Blog 10 Answer to Survey Question

The Finding Forrester is a though-provoking movie which makes audiences think more. And the three question in the survey tried to find out what students think about some parts in this movie.

Question 5 asked if Jamal understand why he should not submit anything wrote with Forrester. 3/4's of students believes that Jamal didn't understand that.Which suggests that he don't know his behavior can be plagiarism.  But i don't agree with the majority because from the movie we can see when Jamal was told he plagiarized Forrester's article he asked Forrester why didn't he tell he earlier. That means if Jamal know Forrester had published that article he would not submit it.

Question 6 asked whether Jamal intentionally missed the two throws or not. According to the survey, more than twice as many students though that he deliberately missed the shot. His glance at Claire and Crawford suggests he was thinking about he would feel guilty about miss the shot and sorry for let others down. 

Question 4 asked should the decision of plagiarism effect Jamal as a good writer. Seven out of ten students deny that Jamal's good writing should be important in the decision. In the movie we all know that Jamal is talent in writing and wrote many good articles. So the decision won't block Jamal as a good writer.

In conclusion, these three question above helped me thing more deeply about those issues raised in the movie . 

Blog 10 Answer to Survey Questions-Yuhang Yi

There is a survey addresses several questions about the movie Finding Forrester. They are deep-thinking questions and some of them are even though-provoking.

For the Question 5, the Column 5 shows that over 70% students in the survey don’t think Jamal understand why Forrester told him not to submit anything he wrote with Forrester. This can be the right answer. Jamal probably basically understands it. He may think the reason is that those work are Forrester’s properties so he can not take them instead of considering plagiarism. According to the setting, Jamal comes from a black public school where doesn’t have excellent education which could be the reason that he is lack of correct writing skill.

On Question 6, the chat shows that 7/10 students believe that Jamal intentionally miss the two free throws in the championship game. This is reasonable. Before shooting those two free throws, he has glanced Claire and Professor Crawford. This should be the hint for why he misses two free throws later. Jamal wants to prove his writing by himself instead of using school’s sympathy. And also earlier in the movie, Jamal makes 50 straight free throws and that means he should be good at shooting.

Finally back to Question 4, the data indicates that there are as twice as many students think that plagiarism doesn’t matter Jamal as a very good writer. Jamal is being talented in writing but that doesn’t mean everything he writes is correct. Talent is inborn, but he still needs to be educated to use his talent and follow the rules. Even there’s only 32% students vote for “Yes”, but in my perspective, I will stand on their side.

In general, those are good questions which help me think and understand this movie much better.

Blog 10

Finding Forrester, directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Mike Rich in 2000, describes the story of a typical black American high school student, Jamal Wallace, who shows talent for playing basketball and writing. In this movie, Jamal unavoidable involves plagiarism and six related controversial survey questions are brought out.

For the first question, Jamal does plagiarize with no doubt as he copies a paragraph from a Forrester’s publish article without giving the credit. In the second question, considering his different background, I defend against the plagiarism charge. Jamal comes from a poor public high school, which students even do not listen to class carefully. Therefore, Jamal is not familiar with the rules of plagiarism and his charge is forgivable.

Another question is about Forrester’s consent to Jamal. The consent is very necessary because it is Forrester’s appearance in the classroom and his speech persuade faculty of board to withdraw the plagiarism charge. Another controversial question is whether Jamal’s high-quality writing affects the final decision. Although the data shows that there is 70% students deny that Jamal’s good writing is necessary to the decision, my answer to the question is positive. Jamal’s article for the competition is the most important part in Forrester’s speech to persuade people in the classroom. Thus, the high-quality writing of Jamal is important in the decision.

In the fifth question, Jamal do not understand why Forrester told him to stay any writing which was created in the apartment. The data, about 72% students responding that Jamal do not know the reason, in the column supports my opinion as well. If Jamal could understand Forrester’ positive intention, he would not hand in his article, which brings tons of trouble to him. In the last one, the movie drops several hints showing Jamal miss the two free throws in the basketball championship game on purpose. One of the most significant hints is the time out before shooting, Jamal’s coach tells him about using the victory to exchange the withdrawal of his charge, but Jamal keeps silent for it. When he prepares for shooting the throw, he stares to Claire and Professor Crawford meaningfully for a while.

In summary, Finding Forester is a really good movie and that is the reason why people have great interest in discussing these six controversial questions.

Blog 10

•   Jamal definitely plagiarized when he copied words from Forrester’s early work. Without proper citation, the final result of copying can only be accused plagiarism.
•   For me, I will not defend for Marita either Jamal. Although Jamal was not a professional writer that time, he should know copying is not an acceptable choice for academic writing; however, Mrita’s assignment was a scientific essay and it is her first time to write about scientific issue. She get her source from library but she copied it to support her essay. They both plagiarized and should receive punishment.
•   If Forrester gave his consent to Jamal, Jamal should not be accused plagiarism because he had permission from original author. Therefore, I chose “yes” to this question.
•   Forth question examines whether a writer’s ability will be affected by plagiarism or not. 7/10 of students thought Jamal’s ability will not be affected by plagiarism. In the movie, Jamal‘s work showed great talent of writing, he submitted plagiarized essay because of Crawford’s distrust; however, Jamal proved his ability in the end of the film with another remarkable essay. Therefore, most of students make their choice.
•   Fifth focus on the Jamal’s understanding of Forrester’s request. 72% of students doubt Jamal’s understanding and chose “no”. Jamal broke the promise and submitted his writing to professor. He just want to show off his ability. Without Forrester’s help, he will definitely receive punishment.
•   Final question is to find out if two free shots was intentionally missed. About twice as many students thought Jamal missed these two shots because of some reasons. Before he threw, he glanced at Claire and his professor Crawford. If Jamal helped school win the game, he will not be accused plagiarism because of his basketball skill; however, Jamal wanted to prove his writing ability but not save himself with two shots. He missed two shots and hoped Forrester would come.

Plagiarism and Finding Forrester

   There are six questions asking the relationship between main character Jamal in the movie Finding Forrester and plagiarism. Although, there are all thoughtful  questions for the plagiarism, I want to discuss two of the interesting questions in this blog. First of all, the question whether the Jamal's plagiarism influence the decision that Jamal is a very good writer. In terms of myself, the answer is no, because plagiarism is just a part of the Jamal's academic career. Specifically speaking, in the movie, Jamal hand in his final paper with some paragraphs copying from the Forrester's works in the situation Jamal do not know Forrester's work has been published in the New York Times before. Furthermore, a good writer is defined as a author who have an unique view towards the society or can expertly use his own words to encourage people. Due to this point, Jamal absolutely is a good writer because Jamal has his own unique opinion towards some of the societies' issues and use expertly words to show his opinion.

   Secondly, other question is that in the basketball championship game, whether the Jamal is intentionally miss the two shoots or not. In my opinion, Jamal miss the two shoots on purpose. Specifically speaking, before this game begin, Jamal acquire a punishment that can no longer stay in the school. This punishment may give Jamal a thought that the winning of the game is not his matter, so he can treat this two shoots unceremoniously. Moreover, before Jamal throw his ball, he has a eye contact with his professor who gives the punishment for Jamal and his best friend Clare.

  Finally, although there are several aspect talking about the plagiarism, this is not a good movie to discuss the plagiarism. The reason why this is not a appropriate movie is its main thesis is the changes in Forrester and Jamal instead of plagiarism.

Blog 10

In the movie Finding Forrester, there is a main character Jamal who is involved in plagiarism issue in his school.  Plagiarism is lying with the original writers of ideas or sentences; therefore, discussing on plagiarism should be done when someone submitted the papers that include other’s writing.  Simply copying others’ writing by oneself is not plagiarism; however, when they submit others’ writing as their own paper, it should be a problem.  I would defend Jamal against charges of plagiarism because he did not fully understand plagiarism rules.  He was involved in plagiarism in his school; however, it can be legal if Forrester give permission to Jamal.  One of the reasons that plagiarism rules are existed is to protect originators and respect their efforts.  Therefore, if Jamal received Forrester’s permission, he can liberally use the writings.  The fact that Jamal was once involved in plagiarism should be a matter to the decision that Jamal was a good writer.  In my opinion, a writer should have great skills and ability to write wonderful book; however, a writer also should keep the writing rules and should not use other writers’ work in a wrong way.  To be a good writer, he should respect others’ work as their own and use them with care.  In the movie, Jamal took a paper that he wrote out of apartment even though Forrester told him not to bring anything out of the apartment.  I do not think Jamal understand the intention of Forrester because he finally took the paper from the apartment to his school.  Jamal did not consider that his paper contains a part of Forrester’s writing and it makes him get into trouble.  The final scene of the movie showed that Jamal miss two free throws in a row in the basketball game.  I think Jamal missed them on purpose because he watched Claire and his professor before he shot. It seemed like he wanted to tell them something with his eyes.  In this sense, he missed two free throws intentionally.  

Blog 10

       There are some survey questions about the film, Finding Forrester and one of the question is related to the plagiarism. Jamal got involve in plagiarism because his poor high school education background. It seems that Jamal keep the secret to protect Forrester that he will nit let other's know about the Forrester. According to the data in survey. Almost 3/4 students believe that it is no matter that plagiarism affect Jamal as a good write. In my opinion, Jamal is a good writer even he didn't know the academic writing code.
      For the question 5, most of students think that Jamal is failed to understand why Forrester told him not to submit anything he wrote with Forrester.  Jamal turn in his writing passage without Forrester's permission. It seems that Forrester don't want to let other's get his information. In my view, Jamal didn't know Forrester's purpose.
    At the question 6, there is also near 3/4 of students chose No for Jamal intentionally miss the two free throw in the championship game. I think he is intentionally miss the free throw not only the film shows the detail that he look at the Crawford but also he is in talent in shot free throws with competition with other boy of the basketball team. 

Blog 10 Answer to survey questions

Jamal is not considered as a very good writer since he consequently is plagiarized on his paper, even though he commits plagiarism unknowingly in the film. It seems that Jamal is surely affected by his background from previous high school. The school in Bronx which is located poor area has a distracted atmosphere in the class so that I could imagine that they would not have strict rule as for academic conduct and plagiarism as well. Beyond his background, to be a very good writer, Jamal should be well-informed of understanding of plagiarism. As can be seen in column4, most students which are occupied by 70 percentages do not think he is a very good writer.

Jamal submits his paper worked with Forrester and there is a fight between Jamal and Forrester on this problem. It seems that Forrester does not want to be revealed his life and exposed to the others, however, Jamal hands in his writing without concerning the promise that Forrester asks Jamal not to hand in his writing paper to composition class. Therefore, I contend that he did not understand the intention of Forrester. According to the column5, only one-third of students responded that Jamal understand what Forrester asks and the rests said he did not understand.

I think Jamal intentionally missed the chance to win by not making two free balls successfully. It was an opportunity to escape from plagiarism with two free balls which lead the win for the team; however, he did not make it. In the film, he glances at Professor Crawford before shooting. Jamal is good at shooting so that no one think that he would miss, however, I could guess that he looks angry at the situation people focus on basketball competition, not his paper. About this question, almost three quarters of students replied it was on intention.

Blog 10

  Finding Forrester is a good movie written by Mike Rich and directed by Gus Van Sant. Jamal Wallace, played by Rob Brown, an African-American teenager who has talent in playing basketball and writing. William Forrester portrayed by Sean Connery is an eccentric recluse who did not like to get out of his apartment. In addition, there are some plots about plagiarism in the end of the movie. Because Jamal's paper not only did not write any citation but also not have Forrester's permission, so the professor Crawford found him cheating. I support with Professor Crawford, because he found evidence to prove Jamal had plagiarism, and his paper definitely different from his paper before he coming to this private school. For question 4, there are 70% students choose "No", it concludes that it does not matter to the decision about plagiarism that Jamal as a very good writer. Because Jamal was unintentionally to have the plagiarism, he wrote the paper in Forrester's apartment and he got Forrester's permission, but he promised Forrester not to tell others their relationship, so it caused plagiarism. Moreover, there are 72% students support with that Jamal did not understand why Forrester told him not to submit anything he wrote with Forrester. In my opinion, Jamal has a happy family and he did not experience the feeling of losing family so he could not know Forrester's guilty and sadness. And Forrester used his previous training method to train Jamal, maybe there are a lot of similarities in their paper. There are 72% students support with Jamal intentionally miss the two free throws in the championship game. At that time, he's mood was affected by professor Crawford and he had complex feelings. The most important point, he could not focus on his game. Therefore, he missed points and lost the game.

Blog 10 Answer to Survey Questions

The survey shows that about two thirds of students view the writing skill does not matter to the decision about plagiarism. This suggests that the background of an author is not proportional to his/her personality and code of academic conduct. In this movie, Jamal is a talented writer who can impress the Pulitzer-Price winner- Forrester, but he did rewrite one paragraph of Forrester's work without giving any credit to Forrester. It means Jamal did not follow academic code and Crawford’s charge is reasonable. Therefore, there is no direct relation between one’s writing skill and one’s academic conduct. Moreover, almost three fourths of students in this survey responded that Jamal doesnt understand why Forrester told him not to submit anything he wrote with Forrester. I agree with the majority people because Jamal submitted his article which was finished in Forrester's apartment, meanwhile, Forrester is a reclusive author who keeps himself away from the outside world because of his past. Consequently, Jamal did not understand Forrester's thought and kept his promise to Forrester. In addition, in my view, Jamal intentionally miss the last two free throws because after he missed the first free throw, he looked around, making eye contacts with Crawford and Clarie, then he did the same throw gesture as the first failed one. If he did mistakenly miss the first ball, he would adjust his gesture to make the second happen, but he did not. More than twice as many students in the survey hold the same opinion as mine.

Blog 10 Answer to Survey Questions

In my view, Jamal definitely plagiarizes when he rewrites William Forrester’s article to participate the Writing competition. The reason is Jamal cites William’s article without permission and reference list. Jamal’s professor, Crawford indicates Jamal is plagiarizing. But I think Forrester should support Jamal because Jamal has kept secret for William. The fourth question describes whether Jamal is a good writer even he plagiarized. However, I think he is a good writer even he is charged of plagiarism. He does not plagiarize intentionally because he has promised that he will not tell anyone about William Forrester. From the data in survey, totally 70% people choose “No”, so it should not matter the plagiarism that Jamal is a good writer. The fifth question discusses whether Jamal understand why William tell Jamal not to bring anything out of the apartment. More than 70% people think Jamal actually does not understand Forrester because Jamal still uses Forrester’s writing to participate in the writing competition. This is same to my opinion that Jamal chooses to rewrote Forrester’s article can directly illustrate that he misunderstands William. The last question presents about how to determine Jamal misses the two vital free throws in the championship game is whether intentional or not. My intuition tells me Jamal is the one who may not miss the easy free throw shots twice. Also, from the movie, Jamal’s glance at Claire and Crawford suggests me to believe to thought is right. Almost 70% informant think Jamal lead the miss intentionally which is same with me.

Blog 10 Answer to the survey questions

In my opinion, Jamal plagiarized when he copied a paragraph from Forrester’s article. Jamal didn’t get the permission from Forrester and he didn’t write a reference list or in text citation. In this film, he just prints it and turns it in. I defend Professor Crawford, because he can points out Jamal’s mistake impartially. Initially, he only thinks Jamal has some talent on his writing. Then he finds out Jamal’s writing is unusually pretty good, therefore he doesn’t think it is normal. Finally, he argues that Jamal has copied an article, which is Forrester’s previous published work. It should matter to decision that Forrester gave his consent to Jamal, because on the basis of definition of plagiarism if Jamal got permission from Forrester, then he won’t commit plagiarism. Furthermore, it shouldn’t matter to the decision that Jamal was a very good writer. For this question, 70% students agree with me. Whoever you are, if you copy somebody’s work as your own, it is a plagiarism. For question 5, less than 1/3 students think Jamal understand why Forrester told him not to submit anything he wrote with Forrester.  However, I think Jamal didn’t understand why Forrester told him not to take anything he wrote out of the apartment. If he understood Forrester’s purpose, he won’t turn it in. Moreover, there are 70% of students agree with me that Jamal intentionally missed the two free throws in the championship game. When he threw the last ball, he looked at Professor Crawford and Claire. It’s very interesting.

