Steps in Writing Effective Note-Taking Plagiarism
omitting an occasional citation or citing inaccurately.
Common Errors Committed when writing
1. Always use the third person
2. thesaurus for the more “formal” and “impact” words.
3. Never use idiomatic expressions, colloquial, slang words.
4. Always expand acronyms.
5. Never contract words except for expressing possession.
6. Avoid using rhetorical questions
7. Avoid asking questions as your introduction
8. Always observe Subject-Verb agreement.
9. Be careful to spell the words correctly.
10. Use significant sources and rephrase them properly. It is not an
opinion paper
One of the hardest tasks in writing is finding the topic to write about.
It rarely happens that you can pinpoint the topic in an instant.
Usually, a huge amount of time is spent staring blankly at your paper
or computer screen.
Steps in Pre-Writing
1. Choosing a Topic
Brainstorming – responding with ideas/concepts that generates
possible topics.
Freewriting – similar to brainstorming, but here ideas are being
written down until you narrow them.
Clustering – otherwise called as ballooning, or mapping. It provides
you a graphic representation of your ideas, allowing you to visualize
the connections and/or relationships of your ideas.
2. Focusing on one idea
• narrowing down a broad topic
3. Knowing your purpose/identifying the reader/audience
• the knowledge, interests, attitudes, and needs of your reader
will give you an idea as to how you will organize your
points/claims, thus establishing a common ground with your
readers.
Plagiarism
You cannot just copy a paragraph and incorporate it in your paper.
Perhaps, you have heard news about people who were stripped off
their diploma, license, or award because they were found to have
plagiarized other people’s work.
Plagiarism is a serious form of academic dishonesty.
Plagiarism could be any of the following:
1. Deliberately copying of somebody else’s work and claiming that
work to be their own;
2. Using somebody else’s work/ideas without proper
acknowledgement or citation;
3. Copying the text without paraphrasing it
Plagiarism is a form of cheating and is unacceptable in some part of
the world.
 Procrastination/poor time management
 Lack of confidence/lack of knowledge about how to begin or
follow through with an assignment
 Confusion as to when/how to cite sources
 Mistaken belief that it's not plagiarism if it's been paraphrased
 Temptation of readily available material on the Web
Strategies to Avoid Plagiarism
• Isolate the reasons why plagiarism occurs
• Identify the different types of plagiarism
• Integrate plagiarism prevention
Unintentional Plagiarism
Paraphrasing poorly: changing a few words without changing the
sentence structure of the original, or changing the sentence
structure but not the words.  Definition para·phrase (par′ə frāz′) noun:
Quoting poorly:  putting quotation marks around part of a quotation
but not around all of it, or putting quotation marks around a passage
that is partly paraphrased and partly quoted.
Citing poorly: 
Intentional Plagiarism
Passing off as one’s own pre-written papers from the Internet or
other sources.
Copying an essay or article from the Internet, online source, or
electronic database without quoting or giving credit.
Cutting and pasting from more than one source to create a paper
without quoting or giving credit.
Borrowing words or ideas from other students or sources without
giving credit.
Plagiarism Prevention:
Be authentic
Develop a topic based on previously written material but write
something new and original
Rely on opinions of experts on a topic but improve upon those
opinions
Give credit to researchers while making your own contribution
Follow a standard documentation method such as MLA or APA
format
The First Type of Plagiarism:
Plagiarism of Words
The use of another’s exact words without citing the author
Incorrect Plagiarism is the reproduction of someone else’s words,
ideas or findings and presenting them as one’s own without proper
acknowledgement.
Correct Plagiarism is the “reproduction of someone else’s words,
ideas or findings and presenting them as one’s own without proper
acknowledgement” (Undergraduate Course Handbook: 2008, p.24)
The Second Type of Plagiarism:
Plagiarism of Structure
Paraphrasing another’s words by changing sentence construction or
word choice with citation
Paraphrasing while maintaining original sentence construction with
acknowledging the source
The Third Type of Plagiarism:
Plagiarism of Ideas
Presenting another’s ideas as your own without giving the person
credit. Submitting a paper without citing or incorrectly citing
another’s ideas
The Fourth Type of Plagiarism:
Plagiarism of Authorship
Submitting a paper that you got off the internet or from a friend and
presenting it as your own
The Fifth Type of Plagiarism:
Plagiarism of Self
Turning in a replication of another’s work
Although these were your original words and thoughts, receiving
credit for a previous assignment is considered cheating
Self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits his or her own
previous work, or mixes parts of previous works, without permission
from all professors involved. Self-plagiarism also applies to
submitting the same piece of work for assignments in different
classes without previous permission from both professors.
