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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 to begin with, 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.
PLAGIARIZING BY MISTAKE... IS STILL PLAGIARIZING.
Every time that I have seen plagiarism happen in my classes, the plagiarism happened "by accident." In other words, nobody set out to cheat - but they ended up cheating because they ran out of time, or they were confused about the assignment, or they copied-and-pasted "by accident" and turned in work that was plagiarized. Well, just like with a speeding ticket or running a red light, it doesn't matter if you did it by accident or not - plagiarizing by mistake is still plagiarism, and the penalties are very serious. So, make sure you pay attention to these dangerous pitfalls that might lead you to plagiarize by accident:
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: you must 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.
Confusion. If you are confused or frustrated by the assignment, you will be tempted to cheat just to get it over with. Please resist that temptation, and contact me instead. Most importantly, to avoid confusion and frustration, I would urge you to work with texts that you find easy to read - if you start with a text that is long and/or difficult for you to read, it will be very frustrating to try to put that text into your own words. So, let me know if you are having trouble understanding your source material, and I will help you find a better source to use for your retelling!
Don't copy and paste - EVER. Sometimes people copy something, and then try to change it afterwards. That will not work; you should NEVER (never never never NEVER) copy and paste in your writing for this class. Instead, start from a blank piece of paper (or a blank computer screen). Then, do your writing, and do NOT look at your source at the same time as you are writing. If you need to check your source for some specific piece of information, first you need to put away your writing. Then, look at the source and get the information you need. Then, put away your source and go back to your own writing... but do not look at the source at the same time as you are writing.
Don't copy paragraph by paragraph. Most people actually know better than to copy word for word... but a surprising number of people think it is okay to copy sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph. NOT TRUE. Copying sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph is still plagiarism, even if you change the words. Plus, in addition to being wrong, it is also very boring. If you follow someone else's sentences or someone else's paragraphs, just substituting your own words, you will not have any fun writing the story... and nobody is going to have any fun reading it, either. So, you need start from scratch: do not copy word by word, or sentence by sentence, or paragraph by paragraph. Instead, tell the story your own way!
THE EASIEST WAY TO BE ORIGINAL: BE CREATIVE
Here is the single best solution for avoiding plagiarism: be totally creative! The more creative you can be in your storytelling, the less likely it is that you will plagiarize by mistake. When you tell a story in your own words, add your own twist to it:
EXAMPLES: AESOP'S FABLES. 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 in order to get so fat. 'There's a man,' said the dog, 'who gives me all this food to eat.' The wolf said, '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 it 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 (italics) and sometimes word for word (bold). THIS IS PLAGIARISM, even though it is not an exact copy. |
| 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, "I've got a master - and he always 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 just laughed at the dog and said, "Well, you can keep your food for yourself, slave! 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, and some great new details have been added. |
| 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 dog, 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." Mrs.
Wolf howled in approval, and then the two of them ran off into the woods
in search of something ... anything ... for supper. As he ran along in the
darkness, the wolf thought to himself, "I wonder what dog meat tastes like?" |
Good CREATIVE retelling - with a new narrator! This is definitely a new version of the story because it employs a new narrator: Mr. Wolf is telling the story himself in answer to Mrs. Wolf's questions. |
QUIZ: 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.
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.