Avoiding Plagiarism

Q. What type of material can be used without crediting the source?

A. Your own independent work. Common knowlege. Common knowledge includes stadard information of a field of study as well as folk literature and common sense observations.

Q. What type of material must always be credited?

A. The independent work of any person other than yourself, or any ideas or facts which are not common knowledge. You must acknowledge not only the ideas and facts themselves, but also the language and format in which those ideas and facts appear. That is, the wording, sentence structures, arrangement of thoughts, etc. belong to a writer just as much as the ideas do, and it is for that reason that paraphrases must change the grammatical structure and phrasing while retaining the original intent of the author without distortion.

Use your own words! Use your own words! Use your own words! State the author's ideas using your own vocabulary, your own diction, and your own tone of voice; the author's ideas must be made to fit your structure, not the other way around.

ORIGINAL [from David Suzuki, "Living with Nature"]
In city apartment and dwellings, the presence of cockroaches, fleas, ants, mosquitoes or houseflies is guaranteed to elicit the spraying of insecticides. Mice and rats are poisoned or trapped, while the gardener wages a never-ending struggle with ragweed, dandelions, slugs and root rot. We have a modern arsenal of chemical weapons to fight off these invaders and we use them lavishly.

PLAGIARISM
In our homes, cockroaches, fleas, ants, mosquitoes and flies are guaranteed to be sprayed with insecticides. We poison or trap mice and rats and use a modern arsenal of chemical weapons to fight off ragweed, dandelions, slugs and other invaders.

PLAGIARISM
We employ a modern arsenal of chemical weapons to ward off unwanted insets and animals. We use insecticides against cockroaches, fleas and ants, poisons against rats and mice, and harmful chemicals against ragweed, dandelions, and garden slugs.

SOLUTION #1
According to Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki (1991), "...the presence of cockroaches, fleas, ants, mosquitoes or houseflies is guaranteed to elicit the spraying of insecticides." We poison mice and rats and use herbicides and insecticides in our gardens to control weeds and slugs. In fact, "we have a modern arsenal of chemical weapons to fight off these invaders and we use them lavishly."

SOLUTION #2
Our use of enviromentally dangerous pollutants has become so commonplace that we prefer to use aerosol insecticides indoors rather than fly swatters (too messy!) and eradicate weeds from our gardens using chemical poisons rather than pulling them out by hand (too hard!) (Suzuki, 1991).

Because the majority of popular video games draw on violent themes for their fantasies, critics suggest that there is a potentially dangerous carryover of aggression into real life. Anderson and Ford (1996) concluded from experiments with college students that "aggressive video games [such as Zaxxon and Centipede] can have short-term negative effects on the game-player's emotional state.... The highly aggressive game [leads] to increased hostility and anxiety..."(p.392).

On the other hand, the producers of Sesame Street, the Children's Television Workshop, have provided that video games can present their action-oriented fantasy with positive, non-violent themes (Greenfield, 1994). Regardless of the theme, UCLA professor Seymour Feschbach asserts that fantasy is vital to child development (Meer, 1993). And, in an educational setting, learning can be enhanced by video games that use fantasy to " provide or provoke vivid images related to the material to be learned" (Loftus and Loftus, 1993, p.231). Children's literature from the Brothers Grimm to Dr. Seuss is rooted in fantasy. Should video games be censured for presenting the same themes electronically?

Another attraction of video games is interaction. But the value of the interactivity is a heated issue among critics. Because the player deals solely with the machine in most applications, worried parents fear that video games will replace social interaction. Combine this isolation with violent themes and the consequence could be dire:

It may be that the most harmful aspect of the violent video games is that they are solitary in nature. A
two-person aggressive game seems to provide a cathartic or releasing effect for aggression, while a
solitary aggressive game (such as Space Invaders) may stimulate further aggression. (Greenfield, 1994,
p.26).

Anderson, C.A., & Ford, C.M. (1996). Affect of the game player: Short-term effects of highly and mildly aggressive video games. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 12. (4), 390-402.

Greenfield, P.M. (1994). Mind and media: The effects of television, video games, and computers. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Meer, J. (1993). Mickey mouse vs. donkey kong. Psychology Today, September, 12.

Because the majority of popular video games draw on violent themes for their fantasies, critics suggest that there is a potentially dangerous carryover of aggression into real life. Craig A. Anderson and Catherine M. Ford concluded from experiments with college students that "aggressive video games [such as Zaxxon and Centipede] can have short-term negative effects on the game-player's emotional state.... The highly aggressive game [leads] to increased hostility and anxiety..."(392).

On the other hand, the producers of Sesame Street, the Children's Television Workshop, have provided that video games can present their action-oriented fantasy with positive, non-violent themes (Greenfield 106). Regardless of the theme, UCLA professor Seymour Feschbach asserts that fantasy is vital to child development (Meer 12). And, in an educational setting, learning can be enhanced by video games that use fantasy to "provide or provoke vivid images related to the material to be learned" (Loftus and Loftus 129). Children's literature from the Brothers Grimm to Dr. Seuss is rooted in fantasy. Should video games be censured for presenting the same themes electronically?

Another attraction of video games is interaction. But the value of the interactivity is a heated issue among critics. Because the player deals solely with the machine in most applications, worried parents fear that video games will replace social interaction. Combine this isolation with violent themes and the consequence could be dire:

It may be that the most harmful aspect of the violent video games is that they are solitary in nature. A
two-person aggressive game seems to provide a cathartic or releasing effect for aggression, while a
solitary aggressive game (such as Space Invaders) may stimulate further aggression. (Greenfield 26).

Anderson, C.A., & C.M. Ford. "Affect of the Game Player: Short-term Effects of Highly and Mildly Aggressive
Video Games." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 12.4 (1996): 390-402.

Greenfield, P.M. Mind and Media: The Effects of Television, Video Games, and Computers. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.

Meer, J. "Mickey Mouse vs. Donkey Kong." Psychology Today (September 1993): 12.

NOTE: Plagiarism is a very serious offence and these people will not be treated litely. You will receive a grade no higher then zero on your final project and are garanteed an appointment with the Dead of Science. If you are going to copy work or use other people's ideas please have the intelligence to give them credit. Also, if you do have cited work this work does not count as content for your Web Page. There must the required amount of content in your own words and no one else's. No second chances will be given, consider this your only warning.