Page number is not stated, therefore incomplete citation.

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 Reporting Verbs

One of the most common ways to incorporate citations into your writing is to use reporting
verbs. They are needed in order to connect the in-text citation to the information which you are
citing. Before selecting a verb, it is vital that you carefully read the source and clearly
understand the author’s claim(s).

Activity 4
Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate reporting verb.

1. Greenberg (2001) _______________ the importance of taking a liberal approach.

2. Alam et al. (2004) _______________ patients diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes for a
minimum of 8 years.

3. Toms (1982) _______________ the common belief that humans have five senses. In his
research, he finds that there are in fact nine senses.

4. Hanks (2004) _______________ an idiom as an expression whose “meaning . . . is distinct

from the sum of its parts” (p. 257).

5. Jirapanakorn (2012) _______________ the use of reporting verbs in international journals

and Thai journals and found that there were fewer uses of reporting verbs in the Thai
journals.

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Activity 5
Write the in-text citations in APA style by using the information below.

1.

Author: Michelle Warn

Date: February 20, 2014

Paraphrase: Identifying potential plagiarism creates an opportunity for dialogue,
or a “teachable moment,” where students and faculty can explore
issues of academic integrity.

In-text citation:
Identifying potential plagiarism creates an opportunity for dialogue, or a “teachable moment,”
where students and faculty can explore issues of academic integrity (Warn, 2014).

2.

Author: Dr Nadya Yakovchuk, Dr Jo Badge and Dr Jon Scott

Title: Moving beyond plagiarism detection towards a culture of academic
integrity

Date: 2011
Paraphrase: Cut and slide plagiarism is committed when only a portion of the
source is appropriately documented. The rest of the source is
downgraded in importance and split off or moved to a footnote or
an appendix.

In-text citation:
Cut and slide plagiarism is committed when only a portion of the source is appropriately
documented. The rest of the source is downgraded in importance and split off or moved to a
footnote or an appendix (Yakovchuk et al., 2011).

3.
Author: Allen Jameison, Susan Plette, Mike Bullet, Huston Leo, Hams
Pesagor and Danial Mark

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Title: A Quick Look at the Symptoms of Adult-Onset Cardiac
Disease in Diabetics

Date: 2013
Paraphrase: The patients showed few symptoms of adult-onset diabetes
after two weeks of treatment.

In-text citation:
The patients showed few symptoms of adult-onset diabetes after two weeks of treatment
(Jameison et al., 2013).

4.

Author: Mokhtar bin Ramli, Khoo Kheng-Hor and Azira binti Hashim

Date: 2002
Paraphrase: The most common and popular electronic information resource
was the Internet.

In-text citation:
The most common and popular electronic information resource was the Internet (Mokhtar et al.,
2002).

5.

Author Jane E. Brody

Title Mental reserves keep brains agile

Date 11 December 2007

URL http://www.nytimes.com
Paraphrase Like every other part of the body, the brain changes with age,
and those changes can affect the agility of the brain.

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In-text citation:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Activity 6
Each entry on the reference list below contains TWO errors. Identify and correct those errors.

1. Allison, b. (2004). The student’s guide to preparing dissertations and theses (2nd ed.).
Routledge Falmer : London, England.

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

2. Azirah binti Hashim. (2005). How to write a thesis: The thesis writing journey from start to
finish. University of Malaya Press

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
3. Blum, C., Borglund, S., & Parcells, D. (2010). High-fidelity nursing simulation: Impact on
student self-confidence and clinical competence. International Journal of Nursing Education
Scholarship, 7(1), 1-14. doi: 10.2202?1548-923X.2035.

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

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4. Moll, L, C., Saez, R. & Dworin, J. (2001, November 14). Exploring biliteracy: Two student
case examples of writing as a social practice. The Elementary School Journal, 101, 437-
449.

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

5. Carol Jane Amato. (1998). The world’s easiest guide to using the APA (2nd ed.). Stargazer
Pub.

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