Objective: In order to avoid plagiarism, one must first learn how to plagiarize. Each of the five paragraphs: the first three show different ways of plagiarizing, while the last two demonstrate how to paraphrase properly.
Example 1: Plagiarize the original text by copying portions of it word-for-word.
Ex. 1: Diane Ravitch says that Sean Corcoran, an economist at New York University, studied the teacher evaluation systems in New York City and Houston. She says he found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points.
Example 2: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, without copying it word-for-word.
Ex 2: Ravitch uses results from an economist named Sean Corcoran from New York University, who studied teacher evaluation systems and found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points, to prove that the scores were unreliable for others to judge the actual performance of the teacher.
Example 3: Plagiarize the original text by paraphrasing its structure too closely, and include a citation. Even though you cited it, paraphrasing too closely is still plagiarism.
Ex 3: Ravitch uses results from an economist named Sean Corcoran from New York University, who studied teacher evaluation systems and found that the average “margin of error” of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points, to prove that the scores were unreliable for others to judge the actual performance of the teacher.
Works Cited:
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Example 4: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, and include a citation to the original source.
Ex 4: Through her own interpretation of Sean Cocoran’s analysis of teacher evaluations, Ravitch affirms that the “margin of error” when evaluating teachers in New York City is too high to accurately evaluate the teachers, and proves to be too inconsistent when comparing the scores over the years [1].
[1]:Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 270-271.
Works Cited:
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Example 5: Properly paraphrase from the original text by restating the author’s ideas in different words and phrases, add a direct quote, and include a citation to the original source.
In her novel, Diane Ravitch confirms that the system used to asses teachers is very unreliable and has too much of a gap to accurately evaluate them. Ravitch uses economist Sean Cocoran’s assertion that “the average ‘margin of error’ of a New York City teacher was plus or minus 28 points” in order to prove that the system used in very inaccurate and unreliable [2].
[2]:Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 270-271.
Works Cited:
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
This exercise demonstrates that you correctly understand key differences between plagiarizing versus properly paraphrasing sources. But there are two small corrections that deserve attention. First, example #3 is missing a citation, which appears to be a copy-and-paste error since you did it correctly for examples #4 and #5. Second, it’s a common mistake to refer to Ravitch’s book as a “novel,” which means a work of fiction. More appropriate terms are Ravitch’s book, or work, or study, or monograph.