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00:00We're back with best-selling author and probable sociopath, Moby Calrissian.
00:12Your recent book report on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was largely stolen from online
00:18sources.
00:20Is there anything you'd like to say to the American public?
00:27Another nightmare, huh?
00:35Maybe you just need to get something off your chest.
00:38Dear Tim and Moby, I know plagiarism is cheating, but sometimes it's hard to tell if I'm actually
00:45breaking the rules.
00:47Can you help me out?
00:48I'm Moira.
00:50Of course we can, Moira.
00:52Plagiarism is the act of submitting someone else's work as your own.
00:57You're never allowed to use the words or ideas of other people without giving them credit.
01:02This rule applies to all subjects and classes.
01:06It doesn't matter if you're doing a science project, a book report, or even making a piece
01:10of art.
01:12Well, some instances of plagiarism are pretty obvious.
01:16Say you have to write a paper on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
01:21You go online and find a great resource with lots of cool ideas about the book.
01:25If you copy some of the text from the site and paste it into your own paper, then hand
01:30it in just like that, well, that's a pretty clear violation.
01:35Yup, stealing from any type of source and claiming it as your own work is always plagiarism.
01:43That source could be a book, an article, an old paper your sister wrote, anything.
01:50When teachers give you assignments, they don't want you to just repeat and recap existing
01:55material or stuff you find online.
01:58They're trying to assess your understanding of the topics you're studying, and see how
02:03well you can put your own original thoughts into writing.
02:07Plagiarizing someone else is like cheating off them on a test.
02:11Get caught, and you'll probably get a zero on the assignment.
02:15Or if you're lucky, your teacher might let you rewrite it.
02:18In high school and college, punishments for plagiarism can be even more severe.
02:22You might fail the entire class, or get kicked out of school completely.
02:28It's not that you can't use magazines, books, encyclopedias, or their online versions.
02:34In fact, it's a good idea to consult all of those sources when doing papers and projects.
02:39But if you use someone else's words verbatim, meaning the exact same words, you need to
02:44put them in quotation marks.
02:46And you have to attribute or give credit to the author.
02:49One of the easiest ways to do this is to use phrases like, according to, and then add the
02:54name of your source right after.
02:56Depending on the subject, teacher, or type of assignment, you might need to use footnotes
03:00or endnotes too.
03:02Those are more formal ways to credit your sources.
03:05Footnotes show sources at the bottom of a page, and endnotes list them after a specific
03:10section or at the conclusion of your report.
03:13Sometimes, you might also be required to put together a bibliography.
03:18That's a comprehensive list of all the works you consulted while researching an assignment.
03:23I was just getting to that.
03:25Many examples of plagiarism aren't obvious cut-and-paste jobs.
03:29Unfortunately, a lot of students wind up plagiarizing by accident.
03:34If you're not careful, key ideas from a source can easily slip into your writing.
03:39Like here.
03:40The original sentence was, more than a scene-setting element, snow comes to symbolize death itself.
03:46And you wrote, Lewis uses the symbol of snow to represent death.
03:50You did a good job of paraphrasing the material, putting it into your own words.
03:54But the thing is, you're still using the same basic idea.
03:58That Lewis uses snow to symbolize death.
04:02It can be tricky untangling your own ideas from your sources, so when in doubt, give
04:06credit.
04:07There are a few other important tips to guard against plagiarism.
04:11When taking notes, put big quotation marks around all direct quotes, even if it's only
04:16a few words.
04:17And write the source next to every note you take, whether it's a website, book, or article.
04:23These are pretty straightforward strategies that can help you avoid getting into any trouble.
04:28What?
04:29No way!
04:30I totally did not lift that from your, uh, blog.
04:34Huh.
04:35Must have gotten stuck in my head from when I first read it.
04:40It was so not on purpose.