The Sixth type of Plagiarism:
Plagiarism of Language
It happens when an author uses the language of another writer and
claims it as his or her own. To address plagiarism of language,
effective note-taking techniques should be used
Three types of NOTE-TAKING:
Paraphrasing
a rewording of something spoken or written, usually for the purpose
of making its meaning clearer
the use of this as a literary or teaching device
an approximate rendering of a quotation, saying, etc. whose exact
words cannot be cited or recalled
Skillfully paraphrasing source material can improve the clarity and
flow of your writing and may even more directly convey the original
author’s intended meaning.
Consider the nature of your source and the audience of your work.
Paraphrase is…
• a restatement
• having the same or different length as the original
• written with different words
• often reorganized
• faithful to the author’s intended meaning
• reader-friendly
Paraphrase is NOT…
• changing a couple of words
• deleting a couple of words or phrases
• rearranging the order of the words
Techniques in mastering paraphrasing
1. Choose words deliberately. Think about how the author uses
language; is he or she effective in communicating with you as a
reader? How can you restate key themes or ideas in a way that is
effective for your audience by using different words?
2. Look up synonyms. Synonyms are any set of words that have the
same or very similar meanings. For example, “It is raining” could be
paraphrased using words like storming, drizzling, pouring,
precipitating, or sprinkling. Most word processors have a thesaurus
function.
3. Replace words with definitions. “Terrigenous nutrient inputs may
greatly increase the productivity of coastal marine systems.”
Defining ‘terrigenous’ results in “Land derived nutrient inputs...” This
is particularly useful when translating jargon for a less specialized
audience.
4. Use different word forms. Sometimes, altering word choice can
alter the meaning of a phrase beyond what you would like to
convey. “Manuel happily accepted the dinner invitation” could be
rewritten as “Being invited to dinner made Manuel happy”.
5. Play with numbers. Is there a different way to express a time
period or a number? “Throughout the past century” can become
“Over the last 100 years”. “Beginning in 1990” could be “Over the
past two decades”. Twenty-four becomes two dozen.
6. Vary sentence structure. “Acting as a rogue state, North Korea
persists in developing nuclear weapons capabilities” becomes:
“North Korea continues to fall out of favor in the international
community by pursuing nuclear weapons.” Note that word choice
must be considered also, and changing the structure of a sentence
may more easily allow use of a synonym, or a definition.
7. Integrate or separate sentences. “Regular yoga sessions build
muscle and improve range of motion. Yoga is also great for
developing personal awareness.” These can be combined more
directly into “Practicing yoga increases strength, flexibility, and
mindfulness.”
8. Remember to use citations. Even if beautifully paraphrased, any
information incorporated into your writing beyond what is
considered common knowledge in your field should be credited to
the original author. Commonly, credit is given using citations with an
appended bibliography.
Ways in Paraphrasing:
• Literal Paraphrasing
• Structural Paraphrasing
• Alternative Paraphrasing
Original:
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as
a result they overuse quotation in the final research paper. Probably
only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly
quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of
exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.
Lester, J. D.Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976) 46-47
A. Acceptable paraphrase:
In research papers, students often quote excessively,
failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the
problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to
minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester, 1976).
. A plagiarized version:
Students often use too many direct quotations when they
take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper.
In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of
directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of
source material copied while taking notes (Lester, 1976).
Quoting / Using Direct Quotations
A quotation uses exactly the same words and puts them in quotation
marks. If the quotation is more than 2 lines you should put it in a
separate paragraph and indent it from both sides.
Example:
“Leprosy was eradicated in the west by the end of medieval times”
(Foucault 3).
• the author’s words are powerful that you cannot paraphrase
them without changing their meaning or impact to the readers.
• do not overuse quotations, treat them like a precious jewel!
Useful Terms:
• Academic Integrity all work which is presented is produced by
the student alone, with all sources and collaboration fully
acknowledged
• Cheating gaining unfair advantage from other students
intentionally
• Collusion submitting work as if it had been done individually
when it has been done jointly with one or more other person
unless the topic coordinator has indicated that this is
acceptable for the specific work in question
• Collaboration working together with other students as directed
by your lecturer/tutor, in which each student contributes
equally to the end results
• Hidden memory presenting what is thought as an original idea
while it is actually a result of forgotten past reading
• Patchwriting artificial make-over of other people’s sentences in
your writing, might be a form of a bad paraphrase.
Summarizing
should contain the main points from the author's text. presents only
the most important ideas of a passage, leaving out specific details.
Summarize when you want to give a brief overview of a text.
Summarized texts must be cited too.
Don't forget to reference it with the author's family name, date of
publication and page number.
Citations
There are three reasons to cite the materials you use:
To give credit to others’ work and ideas, whether you agree with
them or not. When you use their words, you must give them credit
by using both quotation marks and citations.
To show readers the materials on which you base your analysis, your
narrative, or your conclusions.
To guide readers to the materials you have used so they can
examine it for themselves. Their interest might be to confirm your
work, to challenge it, or simply to explore it further.
proper citation?
