Can someone please explain "plagiarism" to me?

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I never was accused of plagiaism until I got into nursing school. I received a 0 on a research paper and was accused of plagiarizing. I paraphrased, but included all citations and sources. The instructor told me that I worded it too much like the original. I tried my best to put it in my own words, but I was afraid I would change it because the article was so physiological advanced. She told me that it didn't matter, even if I had all cites and sources. I asked her if I could redo the paper, and she would not let me. I ended up failing the class because of this :crying2:. What are the rules of plagiarism with an APA formatted paper?

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Apparently your writing did not pass her "test" for authenticity. I saw a good article on plagiarism, I think, from one of my schools, if I can ever find it, I will try to send it to you. You are aware that many instructors use software designed to detect plagiarism, don't you? You have to be really careful with this in the future. I suggest you go for some help at your campus study center or writing center. Or find a good English instructor to give you some tips. It takes time and effort to change it all around into your own words. That is another reason why one shouldn't wait until the last minute to do their papers.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Here is one plagiarism checker:

http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/

And from Indiana University, how to avoid plagiarism:

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

I would suspect what happened in your case was that you didn't have a good grasp of the article and couldn't put it into your own words. When I get in that situation, I try to find another source that is easier for me to understand.

I think you are on the right track trying to figure out what went wrong. Best wishes.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

You say that you paraphrased. That's still just putting down the original author's material, just not as an exact quotation.

Here's an example:

One of my instructors once said, "The kidneys are the window to perfusion."

I could paraphrase that by saying something like, "The kidneys are an indicator of systemic perfusion." Sure, I changed the wording to be my own but I really just echoed her thought... I added nothing original. That is plagiarism unless I cited her comment.

Your teacher isn't looking for you to just paraphrase what somebody else wrote. They're looking for you to formulate your own thoughts on the topic and to draw your own conclusions.

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

In cases like this I find it's sometimes better to "dumb" what you are paraphrasing down. To put it into simpler english. The purpose usually of a research paper is to show that your researched and understood a topic and was able to express it in your own language. The only time I ever had a problem with a professor thinking I had not written my own work was during an online course. I met with her and was able to discuss my points back and forth. That's the disadvantage of online classes that professors may not always be able to distinguish your communication style.

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Specializes in Home Care.

In the humanities class I'm doing now we have to turn our assignments in through a program called Turnitin. This program analyzes our papers for plagerism and gives us a report pointing out our errors.

This is the best writing site, Purdue's OWL

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

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Well if you did not pass her writing 'test' then I suggest you email her the essay 1 or 2 week in advance before turning it in, to see if you need a additional details or any corrections that should be made.

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Specializes in ..
In the humanities class I'm doing now we have to turn our assignments in through a program called Turnitin. This program analyzes our papers for plagerism and gives us a report pointing out our errors.

We use Turnitin, too. It scans your papers and picks out anything that is a match to anything that has already been written/published, including research papers, websites and other students papers from around the world/other unis. It returns with a "similarity index" that gives you a % of how similar your paper is to one/others. Maybe you could investigate whether you school has anything like this so you can get a gauge on this before you turn another paper in?

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I never was accused of plagiaism until I got into nursing school. I received a 0 on a research paper and was accused of plagiarizing. I paraphrased, but included all citations and sources. The instructor told me that I worded it too much like the original. I tried my best to put it in my own words, but I was afraid I would change it because the article was so physiological advanced. She told me that it didn't matter, even if I had all cites and sources. I asked her if I could redo the paper, and she would not let me. I ended up failing the class because of this :crying2:. What are the rules of plagiarism with an APA formatted paper?
-noun 1.the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.2.something used and represented in this mannerhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism

doesnt seem this definition was met.....poor quality work perhaps, but did/does it rise to the level of plagiarism, which is a very serious accusation, potentially career ending.....

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thanks for your input guys. i seriously doubt my instructor has the software that detects plagiarism. if she did, half the class would've received zeros. i can see where i went wrong in the paraphrasing. it was very similar to the author. but what i don't understand is how is it plagiarizing if i cited it? every website i have read says that plagiarism is stealing other people's work without citing the source. i did cite everything correctly in my paper. as far as giving me a zero for a poorly done paper-i can understand. but to accuse me of plagiarizing when i cited everything-i don't understand. to top it off, when she confronted me about it, she talked to me like a criminal. she believed i done it intentionally. plagiarism is a pretty harsh accusation, and it almost got me kicked out of the program. but thanks to my instructor, she was nice enough to give me a zero, along with a wounded sense of worth.

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Specializes in Home Care.

Perhaps her issue was with the amount of material you cited from your source. When you write a paper you formulate your own thoughts and support your ideas with a citation from the source. For example, you would write 4 or 5 sentences of your own thoughts then a one sentence citation to support your idea.

Take a look at this link https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/02/

on how to write an essay.

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