Private: Avoiding Plagiarism [North American version]

Published on: Nov 2015 1 Hour of Core activities

Modules featured in this course:

  • Module 1: What is plagiarism?

    This module is adapted for the North American context by including:

    • Changing terminology (instructor, TA or professor)
    • Rewritten student opinions
    • New section on academic integrity
    • New links to US-based resources, standards for fair use and copyright, and news articles on plagiarism in the North American context
    • Customizable ‘Your context’ pod with link to specific university policy and/or honor code (if applicable)
    • Advice on adapting to US expectations for original work and plagiarism for students who come from different educational cultures.
    Syllabus
    • Student perspectives on plagiarism
    • Your instructor’s perspective on plagiarism
    • What is plagiarism
  • Module 2: Plagiarism in context

    This module is adapted for the North American context by including:

    • Links to US/Canada-based stories on ghost-writing and self-plagiarism
    • New screen added on ‘Plagiarism across disciplines.’ This screen addresses topics such as structural plagiarism (e.g. using IMRAD in a STEM paper vs. taking the structure of an argument for a humanities paper); plagiarism vs. artistic influence; the use of open source material; and examples of plagiarism in different disciplines.
    • New screen added on ‘Misrepresentation.’ This screen addresses how students can represent sources accurately and ethically in their work. It also touches on the problem with cherry-picking data and provides links to recent news articles on data fraud.
    • Updated links on plagiarism detection in the US context
    Syllabus
    • Types of plagiarism
    • Unintentional plagiarism
    • Plagiarism across disciplines
    • Misrepresentation
    • How is plagiarism detected?
  • Module 3: Referencing

    This module is adapted for the North American context by including:

    • Description of common referencing systems used in different disciplines
    • Specific examples using APA and MLA styles
    • Introduction to what a paraphrase is and when it is most useful in academic writing
    • Clear description of the differences between summary, paraphrase and direct quotation
    • Links provided to referencing tools
    Syllabus
    • The importance of referencing
    • Referencing systems
    • Paraphrasing
    • Citations and references
    • Referencing from online sources
    • Referencing tools
  • Module 4: Avoiding plagiarism - tips and tales

    This module is adapted for the North American context by including:

    • All links to news stories updated and adapted for the US/North American context (e.g. athletes at UNC, Fareed Zakaria at Newsweek, English professor at UNLV, debate over Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s use of Marvin Gaye’s music).
    Syllabus
    • Strategies for avoiding plagiarism
    • Plagiarism in the news
  • Module 5: Resource bank and references
    Syllabus
    • Resources for students
    • References used in the course