{"id":171,"date":"2018-01-08T18:20:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T18:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/chapter\/9-1-what-is-plagiarism\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T20:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:12:34","slug":"9-1-what-is-plagiarism","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/chapter\/9-1-what-is-plagiarism\/","title":{"rendered":"11.1 Using Sources Ethically"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<h2 class=\"textbox__title\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Plagiarism Self-Check: What Do You Know?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\nThe following interactive activity uses H5P. While efforts have been made to ensure accessibility, some H5P content may present challenges for users of certain assistive technologies. If you are unable to access or complete the activity, please contact your instructor to request an alternative way to engage with the material.\r\n\r\nThis activity asks that you go through the slide deck and test your knowledge about plagiarism.\r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"25\"]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<span>Students are often concerned with the details of correct citation\u2014when to include an author\u2019s name in parentheses, how to format an MLA bibliography, how to indicate a quotation within a quotation\u2014and while these are all important and helpful to know, what is more important is understanding the larger ethical principles that guide choosing and using sources. Here are a few of these larger ideas to keep in mind as you select and synthesize your sources:<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><span>You must represent the topic or discipline you are writing about fairly. If nine out of ten sources agree that evidence shows the middle class in the United States is shrinking, it is unethical use the tenth source that argues it is growing without acknowledging the minority status of the source (see also <span style=\"color: #800000\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/part\/chapter-4-writing-a-summary\/\" style=\"color: #800000\">Chapter 5<\/a>)<\/span>.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span>You must represent the individual source fairly. If a source acknowledges that a small segment of the middle class in the United States is growing but most of the middle class is shrinking, it is unethical to suggest that the former is the writer\u2019s main point.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span>You must acknowledge bias in your sources. It is unethical to represent sources that, while they may be credible, offer extreme political views as if these views are mainstream.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span>Just because your source is an informal one, or from Wikipedia or the dictionary doesn\u2019t mean that you don\u2019t have to acknowledge it. Quoting a dictionary definition is still quoting: you need quotation marks. Wikipedia is not \u201ccommon knowledge\u201d: cite it.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span>You must summarize and paraphrase in your own words. Changing a few words around in the original and calling it your summary or paraphrase is unethical. How would you feel if you recognized what you worked so hard to write in someone else\u2019s paper? \u201cI changed some words,\u201d they\u2019d say. But you would still recognize your\u00a0<i>style<\/i>. Don\u2019t steal someone else\u2019s (see also <span style=\"color: #008000\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/chapter\/9-3-paraphrasing-summarizing-and-integrating-data\/\" style=\"color: #008000\"><span style=\"color: #800000\">Chapter 11.3<\/span><\/a><\/span>).<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<h2 class=\"textbox__title\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Plagiarism Self-Check: What Do You Know?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p>The following interactive activity uses H5P. While efforts have been made to ensure accessibility, some H5P content may present challenges for users of certain assistive technologies. If you are unable to access or complete the activity, please contact your instructor to request an alternative way to engage with the material.<\/p>\n<p>This activity asks that you go through the slide deck and test your knowledge about plagiarism.<\/p>\n<div class=\"h5p-iframe-wrapper\"><iframe id=\"h5p-iframe-25\" class=\"h5p-iframe\" data-content-id=\"25\" style=\"height:1px\" src=\"about:blank\" frameBorder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" title=\"How Much Do You Know About Plagiarism?\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Students are often concerned with the details of correct citation\u2014when to include an author\u2019s name in parentheses, how to format an MLA bibliography, how to indicate a quotation within a quotation\u2014and while these are all important and helpful to know, what is more important is understanding the larger ethical principles that guide choosing and using sources. Here are a few of these larger ideas to keep in mind as you select and synthesize your sources:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You must represent the topic or discipline you are writing about fairly. If nine out of ten sources agree that evidence shows the middle class in the United States is shrinking, it is unethical use the tenth source that argues it is growing without acknowledging the minority status of the source (see also <span style=\"color: #800000\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/part\/chapter-4-writing-a-summary\/\" style=\"color: #800000\">Chapter 5<\/a>)<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>You must represent the individual source fairly. If a source acknowledges that a small segment of the middle class in the United States is growing but most of the middle class is shrinking, it is unethical to suggest that the former is the writer\u2019s main point.<\/li>\n<li>You must acknowledge bias in your sources. It is unethical to represent sources that, while they may be credible, offer extreme political views as if these views are mainstream.<\/li>\n<li>Just because your source is an informal one, or from Wikipedia or the dictionary doesn\u2019t mean that you don\u2019t have to acknowledge it. Quoting a dictionary definition is still quoting: you need quotation marks. Wikipedia is not \u201ccommon knowledge\u201d: cite it.<\/li>\n<li>You must summarize and paraphrase in your own words. Changing a few words around in the original and calling it your summary or paraphrase is unethical. How would you feel if you recognized what you worked so hard to write in someone else\u2019s paper? \u201cI changed some words,\u201d they\u2019d say. But you would still recognize your\u00a0<i>style<\/i>. Don\u2019t steal someone else\u2019s (see also <span style=\"color: #008000\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/chapter\/9-3-paraphrasing-summarizing-and-integrating-data\/\" style=\"color: #008000\"><span style=\"color: #800000\">Chapter 11.3<\/span><\/a><\/span>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["yvonne-bruce"],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[67],"license":[],"class_list":["post-171","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-yvonne-bruce"],"part":170,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":715,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/171\/revisions\/715"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/170"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/171\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/csueng100101fall2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}