EAP Avoiding Plagiarism 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A professor discovers that two students submitted identical papers. Which academic integrity violation does this best represent?
- Self-plagiarism
- Fabrication
- Collusion (Correct answer)
- Incremental publication
Correct answer: Collusion
Collusion occurs when two or more students work together on an individual assignment without authorization and submit the same or substantially similar work.
Question 2: Which of the following is the strongest signal phrase to introduce a quotation in academic writing?
- It is said that…
- Somebody once wrote…
- According to Miller (2021),… (Correct answer)
- There is a quote that states…
Correct answer: According to Miller (2021),…
A strong signal phrase identifies the author and (in APA) the year, integrating the source into your argument credibly.
Question 3: Which action best demonstrates academic integrity when using an image or figure from a published source?
- Redrawing the figure by hand so it is original
- Crediting the source below the figure with a full citation (Correct answer)
- Using the figure only in the appendix where readers rarely look
- Slightly altering the figure's colors to make it different
Correct answer: Crediting the source below the figure with a full citation
Images and figures must be attributed with a caption or note that provides a full citation of the original source.
Question 4: A student's paraphrase is flagged by Turnitin as 85% similar to the source. The student cited the source correctly. What is the likely problem?
- The citation format is wrong
- The paraphrase is too close to the original wording and structure (Correct answer)
- Turnitin does not accept citations
- The source is too old to be used
Correct answer: The paraphrase is too close to the original wording and structure
High similarity scores usually indicate that the student has not sufficiently changed the wording or structure, making it mosaic plagiarism even with a citation.
Question 5: In Chicago (author-date) style, how is a citation typically formatted in the body of the text?
- (Author page)
- (Author Year, page) (Correct answer)
- Author (Year)
- Footnote number only
Correct answer: (Author Year, page)
Chicago author-date style uses parenthetical citations in the format (Author Year, page number), e.g., (Smith 2019, 34).
Question 6: Which of the following best explains why plagiarism is considered a serious ethical violation in academia?
- It wastes the professor's grading time
- It misrepresents intellectual labor and undermines trust in scholarly work (Correct answer)
- It makes papers longer than necessary
- It confuses readers about the topic
Correct answer: It misrepresents intellectual labor and undermines trust in scholarly work
Plagiarism is unethical because it falsely claims credit for others' intellectual work and erodes the credibility of academic scholarship.
Question 7: A student wants to use a lengthy passage that is critical to their argument. Which approach is most appropriate?
- Summarize the whole chapter instead to avoid quoting
- Use a block quotation with a proper citation and follow it with analysis (Correct answer)
- Break the passage into many small quotes scattered throughout the paper
- Avoid using it and find a shorter source
Correct answer: Use a block quotation with a proper citation and follow it with analysis
When a passage is essential and cannot be adequately paraphrased, a properly formatted block quotation followed by analysis is the appropriate choice.
EAP Avoiding Plagiarism 5
A professor discovers that two students submitted identical papers.
Which academic integrity violation does this best represent?