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Hi there! Let's explore how we can plan for college costs and learn how to share ideas honestly.
Planning for college is an exciting step. College costs money, but we can pay for it using savings, grants, scholarships, and loans.
When you write essays for college or school, you must use sources honestly. Differentiating between paraphrasing and plagiarism is a key academic skill. Paraphrasing means putting an author's ideas into your own words while still giving them credit. Plagiarism is copying someone else's work or ideas and pretending they are yours.
To analyze if a sentence is plagiarized, compare it to the original text. If it uses the exact same words without quotation marks, it is plagiarized. If it changes the sentence structure and words completely but still credits the author, it is a correct paraphrase.
Analyze the student's work below to determine if they successfully paraphrased or if they committed plagiarism. Original Source: "Grants and scholarships do not need to be paid back." Student's Draft: "Grants and scholarships do not need to be paid back."
- Step 1: Compare the student's draft to the original source text word-for-word.
- Step 2: Note that the student used the exact same words: 'Grants and scholarships do not need to be paid back.'
- Step 3: Check for quotation marks and a citation. There are none in the student's draft.
- Step 4: Conclude that this is plagiarism because the text was copied directly without credit or quotes.
- Step 5: Rewrite the sentence correctly to model paraphrasing: 'According to experts, you do not have to return money from scholarships or grants.'