How to plagiarize without getting caught
Welcome to our blog.
We have put this together to help any student who has ever dreaded doing citations for a paper. Even though a blog format typically uses hyperlinks to cite or give credit to sources, we have included citations with this report in order to give some examples of how easy it is to use citations in your work. We have also included an APA references page at the end.
We hope you enjoy learning how to plagiarize without getting caught.
Introduction:
According to Dr. Diane Albertini, of Dixie State University, 3010 class syllabus, “Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in either an “F” on the paper or an “F” in the course. In your academic and professional career, you will often draw upon and incorporate work written by others. You will be expected to use outside sources in this course, but you are always required to give due credit to the person/organization whose words, thoughts, ideas, or phrases you are using in your writing projects” (2015).
So, the rules are clear. We are told to use other people’s words, but not to plagiarize. This can be confusing to some students and seem a daunting task for others, which may leave little hope for a good grade in the end.
Or, you can get over your fear and learn how to plagiarize without getting caught.
As you follow the simple steps provided in this report, you will again have hope in a world that understands your predicament and has provided the means to the end.
In our world today, technology has advanced to a point in which it is so much easier to get information than it has been in any time in history. This same technology also seems to have made it easier to cheat along the way. At least that is what many people may believe. On the other hand, technology has also provided an easy means to give credit where credit is due.
In order to understand the intersection at which these two thoughts collide, we must first understand what plagiarism really is.
What is plagiarism?
Greg Laden, a blogger and professor who has “graded tens of thousands of bits of writing by college students over the years,” clearly defines the problem. He says, “It does not matter if you did not mean to plagiarize or if you did it by accident or if your dog did it while you were not looking or whatever. Plagiarism is when you hand in work that consists wholly or in part of the work of another, unattributed. It does not matter how it got there. It does not matter what your intent was. It only matters that someone else’s work was passed off as yours” (2011).
The key word Laden used here is “unattributed”, which again is work that has not been credited to someone else. But, plagiarism is even more than just copying and pasting stuff from the internet without telling who or where you got it from. Laden explains this thought when he says,
“There is something else you need to be aware of. Plagiarism isn’t just copying the exact words someone else wrote as though they were your own. It is also stating ideas that other people wrote and not attributing the ideas to them. There is something you need to know if you are writing an essay for high school or an intro college course: I promise you that your grader or teacher will be much more impressed by your frequent use of properly done citations than with some lame idea you claim (inadvertence or purposefully) to have had which is not really yours. Keep in mind that the people who are reading your essay have likely already read some or even all of the material you are using. If you present an idea as your own, and the idea is already in the literature, we know that either stolen the idea or you’ve had an unoriginal idea that you did not know was out there because you’ve not really done your homework” (Laden, 2011).
According to this definition, it is almost impossible to have a free thought that hasn’t already been thought of. So, it is then our responsibility to find out if someone else has thought of the idea before and then give them credit for it.
Can this get any more complicated?
In this same line of reasoning then, each of these definitions for plagiarism were probably plagiarized from a dictionary, which of course are volumes of plagiarism at its best according to its own definition.What this really means is that most likely everything that you write has probably been thought of before and you should attribute it to someone else, otherwise, you have plagiarized.
So, what are the professors really looking for?
If every thought that we have had is most likely plagiarized in some way or another, then your only real option is to plagiarize without getting caught. That is, we need to show the professors that we have done the work worthy of a good grade. But, in any task there is always a hard way and an easy to do it.
First...
The Hard Way:
There are many good examples of the hard way that we have compiled here for your benefit. Each of these ideas poses a unique question.
James A. Herrick, the Guy Vander Jagt Professor and chair of the Department of Communication at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, wrote an essay titled, “How to Avoid Getting Caught Plagiarizing”. In this essay he described four mistakes commonly made, that when avoided, may help one to not get caught plagiarizing (Herrick, n.d.).
4 common mistakes of plagiarists:
1- Plagiarizing only once in a class. An odd paper submitted at the end of a semester is obvious to a professor that you did not do the work.
2- Include words you don’t understand. The use of unfamiliar and foreign words is especially obvious to the professor that you did not write the paper.
3- Ignore the clear distinction between professional and amateur writing. You are not a professional writer, so at least make an attempt to rewrite some of it to sound like yourself.
4- Make yourself “one of the usual suspects”. Professors generalize that the C or D student will most likely be the one to plagiarize, so simply don’t put yourself in a position where you would “likely” be one to plagiarize (Herrick, n.d.).
His final advice is to avoid these mistakes at all cost, or “Of course, you could simply do the research and writing for your own papers, but this is terribly inconvenient and taxing under certain circumstances. On the other hand, it’s not a lot more inconvenient and taxing than following my advice” (Herrick, n.d.).
Why is it so much work to plagiarize?
Five more common, technology based mistakes of would-be plagiarists were elluded to in an article titled, The 5 Dumbest Ways Plagiarists Get Caught, posted at Plagiarism Today by Jonathan Bailey in May of 2011.
Mistakes of would-be plagiarists
1. Not Removing Headers/Metadata: “Copy/Paste is no longer a simple technology that merely duplicates text, a lot of content is copied as well including images, formatting and much more depending on where you are pulling from. When you copy something, it can be very difficult to tell what invisible data might be carried with it” (Bailey, 2011, para. 4) In order to get rid of this information, you must clear it away or retype the text.
2. Not Reading the Source Material: “Plagiarists aren’t typically the hardest working people and, often times, they don’t even spend the energy to read the material they are plagiarizing. They just find something that seems like it will fit their need and go. The problem with that approach is that they often lack basic knowledge on what is actually in the material they are reading” (Bailey, 2011, para. 7). In order to avoid this mistake, you must read and understand the information that you have copied (Bailey, 2011).
3. Not Removing Links: “Some plagiarists get tripped up because they copied and pasted hyperlinks into their work, something that can be spotted with even a cursory glance at the work” (Bailey, 2011, para. 10). Some student were even bold enough to print their papers out in color in which case the link would show up in blue ink (Bailey, 2011).
4. Hyperlinking, Not Downloading: “Online, hyperlinking to content you wish to plagiarize is especially common with images and is often dealt with by simply removing the original image or, if the creator is feeling a bit more malicious, changing it to something else altogether” (Bailey, 2011, para. 15).
5. Leaving Someone Else’s Name On It: “Authors routinely reference themselves in their work. Ranging from personal anecdotes to even mentioning themselves by name, especially when someone else is talking to them. Likewise, photographers take self portraits and musician tell personal stories. Self reflection is a part of all media. Plagiarists, often times not reading the source material, leave these bits in” (Bailey, 2011, para. 20).
Bailey’s professional advice for the would-be plagiarists is that, “With technology plagiarism is just as easy as it ever was but getting away with plagiarism is a very hard job indeed. Those who don’t take care to cover their tracks will, inevitably, be caught, especially if they plagiarize enough. So let this be a word of warning to a would-be plagiarist, technology may put the world at your fingertips, but it makes it easier than ever to trace where you got your content from” (2011, para. 26).
So how can technology help students to not get caught?
A simple search for ways to not get caught plagiarizing also revealed some interesting advice from the public through Yahoo Answers. In one comment stream, a question was asked about how to copy a paper a student found that was perfect for their assignment they were asked to do. Almost all of the advice and comments talked about not using the paper at all because the consequences of plagiarizing were not worth it (Yahoo Answers, 2005). Even though this student did the research to find exactly what they wanted to say in their assignment, people were afraid and worried for the student because someone else had already written down their same thoughts.
Why are people afraid to use their ideas and thoughts that they have had but others have already written down?
It almost seems hopeless, but let’s not forget that there still is an easy way to plagiarize without getting caught.
Now...
The Easy Way:
Using citations is the best and easiest way to plagiarize without getting caught.
Proper use of citations answers all of our questions. With today’s technology we can easily source and then cite information, giving credit to those that had the thought before our own. In this same act, the professors are pleased that we have done the research and are more willing to give us that grade we are looking for.
But you still ask, “How is this the EASY way?”
Citations are as easy as 1,2,3.
Steps to easy citations
Step 1- Cut and Paste. Don’t be afraid to use someone’s thoughts and ideas.
When do you need citations?
You must cite:
- Facts, figures, ideas, or other information that is not common knowledge
- Ideas, words, theories, or exact language that another person used in other publications
- Publications that must be cited include: books, book chapters, articles, web pages, theses, etc.
- Another person's exact words should be quoted and cited to show proper credit
When in doubt, be safe and cite your source! (MIT Libraries, n.d.).
Step 2- Remember to Attribute. Don’t forget to give credit where credit is due. You can use quotes or just paraphrase the information, but remember to tell who or where you got it from.
Why is citing important?
Again the “Citing Sources: Overview” at the MIT Libraries gives a great explanation.
