EAP Avoiding Plagiarism 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A researcher publishes findings from a study conducted five years earlier without disclosing the original publication. This is an example of:
- Incremental publication
- Self-plagiarism (Correct answer)
- Fabrication
- Collusion
Correct answer: Self-plagiarism
Reusing previously published work without disclosure is self-plagiarism, even when the author is the same person.
Question 2: Which of the following is the best definition of 'common knowledge' in academic writing?
- Information that is well-known only within a specific discipline
- Facts widely known by the general public that do not require a source (Correct answer)
- Any fact found in more than one textbook
- Data shared by a professor in class
Correct answer: Facts widely known by the general public that do not require a source
Common knowledge refers to facts so widely known (e.g., the Earth orbits the Sun) that no citation is needed.
Question 3: When using a block quotation in APA style, what is the standard formatting requirement?
- Put the text in italics with no indentation
- Indent the entire quotation 0.5 inches from the left margin with no quotation marks (Correct answer)
- Place the text in double quotation marks within the regular paragraph
- Use single quotation marks and center the text
Correct answer: Indent the entire quotation 0.5 inches from the left margin with no quotation marks
APA requires block quotations (40+ words) to be indented 0.5 inches from the left margin without quotation marks.
Question 4: A student finds a perfect quotation in a book review, but the original source is a different book. She cites only the book review. What error has she made?
- Over-citation
- Fabrication of a source
- Failing to cite a secondary source correctly (Correct answer)
- Using an unreliable source
Correct answer: Failing to cite a secondary source correctly
When you cite a source you found within another source, you must acknowledge the secondary source properly (e.g., 'as cited in') rather than citing the original work you have not read.
Question 5: Which of the following paraphrasing strategies is considered poor academic practice?
- Reading the source, closing it, and writing the idea in your own words
- Using synonyms for nearly every word while keeping the original sentence structure (Correct answer)
- Integrating the idea into your own argument with a citation
- Condensing a long passage into a shorter summary with attribution
Correct answer: Using synonyms for nearly every word while keeping the original sentence structure
Replacing only individual words without changing the sentence structure is mosaic plagiarism, not true paraphrasing.
Question 6: Why is it important to cite sources even when the information is not a direct quote?
- To make the paper appear more scholarly
- To give credit to the original author and allow readers to verify the information (Correct answer)
- Because all information must have at least two citations
- To avoid using too many of your own ideas
Correct answer: To give credit to the original author and allow readers to verify the information
Citations credit original authors and enable readers to locate and verify the source material, regardless of whether it is quoted or paraphrased.
Question 7: Which tool can help a student verify whether their paper contains unintentional plagiarism before submission?
- A grammar checker like Grammarly
- A plagiarism detection tool like Turnitin (Correct answer)
- A reference manager like Zotero
- A citation format guide like Purdue OWL
Correct answer: A plagiarism detection tool like Turnitin
Plagiarism detection software like Turnitin compares submitted text against a large database of sources to flag potentially unattributed content.
EAP Avoiding Plagiarism 3
A researcher publishes findings from a study conducted five years earlier without disclosing the original publication.
This is an example of: