Plagiarism
August 31, 2014
Plagiarism, the very word brings to mind two other words; summarizing and paraphrasing. To understand by definition these words meanings:
Summarizing -
Verb
: To tell (information) again using fewer words
Transitive verb
: To tell in or reduce to a summary
Paraphrasing –
Noun
: A statement that says something that another person has said or written in a different way
: A restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form
Plagiarism -
Transitive verb
: To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source
Intransitive verb
: To commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.
(merriam-webster)

Summarizing
Paraphrasing
Quoting
Must reference the original source
The text is much shorter than the original text. (For example, one may write a single page to summarize a four-page article.)
Must use your own words, usually with a very limited use of quotations. Must reference the original source
The text produced may be shorter or longer than the original text

Must use your own words Must reference the original source
The text produced is the exact length of the original text quoted (unless ellipses are used)
Use the original author’s exact words
Put quotation marks around the original author’s exact words
Include the page number of the original source from which you borrowed the author’s original language.
(Purdue OWL) “The Internet has made plagiarism easier than ever before. From elementary schools to the highest levels of academia, the ease of downloading and copying "untraceable" online information has led to an epidemic of digital plagiarism…… Intentional or unintentional use of another's words or ideas without acknowledging this use constitutes plagiarism.” (Law & Legal)
In the learning environment students read (or I do anyway) a lot of material from books, internet sites and even have discussions with family, co-workers and friends. So that when I am ready to begin writing or preparing my assignment I am paraphrasing and or summarizing what I have learned from those sources. It now seems to be my own and it is put in my own words. However, the written words are not my own but what I learned from those sources. Isn’t that the objective, give an assignment, get input, then learn and grow from what was read or discussed.
We come into this world with a blank brain. So everything we learn by outer stimulus is never our own ideas or thoughts but what we have learned by reading, conversing or have experienced with others. Therefore, where are original ideas and or thoughts formed, but by continuous stimuli from others thoughts, ideas and experiences. So in a sense all of ‘our own’ ideas and thoughts’ are either some form of plagiarism, summarization and or paraphrasing of previous stimuli. As Blum (2009) stated, in her conclusion, “Personally, I no longer see plagiarism as primarily a moral issue—for most students. But given academic norms of citation, there will always be occasions when, at least technically, we can find plagiarism.” (Conclusion)
An example; my mother taught me how to tie my shoes when I was a little girl. She talked me through tying those shoe laces and demonstrated how to tie them. Therefore, I eventually learned to tie my shoes on my own. If the instructor of this class assigned the students to write a paper on how to tie their shoes and I were to write those instructions down. I would not cite my mother as a source but I would write the instructions as my own ideas and in my own words. These thoughts and words used on how to tie shoes are really my mothers. So would everything we put on paper need a citation? “A postmodern perspective of plagiarism and intellectual property suggests that one cannot own ideas or words. All we can do is honor and recompense the encoding of these ideas… Postmodern