St.

Francis College
Allen Northern Samar

Learning Module in English

(English for Academic and Professional Purposes)

Module 3
PLAGIARISM; EFFECTIVE NOTE-TAKING

WEEK: 1-4
GRADE LEVEL: 3rd-4th
LEARNING COMPETENCY:

 Uses various techniques in summarizing a variety of academic texts

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 States the thesis statement of an academic text
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 Outlines reading texts in various disciplines
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I. CONCEPT

Plagiarism is a serious form of academic dishonesty and is frowned upon in the academe.
Plagiarism is defined as the copying verbatim of language and ideas of other writers and taking credit for
them.

Therefore, academic writers have a great responsibility to account for ideas and language of
others. Similar to treating someone else’s belongings, you need to respect the ownership of what is not
yours. In sum, great core should be observed in writing a text that depends on outside sources.

This respect can be preserved but using note-taking strategies and techniques for rephrasing
materials for your work. Also, citations can be done to acknowledge the ownership of the work you used.

Note-taking techniques such as summarizing, using quotations, and paraphrasing are used to
address plagiarism of language. This means that aside from citing work to attribute ownership of ideas,
the language must observe novelty such that it expresses the ideas of works cited but at the same time
employs the voice of the author writing the academic paper.

II. EXAMPLES AND DISCUSSION

There are two types of plagiarism: plagiarism of ideas and plagiarism of language.

Plagiarism of ideas occurs when credit for a work is ascribed to oneself untruthfully. For instance,
if one writes a paper on the theory of relativity of physics and no mention of Einstein is given, the writer
explicitly or implicitly claims that this theory is his or hers/. Plagiarism of ideas has been committed.

To address this, proper citation should be done. Citations are done in different ways.
Author-oriented citation

An author-oriented citation starts with the surname of the author, followed by the year of
publication in parentheses. Verbs of statement such as argues, posits, and emphasizes at the start of
paragraph or sentence may be used.

Example:

Pulido (2012) believes that language in an online environment can be understood if other modes
of online communication are further analyses to provide a full account of interaction in virtual world.

Text-oriented citation

In a text- oriented citation, a paragraph r sentence from a source is followed with the surname of
the author of the work and the year of publication. The citation must be enclosed in parentheses.

Example:

Unless educators realize the importance of reading and writing across subject areas, problems in
comprehension of subject matter will be a prominent issue in the teaching learning process (Estacio,
2010).

Another way of citation

Start the sentence or paragraph by using the phrase “According to. . .” followed by the surname of
the author and the year of publication enclosed in parentheses.

Example:

According to Mendoza (1990), by the end of the century, our fuel reserves will be reduced to
half, and scarcity of energy supplies will be a big problem.

Aside from texts, movies, images and music should be cited if used on your paper. The general
rule is that the Author, title of work (may be image, movie, or music) and year it was produced (if
applicable) be included in the citation. (You may refer to
http://www.nait.ca/libresources/Citations/APA_Examples.pd for other methods of citing different
sources).

Consider the following examples:

Images:

1. Luna’s Spolarium (1884) inspired several artists in music and creative writing to produce
works related to this powerful painting.

2. In 1884, Lunas’s Spolarium presented different aspects of Philippine life.

Video:
 1. Spencer’s (2009) “The Matchmaker” shows the different experiences of artists
when they struggle with stardom and deal with the consequences of fame and fortune.

2. “The Matchmaker” (Spencer, 2009) accurately captures the trials and tribulations of fame
and fortune of artists making it big in show business.

Music:

1. The Beatles’ song “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) features John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s
genius that will influence generations of musicians to create songs that challenge the norm.

2. John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the song “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) which is
considered as one of the Beatle’s greatest hits in their illustrious career.
.
Plagiarism of Language happens when an author uses the language of another writer and claims it as his
or her own. There are several types of plagiarism of language:

Consider the following examples. The first is copied word-for-word from a source.

The two types of surrogacy currently known to date are traditional and gestational surrogacy.
For the traditional method, the surrogate mother is artificially inseminated either by an intended father
or an anonymous sperm donor, as the surrogate mother will have planned to bear her own child,
Hence, the child is related to both the surrogate mother, and the intended father or the anonymous
sperm donor. People who usually do this would want to raise a child without sexual intimacy from the
opposite sex.
In the gestational method however, an egg is removed from the hopeful mother, to be
fertilized by the sperm of the intended father. The fertilized egg is the implanted into the uterus of the
surrogate mother, who will carry the child to term. In contrast with the traditional method, the child is
not related to the surrogate mother but only the intended father or the anonymous sperm donor and the
mother who possessed the egg.

- Tuason, H. (2012). Surrogacy. Unpublished Essay, Department of English

and Applied Linguistics, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines.

Below is an example of word-for-word plagiarism of the text. Notice that the writer simply cites
the author but copies the whole text verbatim.
 The two types of surrogacy currently known to date are traditional and gestational surrogacy.
For the traditional method, the surrogate mother is artificially inseminated either by an intended father
or an anonymous sperm donor, as the surrogate mother will have planned to bear her own child,
Hence, the child is related to both the surrogate mother, and the intended father or the anonymous
sperm donor. People who usually do this would want to raise a child without sexual intimacy from the
opposite sex.
In the gestational method however, an egg is removed from the hopeful mother, to be
fertilized by the sperm of the intended father. The fertilized egg is the implanted into the uterus of the
surrogate mother, who will carry the child to term. In contrast with the traditional method, the child is
not related to the surrogate mother but only the intended father or the anonymous sperm donor and the
mother who possessed the egg.

A writer commits patchwork plagiarism when ideas from the source are mixed with the
interpretations of the writer, creating patches of text where ownership of ideas is unclear.

Tuazon (2012) states that the traditional and gestational are two methods of surrogacy. For the
traditional method, the surrogate mother is artificially inseminated either by an intended father or an
anonymous sperm donor, as the surrogate mother will have planned to bear her own child, Hence, the
child is related to both the surrogate mother, and the intended father or the anonymous sperm donor.
The reason for this is that sexual intimacy is not the objective but procreation. On the other hand,
gestational surrogacy occurs when an egg is taken out of the woman’s system and is fertilized and is
implanted in the womb of another woman. As opposed to the traditional method, the child is not
related to the surrogate mother, but only to the intended father or the anonymous sperm donor and the
mother who possessed the egg.

To address plagiarism of language, effective note-taking techniques should be used. As

mentioned earlier, citations are used to attribute ownership of ideas to authors. Note-taking techniques, on
the other hand, allow you to rephrase original text into your own.

There are three types of note-taking techniques, using direct quotations, summarizing and
paraphrasing.

Using direct quotations is employed for statements that are so closely associated that altering the
words may lose its rhetorical impact. For instance, the statement of Ninoy Aquino, “The Filipino is worth
dying for” is too short to be summarized, and the rhetorical impact of the work is lessened If the
statement is paraphrased. Below are some points to consider for employing direct quotations note that
employ text oriented citations):

1. Using direct quotations means to lift text and enclose them in quotation marks. In addition to the
author’s name, the page numbers are included.

Example:

“Globalization is just a covert term for colonization.” (Reyes, 1994, p.2).

2. If the text is too long, you may omit certain parts and replace them with an ellipsis (three dots). If
the words omitted are at the end of the statement, another dot is added, making it four.

Example:

“Smartphones resulted from global innovations in technology . . . and therefore, consumers need
to be updated on the latest trends if they want to maximize opportunities affected by these gadgets to
make daily activities more convenient.” (De Claro, 2010, p.7).

3. Interpolation may be done to insert notes within the directly quoted passage to help readers
understand the context of the statement. Interpolation is marked by open and closed brackets.

Example:

“De Quiros, Zabala, Uy, and Lee believe that the education sector should address the material
conditions of schools to improve teaching and learning.” (Danao, 2011, p.7).

4. Using too many direct quotations does not reveal your identity as an author, specifically, it is
important that you develop your own voice and style of writing in expressing ideas. Using others’
statements helps in arguments but does not show your originality and strength in making claims.
Therefore as a rule of thumb, twenty percent of the total length of the work may employ direct quotations.
For instance, if the prompt of the essay requires you to write in at least 10000 words, you may only have a
total of 200 words allotted for direct quotation.

Example:

“Smartphone resulted from global innovations in technology and therefore, consumers need to be
updated on the latest trends if they want to maximize opportunities affected by these gadgets to make
daily activities more convenient.” (De Claro, 2010, p.7).

Summarizing is a short restatement of the main idea of a text. Ideally, it is a third of the original
text of your paper. For developing your summary, the following tips may be helpful.

1. Make sure to read the text thoroughly and highlight the important
details in the text. Bear in mind that certain details have relationships (cause and
effect for example) and these need to be noted as well.

2. After getting the main idea/s, use your own words in your summary. Make
sure to check if the relationships between ideas are established.

3. When done with your summary, recheck your output with the original to see if
your output does not stray from the original text. You may seek your teacher or peer’s feedback
to be sure.

Paraphrasing is a restatement in your own words of the main idea and supporting details of a text.
A paraphrase may match the length of the original work. Though paraphrasing may be considered more
challenging than summarizing, paraphrasing allows little opportunities for misinterpretation on the part of
the reader as you account for both major and minor points. Consider the following tips in crafting your
paraphrases.
 1. Read the text thoroughly, noting both main ideas and supporting details.
If confronted with a long text, you may outline these ideas to distinguish major points from
the minor ones.

2. After identifying these, carefully state the major and minor points in
your own words, making that the relationships between among these ideas are
observed.

3. Finally, when the paraphrase is done, compare your work with the
original to make sure that the original intentions of the author are not changed.

The following are also several ways in paraphrasing:

1. Literal paraphrasing - This type only replaces vocabulary terms

from the original text.

2. Structural paraphrasing - This type changes the sentence

structure as well as the word class of key
words of the original text.

3. Alternative paraphrasing - In this type, the writer first poses questions

about the text such as what the text is
about, how the main idea is supported, and
the stand of the author about the topic.
Then, the writer answers these questions
using his/her own words after reading the text;
making sure that all ideas are connected.

Consider the following text and the corresponding paraphrase and summary:

Mobile and computer technology may also affect children’s sociability. The use of this
technology may take away hours from children’s social and playing social skills through using different
social media platforms and sharing apps with friends. (Subia and Tatel, 2014.

Summary
Subia and Tatel (2014) view technology as
something that may affect the social lives of
children in a negative and positive way.
Paraphrase
Subia and Tatel (2014) points out that through
technology may have a negative impact in
children’s ability to socialize since it minimizes
chances of real life interaction with others, they
believe that through interactive features of
technology such as sharing apps and varying
platforms for exchange, technology can enhance
social skills among its young users.

III. EXERCISES

Directions: Answer the following tasks in your notebook.

Task A

Search for online articles or print newspapers, and copy two to three sentences from your chosen
article. Apply the different citation techniques mentioned above.

Task B

Read the following text and identify the key points in the text. Then complete the notes of the key
point below.

Filipino children use mobile and computer technology in their daily lives for numerous
activities including surfing the net, playing computer games, logging in social networking sites, and
doing homework, the question of how this can affect their well-being and lifestyle becomes even
more relevant in the present time. This study aims to identify the positive and negative effects that
could possibly arise from the early exposure of Filipino children to these technologies in three areas:
(1) physically, (2) socially, and (3) educationally. This article finishes with an evaluation of the
advantages and disadvantages of computer exposure tackled and recommended and use of such
devices.

More often than not, positive effects on physical well-being associated with mobile and
computer technology are not direct results of their actual use, but are brought about when these
gadgets are utilized as a medium by programs and software dedicated to promoting overall physical
wellness. Examples of which are activity-promoting gaming systems and mobile games that promote
healthy eating. (Subia & Tatel, 2014).

1. Filipino children use mobile technology for

- Filipino children use mobile and computer technology in their daily lives for numerous
activities including surfing the net, playing computer games, logging in social networking
sites, and doing homework,

2. Using technology does not directly lead to positive effects rather than

3. The present investigation aims to

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IV. EVALUATION

Summarize the following text in twenty words or less. Be sure to include appropriate citations.
Write your answer on the line.

Studies have found that paper bags have a larger carbon footprint compared to plastic bags
because of the amount of energy, water, and chemicals the production of paper bags consume. In a
briefing note prepared by Kirsty Bell and Suzie Bell (2011) for the Northern Ireland Assembly, it is
reported that manufacturing paper bags requires above four times the amount of energy plastic bags
 do. Also, the production of paper bags contributes more air energy consumption during processing. It
also requires paper bags more energy to be transported. This is because compared to plastic bags,
paper bags weigh more and take up more space, resulting in the need for more resources to transport
them. (Chua-Unsu, 2014)

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V. RESOURCES

Mondez, Remilyn G and Cecilia A Suarez. "Senior High School Series" English for Academic and
Professional Purpose. Makati: Diwa Learning Systems Inc, 2016.

Valdez, Paulo Nino M. "English for Globalized Classroom Series" English for Academic& Professional
Purposes. Quezon City: The Phoenix Publishing House Inc., 2016.