Worksheet:

Instructions for Students: Read the situations given below and decide if the student has committed plagiarism. Be able to defend your decisions orally.

1. Susan takes an entire speech from a book, memorizes it and then delivers it in class as if it were her own work.

Susan (has) (has not) plagiarized.

Reasons:

1. Kent finds an outline of a speech on The Bermuda Triangle in his fraternity files. He adds one additional example to the speech but otherwise does not change it. Kent then presents the speech in class as his own.

Kent (has) (has not) plagiarized.

Reasons:

1. Theresa reads an article from the Reader's Digest on the relationship of smoking and heart disease. Since the article first covers the adverse effects of smoking on the circulatory system and then shows how patients' health improves when they stop smoking, Theresa decides to organize her speech in the same way. During her speech she does not mention that she is using the same organization as that of the article.

Theresa (has) (has not) plagiarized.

Reasons:

1. Maria uses statistics extensively in her speech on toxic waste but does not tell where she found the statistics.

Maria (has) (has not) plagiarized.

Reasons:

1. Jeff and Jack are in two different public speaking sections. They work together on a speech on the topic of How the Pyramids Were Built. Each gives essentially the same speech in his speech class.

Jeff and Jack (have) (have not) plagiarized.

Reasons:

1. For her speech on the importance of fastening seat belts, Leigh reads a pamphlet on the five most popular excuses for not fastening seat belts. Since the excuses are written in a clever, catchy style, Leigh uses the words from the pamphlet when talking about excuses in her speech.

Leigh (has) (has not) plagiarized.

Reasons:

1. Patrice finds an unusual approach to the problem of drinking and driving in a magazine article. The author recommends that there be no age limits on buying or drinking alcohol, but that the legal age for a driver's license be twenty-five years of age. When presenting the speech, Patrice says, "I am supporting a plan described by Jesse Wilson in the May 1994 issue of Safe Driver. I will describe Mr. Wilson's proposal and give you my reasons for believing it will work."

Patrice (has) (has not) plagiarized.

Reasons: