Plagiarism tutorial by Shengyu

Question 4 discusses a situation that occurred in class. We were supposed to discuss essay topics and share advice before writing the paper. Some of the members gave some good ideas, and I decided to use them in my paper. Should I cite the ideas or not?

In our class, I had learned that if you used others’ idea, you needed to cite a quotation for it. However, in my opinion, I do not think this idea needs to be cited, because the purpose of the conversation was to help me to find an idea for my paper. If students are confused about an assignment, they also can meet their professor who can give them some advice. In condition like this, the professor would not argue with the students not citing the professor’s own idea of their. In the same reason, I do not think I should cite the idea in my paper. And after reading the answer on the Internet, I think my point more reasonable. I can tell the teacher that the idea was held by our group instead of by me.

Question 10 has posted an example of plagiarism and asks if you agree or not? In the two passages, both of them are talking about Hemingway’s idea “the values in life that will best serve man”. Furthermore, the second paragraph has paraphrased the first paragraph very well.

In my opinion, I don’t think the second paragraph is plagiarism. Although it used the idea in first paragraph, it not copies it word-for-word. The author of second paragraph has reading the first paragraph, understanding it and adding his own opinion in it. So it is only a paraphrasing of first one not plagiarizing.

All of questions in the tutorial are controversial. However, after reading the answer of these problems, it provides a better solution for me. As the problem 5, if I met it in the past, I will not try to cite it. After reading the answer, I have known that citing interpretations is very significant in science, and I will follow it in the future. Plagiarism is very important in school, and people will take it more seriously in the future. And it also concern about our credit in the daily life, so I will pay more attention with it from now.