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I so don't wanna write this research paper. What's the point of making me write about stuff people already know? It's all online, anyway.

Anything more than three pages is way too much to write. I always feel like I'm struggling for more things to say just to fill it out.

Writing research papers it isn't just about writing. It's preparing for the future. Like it or not, it's important to learn how to find information, organize your thoughts, and prepare them in time to reach a deadline. These are all skills you will need for any career.

My dad's a lawyer. He's constantly writing papers and researching stuff in books.

At my internship, everyone's always rushing at the last minute to turn in big reports and papers.

I've been a lawyer, a journalist, I've worked for the president in the White House as a White House speechwriter and communications director. I've been a media executive, and I'm now one of the heads of a major communication strategy firm around the world.

And to me, in all those fields, the most important part is about people who can write.

The most important part of researching a topic and collecting information is turning it into work of your own. Taking someone else's work without giving them credit is called plagiarism, and it's a terrible trap to fall into.

When you need to construct a paper, whether it's for a school report, work assignment, or newspaper article, it's vital that you do not copy or steal someone else's work.

Plagiarism is defined as-- the unauthorized use or copying of another person's work or ideas. Copying a person's work verbatim and failing to give credit to the content creator is the clearest form of plagiarism.

Well, obviously, with the internet, it's incredibly easy to go online and quickly find information you're looking for, and cut and paste it, and not attribute it. But the flip side of that is, is that it's also just as easy to catch plagiarists. And I think we hear that from not only college professors, but from professional journalists.

Just because something is on the internet and accessible to you doesn't mean that it's either free for your use and copying, or that you should be able to take it for nothing.

Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional, but both get you into trouble. Intentional plagiarism is just that-- the purposeful copying of another person's thoughts or words to use as your own.

Unintentional plagiarism is the careless citing of borrowed ideas from an original source without giving the proper credit. You can accidentally plagiarize by not paraphrasing well enough, or incorrectly identifying the author or publisher of a piece.

I think it's really a reflection on you and the values you bring to your work. And if you are going to plagiarize or take information without citing it, I think that that will cast a long shadow over your career. That's why those of us as professional journalists consider it kind of the ultimate sin.

There are three unintentional plagiarism-- cheating, non-attribution, and patch-writing. The most severe form of plagiarism is cheating. This includes submitting someone else's work in your own name.

For example, purchasing term papers off of the internet would fall under the cheating category, copying a friend's paper from a different school, or having a friend, relative, or coworker write a paper or report for you, is also considered cheating.

You also cannot turn in a paper that you wrote for a different class.

Non-attribution occurs when you use exact phrases or passages from someone else's work, but you fail to credit the work as being theirs.

The entire paper isn't plagiarized, but you're still responsible for citing your resources.

Now, let's say you change a word or two and reorder the phrasing of a sentence. Maybe you think this is enough to not be considered plagiarism. It's not enough.

This last form of plagiarism is called patch-writing. The work is not paraphrased enough to pass as original writing. So if it's not properly attributed, patch-writing is also considered plagiarism.

Ugh, it'd be so much easier if I could copy this.

If I just used this, I would sound so much smarter. I really need A's this semester to get into a good grad school.

There are just to many books to read and websites to go through. I don't have enough time. Plus, it's on the internet. Isn't all that stuff free for the taking?

There are many reasons people plagiarize. The pressure to succeed can drive a person to cheat in order to get higher grades, or even a promotion at work. It appears to be an easy way out.

Information overload can often feel overwhelming. Grabbing a sentence or two might seem like no big deal, but it is unethical and can get you in trouble.

One solution is paraphrasing-- putting the information into your own words. But you have to make sure that you paraphrase enough.

Well, what does it mean to paraphrase enough? What's the rule?

You can't just list all the facts you found. You have to use them to make an argument. The information you collect is the evidence for your argument.

For example, I'm writing a paper on the origins of the United States army. Here's text from the Federalist Papers describing why a standing army was necessary.

Though a wide ocean separates the United States from Europe, yet there are various considerations that warn us against an excess of confidence or security. On one side of us, and stretching far into our rear, are growing settlements subject to the dominion of Britain.

On the other side, and extending to meet the British settlements, are colonies and establishments subject to the dominion of Spain.

This situation, and the vicinity of the West India Islands belonging to these two powers create between them, in respect to their American possessions and in relation to us, a common interest.

Well, how are you supposed to paraphrase all of that?

It's easy. I just pick the main point of the paragraph and put it into a single sentence. Some early Americans wanted to protect themselves against a united England and Spain because both countries had colonies in North America-- Hamilton, Federalist 24.

Well, why don't you just put quotes around the whole thing and footnote it?

Because, who talks like that anymore? The way I paraphrased it is shorter and easier to understand.

Quotes should only be used when a writer expresses something so well that his or her specific words are vital to making your argument. A quote should be short and considered the most important part of the paragraph.

If something is well-known known fact, something that is well-established, I don't think there's any problem with using that without attributing it. It's when one begins to take original material that somebody else has created-- that may be a theory, it may be a new fact that's not well-known-- and uses that as your own, I think that's plagiarizing.

Quotes, paraphrasing-- I probably should have started this a week ago. it's due tomorrow morning.

If it didn't have to be 10 pages long, I could probably do it all in one night.

Students are more likely to get caught plagiarizing through non-attribution and patch-writing when scrambling to meet a deadline.

Remember, the same technology that makes online information easy to find, cut, and paste, also makes it easy for instructors to scan your work for plagiarism. So don't wait until the last minute. Take time to organize your research.

Here are two terms any writer should know-- copyright and fair use. According to the US Code, copyright is a form of protection on original created content. The United States gives protection to authors of intellectual work. This can include musical, literary, dramatic, or artistic work.

The copyright laws of 1976 allow the owners of copyrighted material to prepare derivative works based on the material, distribute copies, perform the work publicly, and display the work publicly.

Copyright is secured the moment the work is created. Although a formal copyright registration is recommend, it's not always necessary.

There are many instances in which registering your claimed copyright is a benefit. Mostly, registering the claim means that you then have the legal definition of property, which means that you can enforce your copyright against others who might violate it in some way.

Copyright law was first established to encourage creativity. Imagine that you've devoted a whole year of your life to writing a novel. You weren't being paid while you wrote it, but after it's published, you'll be able to pay your debts with income from the book sales.

Say the book is published in hardcover and sells for $24. It becomes a best seller. Your hard work has paid off. But what if someone made thousands of copies and sold each for only $10? That

People would stop buying your book from you, and your income would disappear. All that hard work you invested in your novel would be generating income for somebody else.

Now, the question of the expiration of copyright is, in some cases, very easy. Because at present, the law provides that the duration of copyright is the longer of either 95 years, if it's a corporate work, or the life of the author plus 70 years if it's an individually created work.

And so in many cases, it's pretty simple to check when the author died, add 70 years, and know that beyond question, this work is in the public domain.

Another form of protected material is a trademark. A trademark can be distinctive word, symbol, name, or device. It is used to indicate the provider of a product and to distinguish it from the products of other providers.

For example, the Nike swoosh or Apple's Apple immediately help the consumer identify the company that the product belongs to. If a second party constructs a logo that is only a slight variation from another trademark, it can be considered infringement.

On the other hand, there are certain types of content that can be used without permission. Public domain content includes works, ideas, and information that are available for the use of the public.

Works that fall under this category include-- One, works that are not covered by intellectual property rights. Two, works with expired intellectual property rights. A copyright does not last forever. For example, you can quote, copy, or reprint Shakespeare's plays and sonnets as much as your heart desires. Three, works with forfeited intellectual property rights.

