HELP w/PLAGIARISM.....?

Question

the questions below has to be decided whether or not they are running the risk of plagiarizing. Answer Yes if you would need to document, or if it is not necessary to provide quotation marks or a citation, answer No. If you do need to give the source credit in some way, explain how you would handle it. If not, explain why.

situations:

1.You are writing new insights about your own experiences.

2. You are using an editorial from your school's newspaper with which you disagree.

3. You use some information from a source without ever quoting it directly.

4. You have no other way of expressing the exact meaning of a text without using the original source verbatim.

5. You mention that many people in your discipline belong to a certain organization.

6. You want to begin your paper with a story that one of your classmates told about her experiences in Bosnia.

7. The quote you want to use is too long, so you leave out a couple of phrases.

8. You really like the particular phrase somebody else made up, so you use it.

can sum1 pleeeease answer these questions.....and most important part is HOW YOU WOULD HANDLE IT????????

Answer 1

1. no

2. yes

3. yes

4. yes

5. no

6. maybe

7. yes

8. yes

Answer 2

There are a very few "rules of thumb" about when one must cite a source.  First, when one is expressing one's own opinion no reference is needed or expected or appropriate.  Second, if what you are saying is within the general knowledge, no cite is needed.  (How to determine that if the subject matter is new to you -- if a matter is discussed but not cited in several sources you can assume it is general knowledge.)  If something you say is unique or only from one reference, you need to cite it.  If you are quoting something verbatim, it must be shown as a direct quote (enclosed in quotation marks for short quotes, or offset and indented for long quotes)  and cited whether or not it is general knowledge.  As an example of those rules:

I LIKE MOZART'S OPERAS.  This is your opinion, so do not cite.

DA PONTI WROTE LIBRETTOS FOR MOZART'S OPERAS.  This is in many, many references, and thus general knowledge (even if you didn't know that before you started your research), so no cite is needed.

MOZART WAS DRUNK WHEN HE WROTE HIS FIRST STRING QUARTET.  Maybe he was and maybe he wasn't, but if it is only in one source, you must provide the citation.  Don't add quotation marks if this is in your own words and not a direct quote from the source.

"MOZART WAS KNOWN TO GIVE FLUTE AND HARPSICHORD LESSONS TO MAKE MONEY, BUT ALSO DISMISSED STUDENTS WHEN HE WAS SUDDENLY INSPIRED TO WRITE A NEW PORTION OF MUSIC FOR AN ONGOING WORK, SHOWING THE STUDENTS TO THE DOOR AND PUSHING THEM OUT OF HIS HOUSE."  This is a direct quote and must be shown as such and cited.  

As to form and placement of direct quotes, those which are fairly short are simply kept in the paragraph, and quotation marks are required.  Long quotes should be set off by having a blank line before and a blank line after, and should be indented on both sides, and quotation marks are not used since the indentation serves as the signal that it is a direct quote.  If there is information in the direct quote that is distracting or not needed, you need to insert dots to show that something was omitted.  Use 3 dots it you are leaving out a part of a sentence, and 4 dots if you are leaving out information in more than one sentence.  For example, use . . .  for omissions inside a single sentence, and use . . . .  for omissions in more than one sentence. In the above example about Mozart throwing students out of his house, I believe the part quoted should stay in the paragraph, have quotation marks, and be cited.  If, however, there is more in your reference that might make your paper more interesting, such as MOZART TOSSED ONE FLUTE STUDENT INTO THE SNOW, WHERE HE FELL AND BROKE HIS LEG, AND HIS FLUTE WAS DESTROYED.  OTHER STUDENTS WERE SO ANGRY THAT THEY NEVER RETURNED , that would make the quotation rather long, so you would use the blank line before, blank line after, indent on both sides, and no quotation marks.

There are several style books available, and they are all slightly different, so be sure to use the one your teacher or professor requires or suggests.  One thing you REALLY want to know -- always ask when a paper is assigned! -- is whether footnotes are required on the pages of text, or whether you can put all notes in a single page entitled NOTES at the end of your paper after the last page of text and before the bibliography!  Professors can be very picky about that.  However, nothing makes them angrier and results in an automatic F quicker than plagiarism, so be very careful about that.  

Good luck!