• Author-oriented citation - starts with the surname of the
author, followed by the year of publication in parentheses.
Verbs in the statement such as argues, posits, emphasize at the
start of the paragraph or sentence may be used.
• Text-oriented citation - a paragraph or sentence from a source
is followed with the surname of the author of the work and
they year of publication.
• Another way of citation starts 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.
The Basics of Citation
Acknowledging your sources is crucial to doing honest academic
work. That means citing them properly, using one of several styles.
The one you choose depends on your field, your professor’s advice if
you are a student, and your own preferences.
There are three major citation styles:
Chicago (or Turabian), used in many fields
MLA, used in the humanities
APA, used in social sciences, education, engineering, and business
APA - stands for the American Psychological Association, which uses
this style in its professional journals. LPU's standard format usually
used in researches.
MLA - stands for the Modern Language Association.
Both styles have been adopted well beyond their original fields. APA
is widely used in the social sciences, MLA in the humanities. Chicago
citations are widely used in both.
MLA Citations for the Humanities
The Modern Language Association (MLA) has developed a citation
style that is widely used in the humanities. Full information about
each item appears in the bibliography, which MLA calls “Works
Cited.” Like other bibliographies, it contains three essential nuggets
of information about each item: the author, title, and publication
data.
• Ajami, Fouad. The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation’s
Odyssey. New York: Pantheon, 1998.
Titles are underlined rather than italicized.
Lipson, Charles. Reliable Partners: How
Democracies Have Made a Separate Peace.
Princeton: Princeton UP, 2003.
Strunk, William, Jr., and E. B. White. The
Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York:
Longman, 2000.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. 1860–61.
Project Gutenberg Archive. Etext 1400. 14 Jan.
2004 <http://www.gutenberg.net.
The date when you access the online content (in this case, 14 Jan.
2004) comes immediately before the URL. Notice that the day comes
before the month; that’s standard with MLA. There is no
punctuation between this date and the URL.
APA Citations for the Social Sciences, Education,
Engineering, and Business
The American Psychological Association (APA) citations are widely
used in psychology, education, engineering, business, and the social
sciences.
Unlike MLA, however, APA emphasizes the year of publication,
which comes immediately after the author’s name. That’s probably
because as scholarship cumulates in the sciences and empirical
social sciences (where APA is used), it is important to know whether
the research was conducted recently and whether it came before or
after other research.
General Writing Style Format Tips
1. If name(s) are the first part of the citation, they are capitalized
and listed (i.e. last name first, and then the initials of the first
name/s).
2. Separate names with a comma, and use an ampersand (&) before
the last author.
3. Use Ed. for one author and Eds. for multiple editors
4. Capitalize the first word in titles and subtitles, and proper names.
5. Place of publication should include the name of the city.
6. If you are citing a book chapter or section you must indicate the
pages. Use p. for a single paper and pp. for multiple pages.
7. Put a space after the p. and put a dash (-) between the numbers.
Book by a single author
Mandelbaum, M. (2002). The ideas that
conquered the world: Peace, democracy, and free
markets
n the twenty-first century. New York: Public Affairs.
Elster, J. (1989). The cement of society: A study of
social order. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Book by three or more authors
Strunk,W., Jr., & White, E. B. (2000). The elements
of style (4th ed.). New York: Longman.
Book by an unknown author
Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (5th ed.). (2001). Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association.
Book by a corporate author
Children's Express. (1999). Voices from the future: Our children tell
us about violence in America. New York: Crown
Book with editors
Moen, P., Elder, G., & Luscher, K. (Eds.). (1995). Examining lives in
context: Perspectives on the ecology of human development.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Do I need to cite everything I use in the paper?
Pretty much. Cite anything you rely on for data or authoritative
opinions. Cite both quotes and paraphrases. Cite personal
communications such as e-mails, interviews, or conversations with
professors if you rely on them or your paper. If you rely heavily on
any single source, make that clear, either with multiple citations or
with somewhat fewer citations plus a clear statement that you are
relying on a particular source for a particular topic.
There is one exception. Don’t cite sources for facts that are well-
known to your audience. It’s overkill to cite any authorities
Declaration of Independence on June 12 1898.
How many citations does a paper have, anyway?
It varies and there is no exact number, but a couple per page is
common in well-researched papers. More is fine. If there are no
citations for several pages in a row, something’s probably wrong.
Most likely, you just forgot to include them. You need to go back and
fix the problem.
How many different sources should I use?
That depends on how complicated your subject is, how intensively
you’ve studied it, and how long your paper is. If it is a complex
subject or one that is debated intensely, you’ll need to reflect that
with multiple sources—some to present facts, some to cover
different sides of the issue. On the other hand, if it’s a short paper
on a straightforward topic, you might need only a couple of sources.
If you are unsure, ask what your professor expects for your topic.
While you’re talking, you might also ask about the best sources to
use.