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Plagiarism and Citations

Students today are overwhelmed with plagiarism information. Research shows that students usually deliberately commit plagiarism, rather than acting from ignorance or misunderstanding. 

This is a traditional PowerPoint lecture with two sections. Plagiarism and MLA Citations. 

Contents

Explanations of the different kinds of plagiarism 
NPR Listen to plagiarism audio
Choose the plagiarized passage activity

The origins and needs of citations
Build a citation activity

Audience: EFL Students

Have students construct their own citation from a book in the library.

I use this in my EFL classes to mixed results. However, EFL and core students are now hearing about plagiarism all day long every day, so there's less of a need for this kind of presentation. Deliver only if asked.- Christy

Bibliographic Barbecue Activity

 Amount of Time: 60 minutes
Supplies Needed: short Powerpoint presentation, instructor station/projector (with sound enabled), worksheet

Citation:  Sittler, R.L., & Cook, D. (Eds.).  (2009).  The library instruction cookbook (pp. 62-63).  Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. 

Description: The goal of this activity is to teach students how to create accurate bibliographic citations.  Play Ludacris song "Stand Up" (or other plagiarized work) as students enter classroom.  Explain to students that Ludacris and Kanye West were sued for stealing the lyrics to the song.  Share definition of plagiarism and present a mini-lecture explaining that the easiest way to prevent plagiarism is to cite resources correctly. 

Have students (in groups) find examples of plagiarism online or on Youtube. 

Have students complete a worksheet on which they must compose citations for examples in appropriate style (instructor's choice).