Plagiarism Workshop

First, what is plagiarism? UCF defines plagiarism as the intentional or accidental misrepresentation of someone else's work,ideas, or words as your own.

In your groups, consider the following scenarios. Rate these scenarios on a scale of 0-5, where 0=not plagiarism at all, and 5=probably IS plagiarism. You should also discuss and answer the question -does this situation have a high potential to BECOME plagiarism? Why or why not?

Also discuss the reasoning behind your decision - is this situation fair? Is it justifiable? Are there perhaps some instances where the University atmosphere CONTRIBUTES to plagiarism?

1. You and a roommate have ENC 1102 papers due at around the same time. In order to save time and have more fun doing research, you choose similar topics and research together. You will certainly write your own papers, but you use the same articles and books.

2. You have a paper due in Technical Writing that is supposed to be a proposal. You are also taking a speech class where you have to write a proposal. You decide to write the paper and the speech on the same topic to save time since you are taking 6 classes.

3. You are taking your first online class, and the teacher's assignments are very vague. For this assignment, you really aren't sure what he wants, but you do know that you are supposed to post something on the discussion board and answer some questions from the module. You look at the discussion board and see that some other students have already posted their assignment, so you look at their postings to get an idea of what they answered in response to the question and feel much better. Now you know what you have to do!

4. Same scenario as number 3 above, but this time you look at their postings, and use one of the assignments as a template. You change their answers and post your response, but then you get an e-mail from the teacher accusing you of plagiarizing the assignment. How could she do this? Your answers weren't the same as the other student's!

5. You are creating a powerpoint for a class presentation and are browsing around the Internet looking for graphics. You find a picture that is just perfect for your powerpoint, so you copy it into your presentation. When you view the other students' presentations, everyone else has done this as well. Your teacher gives you an A for your presenation. Did you plagiarize?

For the next part of this assignment, I want you to look up on the UCF Office of Student Conduct website (http://www.osc.sdes.ucf.edu/) what the penalties for plagiarism at UCF can be. Discuss them in your group - do you think that they are fair? Too harsh? Not harsh enough?

For homework, please read the University Writing Center's handout on plagiarism at http://uwc.cah.ucf.edu/handouts/Avoiding_Plagiarism.pdf.