History7: Colony ProjectPlagiarism Guidelines

What is plagiarism?

Academic Honesty“Honesty by individuals and social groups is a basic

value essential to a fair and just society. Instilling in young people a commitment to honesty and fairness is an obligation shared by the social institutions that influence youth. It is especially important that the school, family, and students work together to encourage honest endeavor and discourage unethical behavior. Cheating and plagiarism are unethical behaviors through which unearned awards or advantages are achieved; such behavior is unacceptable at PCS. This policy is not meant to discourage collaborative efforts by students, but to hold students accountable for producing their own results.” (PCS Academic Honesty Policy)

Plagiarism in POWERPOINTSAny information taken from a book,

website, article or other source type needs to be given credit. 

If you are working as a pair or in groups and the title contains everyone’s name, then everyone involved should have worked on all parts of the project.  If the work was divided up, authorship should be noted accordingly.

How to avoid plagiarism…Add a “Works Cited” slide to the end of your

presentationBook Format:

Author's last name, first name. Book title. City of publication: Publishing company, publication date.

Website Format: Author's last name, first name (if available). "Title of work within a project or database." Title of site, project, or database. Date of publication or of the latest update. Date of access.

Attribute information on individual slides by using MLA formatted citations Example: “Blah, blah, blah” (Author’s last name, page #).

How to avoid plagiarism…A works cited page with a simple list of the

urls for one or two websites is not sufficient for any project.  At the very least, you need to follow proper MLA formatting, and you must give credit to all sources used, including any sources used to obtain pictures, charts or graphs.

How to avoid plagiarism…Do not copy and paste information straight

into a powerpoint without proper punctuation (quotation marks) and citation. 

If you use the exact wording from a source, a page number citation is not enough; you must include quotation marks.

How to avoid plagiarism…Changing words around, or simply

substituting synonyms within a sentence someone else wrote, is STILL considered plagiarism.

Instead, take notes from your sources (in your own words) and write your essay while looking at your notes, not the text.

If you use the exact wording from any source, you should quote and cite the source in MLA format

Evaluating SourcesWhy is it important to evaluate internet

sources?

Evaluating SourcesAuthorship:

Is there an author or organization clearly indicated?

Can the author be contacted?What can you find out about the author? (If

there is no information on the site, use a search engine to look up the author to determine if they are a reliable source.)

If there is an organization sponsoring the page, what can you learn about the organization and who they are?

Does the organization take responsibility for what’s on the site? Does it monitor or review what’s on the site?

Evaluating SourcesAccuracy of Information:

Is there documentation to indicate the source of the information?

Can you tell how well researched the information is?

Is there a bibliography or links to other useful sites?

Is the information current? When was it updated?

Is there any indication of bias on the site?Does the site have any credentials? Has it been

rated by a reputable rating group?

Evaluating SourcesGoals of the site:

What is the purpose of the site? To provide information? Advertise? Persuade?

Who is the intended audience?Is there a lot of flash and color and gimmicks to attract

attention? Is that masking a lack of sound information or a blatant attempt to get you to do or buy something?

Access:How did you find the site? Were there links from reputable

sites? From ads? If you found the site through a search engine like google,

that means only that the site has the words in the topic you are researching.

Evaluating Sources: .edu, .govDoes the website end in .edu, indicating it’’s an education

institution?If it ends in.gov, it should be fairly objective government

sponsored material.Sites ending in .edu or .gov are likely to be more accurate

than .com’s and .net’s. Sites hosted by yahoo, earthlink, and other web hosting

domains are more likely to be someone’s personal web page, so are less likely to be accurate. Sites ending in .org are likely to be sponsored by a group with a specific point of view/bias and tend to be less objective.

If a site does end in a .com, .org or .net, check that it cites reputable sources. If possible go to the source they cite instead.