blog 10

The movie Finding Forrester, written by Mike Rich and directed by Gus Van Sant, has some plots about plagiarism. For instance, Jamal copied a paragraph from Forrester’s published article without quoting, which is plagiarism. In terms of plagiarism, his professor-Crawford is correct. Jamal should get Forrester’s permission to take the resources out of the apartment. If Jamal gets consent, he will be able to use the article properly, not getting involved in plagiarism. For question 4, about 33 students support that it does not matter whether Jamal is a very good writer. Students may be affected by the level of high school or the habit of their writing. However, plagiarism is an important issue that does not depend on your background. Furthermore, almost 3 quarters of students respond that Jamal does not understand Forrester well. I consider that there are two reasons about why Forrester did not allow Jamal to take anything out of the house, while Jamal did not understand them exactly. Firstly, Jamal will get involved in plagiarism if he uses the published articles written by Forrester. Most importantly, Forrester immersed in the shadow of his family’s death, not willing to stand in front of the public. Nevertheless, from the survey data, it demonstrates that more than twice as many students thought that Jamal deliberately missed the two free throws in the championship game, making Forrester feeling so guilty that he needed to appear in public to prove Jamal’s talent. I think Jamal missed the two free throws on purpose due to some details. Before the game, Jamal exercised hardly, having never missed the throw until the game. Moreover, when he shoots, he glanced at Claire and Crawford, which is a subtle plot. Thus, I think Jamal missed them intentionally. 

Blog 10 Answer to Survey Questions

In this blog, reflect on the questions concerning the film Finding Forrester and why you think a certain answer is the best answer. Provide explanation for each one. Answer each of the 6 questions with a clear explanation and examples. Write a couple of paragraphs total (250-300 words)

Blog 9 Plagiarism Tutorial

The goal of the Online Tutorial is that helping students understand plagiarism deeply. It sets ten questions which are different situations that students probably face during college life; among these questions, there are diverse options and detailed explanation for each option.

In the question 4, it asks that what you should do when you can not find the copy of the original article, being citing in another article. When I read this question, I firmly believe that citing out the reference in other’s article is enough and is the best way for it. Nevertheless, the website interprets that although it may not be considered as plagiarism, but it is possible that the citing reference is not reported and invalid. This question reminded me “the safest way” is not safe as I thought. Every time my instructor emphasizes the seriousness of plagiarism, I thought not stealing other’s work without citation is the safest way. However, plagiarism exists near us all the time and we should be alert to plagiarism.

In the question 8, it asks that whether a student pasting resource from the internet should be considered as plagiarism. The first answer came out from myself is that I should paraphrase the resource and cite the reference. We practiced paraphrasing a lot and learned plenty of methods about citation. It is easily to forget that quotation is another good way to avoid plagiarism. Undeniably, it is the easiest way to avoid plagiarizing. Meanwhile, quotation maintains the original words which may easier for readers’ understandings.

In summary, the Online Tutorial uses specific examples to explain plagiarism and offers the proper options for students. I had a new understanding of plagiarism and learned new knowledge after reading these questions, like “personal communication” is one kind of citation. It is good website for helping students avoid plagiarism.

--Yalin Chen

Plagiarism Tutorial

On the Online tutorial webpage, there are tutorial questions which are focused on examples which most students would be embarrassed and confused when they face with complicated situation related to plagiarism. This webpage help students formulate a concept of plagiarism with examples.

