Possible Plagiarism Help

[metalhead]

Here's my sentence:
"Hieroglyphics was the vehicle by which cryptography was introduced to the world"

Now the text never even says anything like this, but would this be considered plagiarism if it's completely my own words and I summed up some ideas?

*Edit* My grammar was off, "were" changed to "was"

[Eric Johnson]

Here's my sentence:
"Hieroglyphics were the vehicle by which cryptography was introduced to the world"

Now the text never even says anything like this, but would this be considered plagiarism if it's completely my own words and I summed up some ideas?

completely my own words

Absolutely not. Keep it in your own words. You can take ideas from the sentence, story, passage, just re-phrase it and/or re-word.

[metalhead]

Absolutely not. Keep it in your own words. You can take ideas from the sentence, story, passage, just re-phrase it and/or re-word.

Thank you very much for the help, I had an idea, but I needed clarification.

[Eric Johnson]

Thank you very much for the help, I had an idea, but I needed clarification.

No problem. Some schools are really strict about plagiarism. They try to scare you by saying "You can go to jail". But they never really take it that far. Hell, half the time they never really find out. But plagiarism is a big no-no.

[metalhead]

I'm not going to keep bugging everyone, but here's one more.
Book: "When the scribes tried to revive a deteriorating interest in their craft by making these puzzles more unintelligible, visitors to the tombs eventually lost all interest, and the technique was abandoned."

My text: "Unfortunately, the level of complexity of the hieroglyphic messages inscribed on the tombs was substantially decreased to offset the dwindling number of visitors to the tombs. As a result, the practice of hieroglyphics faded away into the pages of history(Corny!)."

[nskinnear]

Schools do find out about plagiarism. Teachers always check the sites that you got the information from, which should always be provided when you cite your sources. The punishments for plagiarism that I've seen have never been to lenient either. Colleges especially don't take this stuff lightly. You're talking about failing a class for that type of stuff.

But I see no plagiarism at all in your sentences. You just took the original sentence, and changed it around in your own words, which would be acceptable. As long as you don't copy everything word-for-word, you'll be fine.

[one1]

We're not talking a copyrighted sentence are we?

[metalhead]

We're not talking a copyrighted sentence are we?

Well copyright since it appeared in a book I am using as my source.

[vegan_mekey]

If its not your original idea, you should definitely cite the source.

[Dylan0987]

Here is what you do.

Obviously you have not taken it word for word, but it is not your thought. For example, your paragraph goes like this;

" blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah, blah blah blah blah. Unfortunately, the level of complexity of the hieroglyphic messages inscribed on the tombs was substantially decreased to offset the dwindling number of visitors to the tombs. As a result, the practice of hieroglyphics faded away into the pages of history. blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah ***(Author, "Title" Page).

This thought is not entirely your own. Therefore you have to recognize that fact. However, as soon as you change references, you have to make not of that. e.g.

"Unfortunately, the level of complexity of the hieroglyphic messages inscribed on the tombs was substantially decreased to offset the dwindling number of visitors to the tombs. As a result, the practice of hieroglyphics faded away into the pages of history*** (Author1, "Title1" Page1). **However, Hieroglyphics was the vehicle by which cryptography was introduced to the world*** ( Author2, "Title2" Page2).

If this is like a research paper it will/should be littered with these references. Your in-text reference will be different depening on how it is put it is said. Rules for this depend on where you are at for a school, a university would probably have a published book you can buy like a Format book at their bookstore. If you are in high school, just search a general in-text citations and it will be fine

** = new work being referenced.
*** End of work being referenced.

I am assuming you are using MLA style, however, it changes slightly if you are using APA.

Anyway, hope this helps.

[metalhead]

Wow thanks for everyone's help. I wrote a research paper on a 20th century composer and I was docked points because I had too many quotations. How can I write a research paper if I have to use references because the paper is about a subject I know nothing about?

[Gotmilk]

Wow thanks for everyone's help. I wrote a research paper on a 20th century composer and I was docked points because I had too many quotations. How can I write a research paper if I have to use references because the paper is about a subject I know nothing about?

well your teachers an idiot docking you points for something like that unless most of the essay was " fdsafAS "

[Josephp22]

Usually, teachers LIKE quotes... Not as in like 2347 quotes per paragraph, but around 2 per, most teachers love it haha

[Dylan0987]

Wow thanks for everyone's help. I wrote a research paper on a 20th century composer and I was docked points because I had too many quotations. How can I write a research paper if I have to use references because the paper is about a subject I know nothing about?

Try using less direct quotes, and put it into your own words. This shows that you understand and have learned from the research, rather than just knowing how to format a report and putting quotes all over the place.

That's probably why you were docked marks.