And by law, the federal government has no copyright at all, and you may use those documents. So for instance, I've put together graphic pieces where I found perfectly good images to use that happened to be postage stamps. And postage stamps being federal documents, you're allowed to use them without checking with anyone, and without infringing anyone's right.

Using material that is copyright protected is allowed under circumstances that are called, fair use. And the rules for fair use are broad for students.

The uses of almost anything for school purposes, for educational purposes, falls into an area of the copyright law called fair use. There are certain defined categories of use, which the law will protect, and there are others where the law specifically says that even though their use may be an infringement of the right, that infringement is not actionable in court.

Journalists, documentary filmmakers, and ordinary citizens also are protected by fair use in any circumstances. But it's not protect you from having to cite the source of the content.

The rule that I always operates by is, show your work. Demonstrate to your reader where you're getting your information.

I think information ethics is particularly important in a digital age when there's so much material that is so readily available and can so easily be shared.

To me, it means dealing with the information that one creates and consumes and passes on in a way that's responsible and ethical. So it means that if you're using information that others have created, you're citing your sources.

You're actually looking to verify information before you share it or present it. You're not passing on information that may be harmful to others or irresponsible in terms of something like, for instance, sharing a rumor or a viral e-mail, asking yourself whether this is credible, whether it's fair, before you pass it on.

So how can plagiarism be prevented? The responsibility lies with both the instructor and the student to know what is considered plagiarism and how to avoid it.

This is cool. I can use websites like articlechecker.com plagiarismdetect.com to see how close my work is to the original documents I paraphrased from.

I'm typing up my bibliography as we speak, so the teacher knows exactly what book, the year it was published, the page number, chapter, author-- everything that I got my information from.

You should be familiar with common citation formats, of which there are several. Ask your teacher or employer which citation method they prefer your work to follow.

Copyright has been great expanded since the original laws were passed in the 18th century.

And today, literally anything that is an expression is subject to copyright. And so whether it's in one form or another, whether it's tangible, electronic, whether it's in a WAV file or a QuickTime movie, whether it's streamed, or downloaded, printed, or in a PDF, really doesn't make any legal difference.

The question is, is it an expression which is fixed, that is held, in something called a tangible medium.

If you use passages word for word, the text must be placed in quotations, even if you have added the source to your bibliography or work cited page, it means nothing if the information is not in quotes in the paper.

Always introduce the source of new information before your quote or paraphrased passage. Typical ways to start the sentence may be-- Dr. Smith says, according to Dr. Smith's study, in the latest edition of the Smith dictionary.

Most citation methods require in-text citation. One type might use footnotes or endnotes while another uses an inline reference. Footnotes and endnotes provide numbers that match notes on the bottom of the page. Inline references including the author and page number in which the passage was taken.

The reference correlates with the bibliography, or work cited page, and comes at the end of the cited passage. The details of the in-text citation varies depending on which format you chose, but the basic elements are all the same.

As far as avoiding charges of plagiarism is concerned, the best advice is to always cite the source. Regardless of when and where, always provide a citation back to the origination of the idea, the concept, or the particular expression. That's the best way to stay out of trouble.

Easier to do it and easier to get caught. I mean, it's just as risky as it ever was. You know, obviously in an era where you can go onto the internet and pull up somebody's term paper in a State University somewhere and, you know, crib a few graphs that you might think are really good, intentionally, which is something that, God, I really hope people wouldn't do-- but there are more obscure sources of information available.

So people who are bent on doing that kind of thing are going to have a wider range of sources to choose from for their plagiarism. At the same time, the people who are policing that, who are fact checking, or looking, or may become suspicious about a particular piece of work, have the same Google function as the people who found that thing.

The consequences of plagiarism may be that your own academic reputation will be discredited, that your work will be discarded or discredited, and that ultimately, you may be removed from the class.

You may not get credit, or you may be removed from the institution entirely, either temporarily or permanently.

Avoid these circumstances by giving credit when it is necessary. If you are unsure if something needs citation, give credit to be safe.

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