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Honor Code and plagiarism
First, please make sure you read the page containing the Honor Code for this class. Plagiarism is considered a violation of the Honor Code of this class. In addition, plagiarism is a serious form of academic misconduct and I am required to report students to the Provost's Office for plagiarism. The penalties are extremely severe, up to and including expulsion from the university.
Every week in this class, you will be retelling stories in your own words. That means you will work with a written story, but you will be rewriting that story, changing it in order to create a new version of the story. It is very important that you understand the difference between copying a story (plagiarism) and retelling the story in your own words.
Motivations for plagiarism
I see plagiarism in my classes every semester, which is very depressing for me as a teacher. My impression is that students commit plagiarism for three reasons:
Running out of time. If you do not give yourself enough time to complete an assignment, you will be tempted to cheat simply because you have run out of time. The solution to this is an easy one: budget enough time for the required work. Time management is the key to doing well in this class and having a good time with it.
Feeling bored and/or frustrated. If you are feeling bored or frustrated, you will be tempted to cheat. Please resist that temptation, and contact me instead. If you are bored with something in the class, maybe there is something we can do to make the assignment a more valuable learning experience for you. If you are confused and feeling frustrated, I will be glad to try to help you with the assignment - but you need to get in touch with me before the assignment is due and let me know that you are having trouble with it.
Plagiarizing by mistake. Some students think, mistakenly, that plagiarism means cutting-and-pasting, copying the whole thing word for word. You need to understand that it is also plagiarism if you take someone else's writing and leave out parts of it. It is also plagiarism if you take someone else's writing and change the words but keep the exact same sentence structure.
You must start from a clean slate. Instead of altering the source, you have to start from scratch and write in your own words , based on your understanding and interpretation of the source. You should be looking at a blank piece of paper (or a blank computer screen) when you write. If you are looking at your source while you are writing, it is very likely that you will use words from the source instead of writing in your own words, or that you will follow your original source sentence by sentence - in other words, it is very likely if you are looking at the original source while you write, you will plagiarize ("by accident").
BE CREATIVE
If you are going to retell a story in your own words, there are two strategies you can follow:
Here is an example of an Aesop's fable told in three different ways. One retelling is a form of plagiarism, but the other two retellings are truly new versions of the story, although they are based on the same original.
| A comfortably plump dog happened to run into a wolf. The wolf asked the dog where he had been finding enough food to get so big and fat. 'It is a man,' said the dog, 'who gives me all this food to eat.' The wolf then asked him, 'And what about that bare spot there on your neck?' The dog replied, 'My skin has been rubbed bare by the iron collar which my master forged and placed upon my neck.' The wolf then jeered at the dog and said, 'Keep your luxury to yourself then! I don't want anything to do with it, if my neck will have to chafe against a chain of iron!' | Original version: "The Wolf, the Dog, and the Collar," Aesop's Fables, trans. by Laura Gibbs (2002). Online at aesopica.net. |
| A rather fat dog happened to encounter a wolf. The wolf asked the dog where he had been finding enough food to get so fat. 'There's a man,' said the dog, 'who gives me all this food to eat.' The wolf then asked, 'And what about that spot that's rubbed bare there on your neck?' The dog answered, 'The iron collar rubbed my skin bare. My master made it and placed upon my neck.' The wolf then laughed at the dog and said, 'Keep your luxury! I don't want anything to do with that stuff, if my neck will have to chafe against an iron chain!" | Plagiarism: VERY BAD! This version was clearly cut and pasted, and then edited. It follows the original sentence by sentence and sometimes word for word, even though changes have been made here and there. |
| Once upon a time, a fat, dumb and happy dog ran into a wolf. The wolf was curious because the dog looked very well-fed while the wolf was all mangy and skinny. So the wolf said to the dog, "Listen, brother, how do you find so much food to eat?" The dog burped (he had just eaten a big Alpo sandwich) and explained, "There is a man who gives me plenty to eat." Then the wolf noticed that there was a bare spot on the dog's neck. "How did you get that bare spot on your neck?" the wolf asked. "That's from my collar," said the dog. "It's something my master makes me wear around my neck. It's not all that bad, really. You can get used to it. Although now that I'm getting kind of fat, uh, the collar is a little tight." The wolf was disgusted with the dog and said, "You can keep your food. My freedom is worth more to me than eating well." | Good retelling! It is similar to the original story, but it is not a copy. Even the moral of the story is stated differently than in the original version. |
| Mr. Wolf came home empty-pawed one day, and Mrs. Wolf growled at him. "Okay," Mr.
Wolf admitted, "I didn't bring anything home for us to eat. But listen
to this - I met this guy, oh he was big and fat, and I thought for sure
he could help me find some food. He told me that there was a man, a human
being, who gave him lots of food, and I was getting pretty excited - it
sounded like a great deal. But then I saw this bare spot on his neck, all
rubbed away and kind of sore, and I asked him how that happened. And he
told me it was from the iron chain that he wore around his neck." Mrs.
Wolf barked, "A chain? Around his neck? You've got to be kidding!" "No
kidding," said Mr. Wolf. "The man put that iron chain around
his neck and he just went along with it. So I told him: no way. I'd rather
be hungry and free than wear some man's chain around my neck." Author's Note: The original story was in third-person narration, but I changed it to first-person narration, letting the wolf tell the story in his own words to the she-wolf. |
Good CREATIVE retelling - with a new narrator! This is definitely a new version of the story because it employs a new narrator: the wolf is telling the story from his own point of view. |
Test Your Knowledge: Can Your Recognize Plagiarism?
After you have read the examples provided above, you should be ready to take the Plagiarism Quiz which you will find in Desire2Learn. You will be presented with five sample stories and story re-tellings. In each case, your task is to determine whether the story retelling is plagiarism or not.
Here are an example of the kind of question you will see:
SOURCE STORY: A Kid was perched up on the top of a house, and looking down saw a Wolf passing under him. Immediately he began to revile and attack his enemy. "Murderer and thief," he cried, "what do you here near honest folks' houses? How dare you make an appearance where your vile deeds are known?" "Curse away, my young friend," said the Wolf. "It is easy to be brave from a safe distance."
RETELLING: A young goat had made his way by leaping here and there until he found himself on top of the roof. From the top of the roof, he saw a wolf walking by and he shouted: "Look at the big bad ugly wolf! Ha ha ha!" The wolf snarled and then said: "You're only talking that way from the safety of your rooftop. I dare you to come down and say that!" After that, the little goat kept his distance - and kept his mouth shut - when wolves were around.
PLAGIARISM... OR NOT?
ANSWER: This is NOT an example of plagiarism. This is a good retelling which creates a truly new version of the story. It is the same plot, but new language.
Be careful, because you might see the same story more than once - but with a different retelling. What do you think about this example?
SOURCE STORY: A Kid was perched up on the top of a house, and looking down saw a Wolf passing under him. Immediately he began to revile and attack his enemy. "Murderer and thief," he cried, "what do you here near honest folks' houses? How dare you make an appearance where your vile deeds are known?" "Curse away, my young friend," said the Wolf. "It is easy to be brave from a safe distance."
RETELLING: A young goat was perched up on the roof of a house. He looked down and saw a Wolf passing under him. Immediately he began to insult the wolf. "You are a murderer and a thief," he cried. "How dare come here where your nasty deeds are known?" "Curse away, little goat," said the Wolf. "You are being brave at a safe distance."
PLAGIARISM... OR NOT?
ANSWER: This is an example of PLAGIARISM. It has been copied from the original, either word by word, phrase by phrase or sentence by sentence.
Please read through these examples, and make sure you understand the answers before you take the quiz. . This may be an easy task for you, or it may be difficult. It is your responsibility to be absolutely sure that you understand how to retell a story in your own words without plagiarizing.
You can take the quiz at Desire2Learn up to 5 times, and your average score will be recorded. Please make sure you score at least 80% on one of your quiz attempts. It is not important that you get a perfect score, but you should get at least a score of 80% to be sure you do understand just what it means to retell a story in your own words.