Plagiarism and the www

It is very easy to find and copy material on the www. However, it is also very easy for me to go to Google.com and type in a phrase from student work. In two recent cases I found a clear source for the student work within a couple of minutes of searching.

• Research is fine, but you MUST cite the sources of all information you find no later than the end of the paragraph in which you use it. If you use direct quotes of material, you MUST use “quotation” marks plus citation of source to indicate that you did not write the material. If you put the material into your own words, you still MUST cite the source. If you submit work that uses sources without citing them, and if I find the sources, I will not grade your work and you may not redo it.
• Teachers become very familiar with the styles of student writers, and when a student submits work that does not fit the student's general style, a bell goes off in the teacher’s head, prompting the teacher to suspect plagiarism and look for unattributed sources.