PowerPoint Presentation

[Audio] Dear Humanities students, welcome to our Anti-plagiarism crash course. The objective of this course is to help you be a better researcher as you start to embark on your Investigation projects. Let's begin with a short video!.

undefined.

[Audio] In this course, you will takeaway four main learning points. What is plagiarism, Examples of how it looks like, the negative consequences should you happen to plagiarise and how to avoid it as you work on your Investigation projects..

[Audio] So what is plagiarism? Fun fact! do you know that The word "plagiarism" comes from the Latin plagiarus meaning "kidnapper"?.

[Audio] According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to plagiarize means: To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own, without crediting the source to commit literary theft..

[Audio] There are a few reasons why someone would plagiarise other people's work. Here are some of the reasons, or excuses..

[Audio] Next, we come to the examples of how plagiarism looks like. For instance, cutting and pasting chunks of texts from websites, copying a friend's work and passing it as your own, using AI-content generators and not using your own voice. These mean that you did not provide your own opinions to demonstrate that you understood the article content. In the past, we have students who actually copy paste a chunk of text from a scientific paper, and it was full of technical terms. It was an embarrassing moment for the student who did not even understand those terms himself!.

[Audio] Also, not citing your original source is also plagiarism. What does 'citing' mean? It refers to giving credit to the original source, like how we did so in the earlier slide. We state where the source came from and take only some parts of the content from the website. Note that we do not quote excessively as well, because it will become a copy paste, which does not demonstrate your understanding! This is the same idea as quoting from the source. As a more relatable explanation, recall how you work on your inferencing skills during history and social studies lessons. You need to quote the evidence that clearly demonstrates the message that you want to convey..

[Audio] Moving on to the implications of plagiarism. We all know that copying from another person's work is morally wrong. It is a theft of someone else's knowledge and research, in which they have put in a lot of effort in creating those sources of information. It is considered cheating, because the work you produced is not a reflection of your true ability. Just imagine a doctor using an AI essay bot to do his graduation exams. He may pass the exam and get his doctor degree, but imagine having him do a surgery on you during an emergency!.

[Audio] Plagiarism may result in you receiving a failing grade or zero from the assignment. Eventually, it could also result in disciplinary actions taken against you, even as a student..

[Audio] Now comes the important part, so how to avoid plagiarising!? You could paraphrase and summarise, which are skills you learn during English lessons..

[Audio] Now comes the important part, so how to avoid plagiarising!? You could paraphrase and summarise, which are skills you learn during English lessons..

[Audio] Remember, do not copy paste. You can quote what is necessary, not wholesale as mentioned..

[Audio] Lastly, you could elaborate on the points. This allows the teacher to hear your voice and opinion as well. Teachers want to see your voice and thoughts as your do your Investigation project!.

[Audio] And good news is that you do not have to rephrase or quote everything! For instance, when describing your experience about observing people littering, you can simply share what you saw and felt about the situation..

[Audio] Second, if you conduct primary data collection, meaning you did your own interview and used google form to conduct survey, you can simply use them in your writing..

[Audio] Lastly, you do not have to rephrase or quote if you are using common knowledge. For instance, the sun rising in the East, Singapore became an independent and sovereign state on 9 August 1965. This was directly obtained from Singapore government's website and it is all right, because there is no way to rephrase terms such as 'independent' and 'sovereign', and it is a common knowledge known to all. Another example is 'The Wildlife Act is an Act for the protection, preservation and management of wildlife for the purposes of maintaining a healthy ecosystem and safeguarding public safety and health, and for related matters'. This is the definition of the law. However when you are in doubt, just cite and pharaphrase!.

[Audio] Now, we will share two concrete examples. Let's say you found the following from a website: The effects of climate change are becoming more evident each year, with rising global temperatures leading to more frequent and severe weather events. Scientists warn that urgent action is needed to mitigate the impact of climate change on our planet..

[Audio] To avoid plagiarism, I could summarise that specific part of the article as "Climate change brings significant negative impacts on our nature and society. We need urgent actions to address this growing threat.".

[Audio] Here is an example with a historical context. The original source obtained from a website called 'Pacific Atrocities Education' which educates readers on WW2. Let's say we wanted to use a specific part in the website: For the Prisoners of War, there was a very tight ration when it came to food. When rice was given, it was moldy and contaminated with sulfur. They had to eat in a room full of rats, but they had to survive. As much as it was unpleasant and tasteless, they still ate it..

[Audio] To avoid plagiarism, we could paraphrase using our own words and elaborate by making inferences and share more about what it means to led a difficult life. In this example, we also included our own survey results to enhance the essay content, depending on what my task requirement is..

[Audio] We have come to the end of our Plagiarism crash course, we hope that you have a better understanding of this topic. Let's do our best to avoid plagiarism and enjoy our Investigation project!.