JUDGING NOTES FOR PLAGIARISM (APA Style)

These exercises were adapted from Lester. D. (1996, 1999). Writing research papers: Instructor’s manual

(8th and 9th eds.). New York: Longman.

Directions: For the first two exercises below, read the excerpt from the original source. Determine whether the following notes are good or poor in their paraphrasing of the original quotation. Then, if you have marked the citation as poor or plagiarism, briefly explain your response.

Exercise I

Original Source:

“His [Billy’s] impediment in speech is a symbol of his irreducible imperfection as a man; it is not a symbol of total depravity. . . .”

-From Newton Arvin, Herman Melville: A Critical Biography (New York: Viking, 1957) p. 297.

1. Arvin (1957) called Billy’s habit of stuttering a symbol of mankind’s total depravity.

Good PoorExplain:

2. Arvin saw Billy’s stuttering as a symbol of everybody’s sinful nature because we all sin every now and then and come up short of what Jesus Christ expects of us.

GoodPoorExplain:

3. Arvin (1957) believed that Billy’s habit of stuttering showed that he had a human flaw, and it was not representative of his sinful nature.

GoodPoorExplain:

Exercise II

Original Source:

“In 1969, impatience with the rigors of the Cold War was pervasive in the West. All leaders were under pressure to demonstrate their commitment to peace; the Soviet Union played on these sensitivities cleverly.”

-From Henry Kissinger, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979) p. 403.

1.Kissinger (1979) said that leaders "were under pressure" to show that they wanted peace in the midst of the Cold War in 1969. The Soviet Union "played upon these sensitivities" (p.403).

AcceptablePlagiarismExplain:

2.Kissinger commented on the cleverness of the Soviet leaders who, in 1969, played on the sensitivities of world leaders who were under pressure to make commitments to peace.

AcceptablePlagiarismExplain:

3.Commenting on the West’s “impatience with the rigors of the Cold War,” Henry Kissinger (1979) argued that the Soviet Union was able to skillfully manipulate the “sensitivities” of world leaders who were “under pressure to demonstrate their commitment to peace” (p. 403).

AcceptablePlagiarismExplain: