Plagiarism is a serious breach of academic integrity. The University at Albany
does not look lightly upon it, nor do I. If you plagiarize a paper, you will
receive a failing grade for it and will not be allowed to re-write. Moreover,
according to
university policy,
it must be reported to the dean's office. Below is a detailed description of
what constitutes plagiarism: if you have questions about this, do not
hesistate to ask!
PLAGIARISM
[From Student's Book of College English by David Skwire and Frances
Chitwood (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.: 1981), pp. 356-358.]
Plagiarism is the use of facts, opinions, and language taken from another writer without acknowledgement. In its most sordid form, plagiarism is outright theft or cheating: a person has another person write the paper or simply steals a magazine article or section of a book and pretends to have produced a piece of original writing. Far more common is plagiarism in dribs and drabs: a sentence here and there, a paragraph here and there. Unfortunately, small- time theft is still theft, and small-time plagiarism is still plagiarism.
ORIGINAL PASSAGE
In 1925 Dreiser produced his masterpiece, the massively impressive An
American Tragedy. By this time--thanks largely to the tireless
propagandizing on his behalf by the influential maverick critic H.L. Mencken and
by others concerned with a realistic approach to the problems of American
life--Dreiser's fame had become secure. He was seen as the most powerful and
effective destroyer of the genteel tradition that had dominated popular American
fiction in the post-Civil War period, spreading its soft blanket of provincial,
sentimental romance over the often ugly realities of life in modern,
industrialized, urban America. Certainly there was nothing genteel about
Dreiser, either as a man or novelist. He was the supreme poet of the squalid, a
man who felt the terror, the pity, and the beauty underlying the American dream.
With an eye at once ruthless and compassionate, he saw the tragedy inherent in
the American Success ethic; the soft underbelly, as it were, of the Horatio
Alger rags-to-riches myth so appealing to the optimistic American imagination
[Richard Freedman, The Novel (New York: Newsweek Books, 1975), pp.
104-105].
|
STUDENT VERSION |
COMMENTS |
|
There was nothing genteel about Dreiser, either as a man or novelist. He
was the supreme poet of the squalid, a man who felt the terror, the
pity, and the beauty underlying the American dream. |
Obvious plagiarism:
word-for-word repetition without acknowledgement. |
|
There was nothing genteel about Dreiser, either as a man or novelist. He
was the supreme poet of the squalid, a man who felt the terror, the
pity, and the beauty underlying the American dream. Bibliography
Freedman, Richard. The Novel. New York:
Newsweek Books, 1975. |
Still plagiarism.
The citation alone does not help. The language is the original
author's and only quotation marks around the whole passage plus a
citation and attribution would be correct. |
|
"There was nothing genteel about Dreiser, either as a man or novelist.
He was the supreme poet of the squalid, a man who felt the terror, the
pity, and the beauty underlying the American dream." Bibliography
Freedman, Richard. The Novel. New York:
Newsweek Books, 1975. |
Still plagiarism.
The citation and quotation marks alone do not help. Attribution
is also necessary. |
|
According to Freedman, "There was nothing genteel about Dreiser, either
as a man or novelist. He was the supreme poet of the squalid, a man who
felt the terror, the pity, and the beauty underlying the American
dream." Bibliography
Freedman, Richard. The Novel. New York:
Newsweek Books, 1975. |
Correct.
All three necessary conditions are met: attribution, quotation marks
around the direct quotation, and a bibliographic citiation.. |
|
Nothing was genteel about Dreiser as a man or as a novelist. He was the
poet of the squalid and felt that terror, pity, and beauty lurked under
the American dream. |
Plagiarism.
A few words have been changed or omitted, but by no stretch of the
imagination is the student writer using his own language. |
|
According to Freedman, "Nothing was genteel about Dreiser as a man or as
a novelist. He was the poet of the squalid and felt that terror, pity,
and beauty lurked under the American dream." Bibliography
Freedman, Richard. The Novel. New York:
Newsweek Books, 1975. |
Not quite plagiarism, but incorrect and inaccurate.
Quotation marks indicate exact repetition of what was originally
written. The student writer, however, has changed some of the original
and is not entitled to use quotation marks. |
|
According to Freedman, nothing was genteel about Dreiser as a man or as
a novelist. He was "the poet of the squalid" and felt that terror, pity,
and beauty lurked under the American dream. Bibliography
Freedman, Richard. The Novel. New York:
Newsweek Books, 1975. |
Correct.
Quotation marks indicate Freedman's exact words of a significant partial
quote. |
|
"Certainly there was nothing genteel about Dreiser," Freedman writes,
"either as a man or novelist. He was the supreme poet of the squalid, a
man who felt the terror, the pity, and the beauty underlying the
American dream." Bibliography
Freedman, Richard. The Novel. New York:
Newsweek Books, 1975. |
Correct.
The quotation marks acknowledge the words of the original writer. The
citation is also needed, of course, to give the reader specific
information about the source of the quote. |
|
By 1925 Dreiser's reputation was firmly established, according to
Freedman. The reading public viewed Dreiser as one of the main
contributors to the downfall of the "genteel tradition" in American
literature. Dreiser, "the supreme poet of the squalid," looked beneath
the bright surface of American life and values and described the
frightening and tragic elements, the "ugly realities," so often
overlooked by other writers. Bibliography
Freedman, Richard. The Novel. New York:
Newsweek Books, 1975. |
Correct.
The student writer uses his own words to summarize most of the original
passage. The citation and attribution shows that the ideas expressed come from the
original writer, not from the student. The few phrases kept from the
original passage are carefully enclosed in quotation marks. |