On the question number 4, this question is about the plagiarism which could be caused naturally in daily life. We share our opinion and thought by making a conversation with peers. It does not matter whether the topic is serious or not. There are not actually specific rule for this. I think that I cannot cite all the opinions because it is really hard to remember where the opinion from in the big discussion group. Also, unwritten opinion cannot be considered as a plagiarism. However, since there are some people regard it as a plagiarism case by case, it is needed to cite them as “personal communication”. Moreover, it is important to reveal that it is from discussion group and let lecturer know about it before handing the paper.

On the question number 8, this question looks simple to answer the question. It is based on what the plagiarism is and it is the most embarrassed one I was confused about it before I grasped an idea of plagiarism. When I do the paper in South Korea, I was not aware of copying and pasting and this was the one I was used to do in my assignment. Since teacher did not mention about why and how to cite the original source, I did not feel and learn the importance of citing. However, the class in the OSU changed my conception about original source I use. Now, I know I should put the reference list in my paper.

This tutorial was helpful to have a concept of plagiarism more clearly with situation and practices. Furthermore, detailed explanation about the answer made me understand about plagiarism.

Blog 9 Plagiarism Tutorial

          There are 10 online tutorial questions on the esl.osu.edu/staff/bloch/plagiarism which is related to the many aspects of academic writing. Actually it is true that sometimes you are in the similar situation with the 10 question, you must take responsibility and make your decision is not get involve with plagiarism. All of there questions help me a lot distinguish whether  I am plagiarized when I use online resource, get an idea from a group discussion or paraphrasing a sentence. 

           The most interesting question from question 3 to 6 is the No.6,  the question is that belongs to plagiarism that your professor use something you had written for a course? At the first I read this question, I think that was not a big deal. But when I check the answer I was surprised of the answer is " Everything you write down, even to turn in for a class, belongs to you, and therefore, copying a paper written for class is the same as copying a paper that is published." That answer was shock me a lot.  I think the most important of that case is to show the fair in the education and respect to the intellectual properties. No matter who you are, even you are my professor, you must follow the rule and make it fair.  Related to my writing class, I notice that Eric asked as for the permission of the digital story and some articles which introduce the format of summary or essay are both cite the students' name.  All of the facts teach me the importance of the intellectual property.

          In the question7 to 10. I notice that No.8 also related to the intellectual property.  The question is that if you caste and paste from the internet will it be consider plagiarism. It is obvious that student can not get something for nothing, it is totally unfair for other students and steal the original intellectual property.  I remember once in the class we have discussed the definition of the plagiarism. Plagiarism is taking someone's work as your own. You don't need to think about or doing research even you just do nothing, copy and paste. The citation make it fair for the student's hard working and protect his/her intellectual property.

          All in all, this is a useful online tutorial for me. It not only teach me how to do in some situation to avoid plagiarism but also let me know the essentially of the writing rule is to make student writing  fairly and respect student's intellectual property. For me, I will keep it in my mind for my future  academic writing    

plagiarism tutorial

   From the website esl.osu.edu/staff/bloch/plagiarism, there are 10 confusing questions. The online tutorial describes 10 different situations about plagiarism happened in our academic life. From the question 3~6, I felt confused about the question 4 in the beginning, which is challenging to me. There are always a lot of discussion group in the campus, group work is good for our study. In the discussion group, we were asked to discuss our paper before we starting writing it. Then, each member will provide their own useful ideas for group work. The question arises from that should we cite their ideas in our paper as we cite a quotation from a paper?

  In my opinion, I selected Yes. Although the team work cares team effectiveness by sharing ideas, the most important point is intellectual property that we need to write down them in the paper. Moreover, if we do not cite them, it will cause the plagiarism. Because it has another problem" personal communication". In order to avoid plagiarism, it is important to cite the ideas from group members. It is an interesting question, because plagiarism is not clear in the group work. Therefore, it is challenging to me, but do the citation will be safety. Finally, the online tutorial taught me a lot of situations should be focused on and we need to pay attention to them.

 

plagiarism tutorial

In the plagiarism tutorial, there are 10 questions about several issues on the plagiarism. However, there is one question that I have interesting, which is the question 8. Specifically speaking, question 8 is about if your teacher ask you to post something on a class list online, as well as you find an essay and want to copy and paste to your posting. Furthermore, the question is ask you weather this is plagiarism or not. So, my answer for this question is yes, because when you use someone's article, you must use this person's idea. So, if you use his article without any citation, it means you stealing other people's properties. In this question, I think it is not quite formal academic situation, so some of the people would think that copy and paste other people's idea is not a plagiarism in this informal situation. Finally , these people would commit copying and pasting others' work. In contrast, the behavior copying and pasting others' work defined as the plagiarism in every single area not just only in academic area. After understanding this question clearly, I know that people should think more carefully about what they use in their own article. Finally, I know that every area that need writing paper should focus on the plagiarism issues.

Blog 9 Plagiarism Tutorial - Yuhang Yi

The Online Tutorial presents 10 typical plagiarism cases. For each case, the websites provides several options and the best solution.

On question 6, it discusses an opposite plagiarism situation in which you doubt your professor has used your work on his class without your permission. This is definitely considered to be a plagiarism, which is the right answer. It is an interesting case because students don’t involve in plagiarism like usual; instead professor commits it. The solution explains that every paper you have written done belongs to you no matter it is an in-class or published work. This helps me understand my possession of my work and my protection of my work. It ensures me that I have the right to accuse my professor for plagiarism even thought it is very sensitive.

The last 4 questions are more complicated. There is a clear issue on question 8 which introduces a resource using from Internet. It states that you directly post a cut and pasted online article for your assignment. The lack of reference list absolutely leads it to be a plagiarism. The explanation of this question notes that Internet always “sending ideas and articles quickly to interested people”. Therefore, this issue again warns me to be aware of online resource using and always remember to paraphrase, to cite and quote correctly.

In general, those ten questions refresh my mind of plagiarism and those vivid examples help me to understand much easier.

Blog 9 Plagiarism Tutorial

The website esl.osu.edu/staff/bloch/plagiarism is a online tutorial source for plagiarism topic. There are ten question in this plagiarism tutorial and these question teach us how to do the right thing when we facing the same situation.

From question 3-6, I would like to talk about question 6. Question 6 asked if something you wrote was taken by your professor will it called plagiarism. The answer is definitely yes. Because whatever you wrote belongs to you and it's same when you already published it. I prefer to talk about this question because i was asked to write the permission sheet for my digital story. I never thought what we student wrote can be so important and if someone uses it they will be called plagiarists. It's true i heard how serious plagiarism can be but i didn't realize they really treat plagiarism so serious. In China there is always something in my mind that whatever professors do cannot be challenged.

From question 7-10, I prefer to discuss question 8. Question 8 asked whether it could be plagiarism if you just cut and paste from Internet. It's a typical situation which may face by all students. Unless you use quotation marks or make a reference list, otherwise you may be involved in plagiarism.

This tutorial helps me understand more rules of plagiarism and taught me how to choose the best way to avoid plagiarism. 

Blog 9 Plagiarism Tutorial

 The tutorial contains ten confusing situations which we may encounter in our academic life. It tries to give you a concept of plagiarism with choice and explanation. The options may come from true case and also we should pay attention to. For example, the fifth question described a situation you forget the origin of source which used in your paper and provide three solutions. This question is about scientific paper and it is similar to the physics course I currently enroll in. For me, I selected A at first; however, the explanation argues that in the scientific paper, citation should contain the origin author and the title, otherwise, we will in trouble. Actually, internet technology grows so rapidly these years, it should be pretty easy to find the source; therefore, I may give up that source without identity. Moreover, getting a new source is also the highly recommended option provide by the tutorial.

  Question from 7~10 seems to be more complex, such as the tenth question which shows us two paragraphs and asks us whether the second one plagiarized or not. I read these words carefully and found the second paragraph is pretty good with great paraphrasing; therefore I click “no” and shocked when I saw the explanation. The second paragraph still plagiarized because of not showing the author of the source. It is an obvious mistake to cite without acknowledging original author; however, this little detail is so easy to be ignored. I never thought that authors’ names were paid so much attention. I will definitely put author’s name in my citation in the later essays.

Blog 9 Plagiarism Tutorial

From question 3 to question 6, it argues that what should do, if I can’t find the citing resource’s original. For question 3, I choose “You can use the reference as long as you cite it and do not copy the words of the article where you found it,” and I choose “ Give up on the idea and go on to something else.”  In my opinion, I won’t commit plagiarism by these strategies. When I write an essay, I will search many materials, and sometimes some of them don’t have very obvious original. This situation is entirely common. Sometimes I have to give up this material without original, because it might lead me to commit plagiarism.  This is also a challenge for me. If the material is very matching my essay’s theme, I can’t give up, and then I have to spend much time on searching the original. From this online tutorial I learned what ever I am even though professor, I can’t use other’s work without citation.

From question 7 to question 10, these questions points out the copying and paraphrasing similar with the original are plagiarism. For question 8, it asks “You were assigned to post something to a class list online. You find an interesting article on the Internet and cut and paste it in your posting. Is this considered plagiarism?” My answer is yes. I can easily points out this phenomenon is plagiarism, but some times I can’t. For example, if the author has paraphrase the original work, but he didn’t cite the specific words and the paraphrasing is very similar with the original. It’s also committing plagiarism. The ambiguous boundary of plagiarism is the challenge for me. Form this online tutorial I learned how to distinguish the appropriate paraphrasing and plagiarism. Sometimes I have paraphrase the source with my own words, but it still includes some specific words such as “amnesia” without quotation marks. It’s also a plagiarism. 

Blog 9 Plagiarism Tutorial

  The interesting questions in the website esl.osu.edu/staff/bloch/plagiarism are question 4 and question 7. The question 4 asks whether we have to cite others’ ideas which obtained in peer discussion group in our paper or not. This situation is very common in our daily university life because the form of peer discussion group is popular in classes. When I encounter this problem, I would like to cite other’s ideas because I should give credit to someone whose ideas inspire me for my writing. The website advises us to use the citation form “personal communication” to avoid possible plagiarism.

  In addition, the question 7 shows a statement and asks which following passage does not plagiarize the original statement. Summarizing is a necessary skill for our academic writing. As the website hints, one way which avoids plagiarism in summarizing is “abstracting main idea”. This idea is very helpful for me because we can focus on different points from others’ summaries to avoid plagiarism.

  This website lists many confused situations we may face in our future life, and it provides some suggestions and explanations for us to properly handle these questions about plagiarism.

Blog 9 Plagiarism Tutorial

The Online Tutorial at esl.osu.edu/staff/bloch/plagiarism is a program with ten questions, answers and explanations about the Plagiarism. It describes several situations where plagiarism could happen and how to determine the plagiarism. The first question I want to describe is question 6 that judge whether professor plagiarized my writing in the class if he/ she uses. In my opinion, this should be considered as plagiarism because of no permission from the author. This calls up that my professor Eric gives me a contract sheet about whether he can use my digital story video in future. I think this is closed to the situation from question #6. But in China, I think teacher seldom ask student about this, for example, Chinese teacher would use the excellent student’s writing to teach in future or after the student graduate without permit. So in future, even some I gain someone’s work such as an article or a movie, I need ask for a permission to use. The plagiarism is clearer that permission from the original is vital.

Moreover, the question #8 discusses a situation that can happen online easily. When I cut and paste some article from the Internet, I should give a reference list; otherwise, it is plagiarism. Actually “reference list” is fresh to me even I know it. First of all, I never use reference list before I come to the United States. It is a very significant part of an article. People always cite, quote and use some other’s idea in their writing, so a reference list is indispensable. However, in teacher never told me about using reference list, paraphrasing and quoting. The rule in the United States changes me so I would pay more attention on how to avoid plagiarism. Question #8 alerts me people should not only avoid plagiarism but also avoid be plagiarized.

To sum up, these questions teach me about plagiarism again so it engraves on my mind. I understand that I may plagiarize before I came to this new country and the importance of protecting intellectual property.