Activity 1-1: Identifying types of plagiarism
Please work in groups and summarize the kinds of plagiarism by going over the above exercise.
Activity 1-2: The Importance of acknowledging sources
By citing the work of a particular scholar, you acknowledge and respect the intellectual property rights of that researcher. As a student, or an academic, you are free to use any of the millions of ideas, insights and arguments published by other writers, many of whom have spent years of hard work researching and writing. All they ask is that you acknowledge their contribution to your assignment. This doesn’t seem like too much, does it?
The custom of citing references—that is, providing a record of the sources you have used for your research—is a form of professional honesty and courtesy that is based on a regard for the responsibilities that writers have to readers and to other writers to indicate when they have used someone else’s ideas or words.
Citing work also allows you to show your marker that you are aware of the field in which you are operating. Your citations map the space of your discipline, and allow you to navigate your way through your chosen field of study, in the same way that sailors steer by the stars.
Citations also make your writing more persuasive. Citing sources strengthens the authority of your work, by demonstrating that you have considered others’ opinions and ideas in forming your own. In addition, it gives the reader valuable information, indicating where he or she may go to get further information on that subject; for many researchers, the list of cited references at the end of a relevant article or book is the single most valuable item they can come across in their research.
Look at the two paragraphs below: which one seems more authoritative and why?
Paragraph One
The importance, or otherwise, of lyrics in popular music, and academic approaches to song lyrics, is subject to much debate. The supposed “poor”standard or presumed meaninglessness of popular music lyrics, become a means to critique popular music. Conversely, it could be argued that too much attention is given to a song’s lyrics, to the point where the music itself is overlooked; it is also possible to overestimate the degree to which the music listener actually listens to the words, or perceives them to be the site of meaning in a song. Nonetheless, Simon Frith suggests that lyrics do allow songs to be “used in particular ways”: lyrics facilitate certain“creative articulations”. In the case of protest music, the lyrics allow a song to be made to speak to political issues.