- To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
- To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
- To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
- To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list (MIT Libraries, n.d.).
This makes it like putting together a puzzle of words from the many texts that you used for research. It also provides the instructions of where you found the pieces. (I am sure that I could attribute this thought and idea to someone. Any takers?)
But what about the task of a works cited or reference page, or, heaven forbid, having to figure out the in-text citations? Well, the answer is also easily found in today’s technology.
Step 3- Use citation software (free is good). New technology makes it easier than ever to do it right, even easier than cheating.There is a ton of information throughout the internet that will tell you how you should do citations in each of the different formats. Even microsoft Word has a tab that will assist you in managing citations, but may not be as flexible as some of the internet- based formats.
A helpful list of some of the best citation software available has already been compiled at elearning industry .com (hyperlink) http://elearningindustry.com/14-best-online-bibliography-and-citation-tools
Here is Christopher Pappas’ article of the top 12 picks of the best citation sites out there (2013).
In order to demonstrate to you the ease at which today’s technologies allows you to manage your citations, we will walk you through the steps at Citefast.com, which is one of the fastest, free internet based sites for this. Citefast has a simple five step process for collecting and creating your citations (Citefast.com, 2015).
Citefast’s easy 5-step process
Step 1: Go to Citefast.com and select your source. From the Home page, in the first step dialogue box, click on what type of material you would like to source:
Example: Book: “Cheating Lessons”.
Step 2. Enter book information. Copy and paste the title and author into the #2 dialogue box. (Some books are already in the Library and pre-cited). You will need to fill in other information requested and then click “Add citation”.
Step 3. View citations. Verify that your citation looks correct or edit again as needed. In this step you can also view in-text citations and cut and paste those as needed. (You can use their quick guide for putting in proper in-text citations.)
Step 4. Export. The references page is all set, just copy and paste or export to Word.
The system saves your individual references you have inserted and will put them all in order like this:
Step 5. Receive a good grade. Now you can relax and know that your professor will be impressed with the extensive effort that you put into your paper.
Yes, it is that easy!
There are many other articles and sites that may also help you plagiarize as we see it.. Here are another few important sites:
- “What is the main difference between MLA and APA form of citation” by Kyle Whitney for Demand Media.
With the information and simple steps that we have shared with you in this blog, you should no longer fear doing citations. You should embrace them and the technology that makes them so easy to do. We hope that this information is helpful to you for future classes.
By the way, don’t forget to check out the example References page we easily created in Citefast: (note: blog formatting may be different than what will be required for a paper, but you will get the right idea.)
References
Albertini, D. L.
(2015, October 14). English 3010 Writing in the professions (Fall 2015)
[PDF document]. Retrieved from
https://dixie.instructure.com/courses/333245/assignments/syllabus
Bailey, J. (2011,
May 31). The 5 dumbest ways plagiarists get caught. Retrieved from
https://www.plagiarismtoday.com
Citefast.com. (2015).
Citefast automatically formats citations: APA 6th edition, MLA 7th ed. and
Chicago 16th ed. Retrieved from http://www.citefast.com
Comparing MLA and APA
citation styles. (2008). Retrieved from Santa Barbara City College website:
https://www.sbcc.edu/clrc/files/wl/downloads/MLAvsAPAChart.pdf
Herrick, J. A.
(n.d.). How to avoid getting caught plagiarizing [PDF document]. Retrieved
from http://www.hope.edu/academic/communication/faculty/herrick/hoavi.pdf
Laden, G. (2011,
November 29). How to not get caught plagiarizing [Web log post]. Retrieved from
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/11/29/how-to-not-get-caught-plagiari/
Lang, J. M.
(2013). Cheating lessons: Learning from academic dishonesty.
MIT Libraries. (n.d.).
Citing sources: Overview. Retrieved from http://libguides.mit.edu/citing
Pappas, C. (2013,
February 18). 14 best online bibliography and citation tools. Retrieved from
http://elearningindustry.com/14-best-online-bibliography-and-citation-tools
Purdue University.
(2015). The Purdue OWL: Research and citation. Retrieved November 1,
2015, from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/
Whitney, K. (2015).
What is the main difference between MLA and APA form of citation?
Retrieved November 1, 2015, from
http://classroom.synonym.com/main-difference-between-mla-apa-form-citation-1431.html
Yahoo Answers. (2005). How do I plagiarize
without getting caught? Retrieved November 1, 2015, from
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006041906344
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