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Avoiding Plagiarism
Have you ever come up with a hilarious meme and posted it, waiting for your friend to like it? Hours later, no likes appear. Then you notice that your friend has posted your meme with no credit and has gotten dozens of likes!
That’s plagiarism: presenting another person’s ideas as your own. It’s basically stealing someone else’s thinking.
Imagine if your friend had reposted your meme so others could see who came up with it. Then those dozens of likes go to you and your friend.
It’s easy to avoid plagiarism. Just show what ideas came from someone else, and tell who that person is. It’s common courtesy, but it’s also what’s legally right. This chapter will keep you from being a meme pirate.
What’s Ahead
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Original Article
The article below focuses on a bitter fruit that human beings brought on themselves. Read it, and on the next pages, discover how to avoid plagiarism when referring to such an article.
Life Never Gave Us Lemons
David Habrid
The old expression says, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” That’s a nice affirmation, but it’s historically inaccurate. Life never actually gave us lemons. Instead, human beings invented lemons for themselves.
Ancient Hybrids
Thousands of years ago, farmers in the area that would become northeastern India crossed bitter oranges with citron. They were seeking a citrus fruit that would be especially sour, and they got it. Once established, lemons spread from that region to take over the world.
Lemons to Lemonade
Despite it’s bad rap, the lemon has many uses, culinary and otherwise. Its strong citric acid (2.2 pH) makes it very sour, allowing its juice to lend zing to many dishes and drinks. Of course, lemonade is among the great success stories. But lemon juice is also used as a cleaner, cutting through grease and grime and leaving a lovely scent.
Reforming the Image of Lemons
The common expression, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” would be more accurate as, “When life gives you bitter oranges and citrons, make lemons. And once you have lemons, make lemonade and lemon juice and even stuff to clean your sink.” That saying means much the same thing. When life gives humans anything, good or bad, they have a genius for turning it into one or ten new things that are good. Now, aren’t you glad that life never gave us lemons?
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Examples of Plagiarism
Below are four common types of plagiarism, often committed by accident. The plagiarized parts are shown in red.
■ Using Copy-and-Paste Without Credit
■ Using Images Without Credit
■ Paraphrasing Without Credit
■ Forgetting Quotation Marks
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Avoiding Plagiarism
Avoiding plagiarism is important. Follow these tips.
Keep track of sources. ■ Write down the names of books or articles and the names of their authors. If you use Internet sources, create a list of links to the URLs of your sources.
Cite sources. ■ As you write your first draft, note where ideas come from. You can do so by using MLA parenthetical citations and a works-cited page (see pages 306 and 308–310). Another way is to mention the source and author in the text:
Remember why. ■ The reason for citing sources is to give credit where it is due and to help other people find the same sources of information.
Avoiding Other Misuses
Here are a few other forms of source abuse to avoid.