Chapter 7- Avoiding Plagiarism

Chapter 7 is all about avoiding plagiarism. It first defines what plagiarism is; a form of intellectual dishonesty. Plagiarism can definitely be unintentional, for example you could neglect to list the source of a paraphrase, yet even though it can be unintentional it can still have serious repercussions. There is also intentional plagiarism, which can happen when you've waited until the last minute to write a paper so you just copy and paste. The second part of the chapter focuses on research ethics, which are based on the notion that writing is an honest exchange of information. You need to acknowledge the sources of the information you ;use, accurately represent that information, and provide a citation. Common knowledge is information that is widely known, like common sense. The book poses the question 'What is fair use and when should I ask permission to use a source?' they later answer that question by saying that writers usually don't need to seek permission to make brief quotations. Avoiding plagiarism includes a variety of steps: Conduct a knowledge inventory, take careful notes, distinguish between your ideas and those drawn from your sources, cite sources in the text and in a works cited page, and recognize misconceptions about intentional plagiarism. What should you do if you're accused of plagiarism? Review your documents to find anything that may have raised these suspicions, Collect materials you used in writing projects, collect materials you've written during the project, and reflect on your research writing process.