Question about plagairism?

Question

I am working on a paper for one of my classes and I'm kind of confused about something.

I remember when I was in middle school or something, one of my teachers told us that it's not plagairism if you can find the fact at at least 3 different webpages..because then that makes it general knowledge.
If I am writing a biography on someone obviously I won't need to cite their birth date, for example, but for other facts, even if I am able to find them at several other sites, will I need to cite that? I mean, if it's general information about somebodies life, I won't need to give the author credit for that information, correct?

My teacher is only asking for two different sources......

Bah, I am just very confused about how much you are and are not supposed to cite.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Answer 1

Plagairism is about stealing people's ideas, not reporting facts.

If you write, "George Washington was the first President of the United States," that is a generally known fact, and it need not be sited.

If you write, "Joseph Conrad's first novel was Almayer's Folly, and it was published in 1894" is also a fact, you can find it on more than three websites, but you should probably site your information. This is not because you would be accused of plagairism if you did not, but because someone might challenge your fact. How do you know it was his first novel? How can you prove it was published in 1894?

A genral rule: If in doubt, site your source. No one ever got into trouble for using too many footnotes, or because his bibliography was too long.

Answer 2

You are fairly correct in your interpretation of general knowledge. If a fact can be verified through 3 or more separate sources, it is generally not necessary to cite the information. As a general rule, anything found in an encyclopedia does not need to be cited. However, if there is any doubt, cite the material. There is no penalty for citing something that maybe you didn't have to, but failing to cite a source when it is necessary can lead to severe consequences.

Also, DO NOT make the sources up. I have teachers that check your sources. Hope this helped.

Answer 3

I teach freshman English at a 4-year University. Plagiarism is hard to define and there are no hard-and-true rules for defining what constitutes plagiarism - it's different from instructor to instructor.

If you already knew the information, then you don't need to cite the source. However, if you didn't and a webpage *told* you that information, I would cite it simply because they are the ones responsible for the information. Better to err on the side of precaution!

Answer 4

Plagiarism can be subjective and hard to define. Some instructors are more strict than others about their citation rules. As a college student, my theory is: when in doubt, cite the source. A lot of citations giving credit to those from whom you got the knowledge is better than not citing and the ensuing consequences.

Answer 5

This is what you do. If your teacher wants two sources, find two sources, give her the two sources and plagairize from a third source. DO NOT MENTION the third source anywhere in your paper. Juggle a few words around and try to make it sound like you wrote it and hand it in. It's not a crime, if no one catches you, do what you have to do to make the grade.

Answer 6

only cite something you use if you can only find it in one or 2 places

if you can find it all over the internet then youre right, its considered common knowledge and you dont need to cite it.

but even if something is common knowledge its still probably not a good idea to copy the information exactly

Answer 7

You HAVE to cite it because you didn't already know it! My hubby's an English prof and he hates that high school and middle school teachers even ALLOW internet sources, because they aren't permanent and about half are not true. He's got students paying 40K a year and citing wiki.

Answer 8

1 cite a paragraph is enough. Common knowledge, not necessary to cite. Anything controversal or opinionated should be cited.

Answer 9

Anything that is considered common knowledge is not cited. If it is not common knowledge, even if it is found in several places, you need to cite one of the sources.
Opinions need sources.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Answer 10

I in no way ask your self concerning to the time-honored of her character. we've straightforward Hillary for 15 years now and she or he's working real to style. No concerns. Attacking Obama with something as trivial at this plagiarism nonsense is in basic terms a dying gurgle as her marketing campaign is going under.