EAP - English For Academic Purposes Avoiding Plagiarism Questions and Answers

Question 1

A student finds a sentence in a journal article that perfectly summarizes a key concept for their essay.
They copy the sentence directly into their paper and add a citation at the end.
What critical element is missing to avoid plagiarism?

Accepted Answer

Quotation marks around the sentence

Answer

A page number in the citation

Answer

The author's first name

Answer

A summary of the author's credentials

Question 2

Which of the following is the BEST example of 'patchwriting,' which is a form of plagiarism?

Accepted Answer

Taking text from a source, changing a few words to synonyms, and rearranging the clauses while keeping the basic structure, without using quotation marks.

Answer

Submitting a paper written entirely by another person.

Answer

Inventing data and sources to support an argument.

Answer

Correctly paraphrasing an author's idea into completely new sentences and including a citation.

Question 3

Under which circumstance would a piece of information generally be considered 'common knowledge' and NOT require a citation in an academic paper?

Accepted Answer

The fact that William Shakespeare wrote the play 'Hamlet'.

Answer

A statistic published in this year's census report.

Answer

A direct quote from a famous political speech.

Answer

A theory of cognitive development proposed by a specific psychologist.

Question 4

A student writes the following: 'The investigation showed that the marketing strategy was very successful (Lee, 2021).' The original sentence from Lee's article was: 'The research demonstrated that the promotional plan yielded highly effective results.' Which academic integrity issue is most evident here?

Accepted Answer

The paraphrase is too close to the original source's wording and sentence structure.

Answer

The student misinterpreted the original author's meaning.

Answer

The citation is incomplete because it lacks a page number.

Answer

The source used is not considered academically credible.

Question 5

A student is writing an essay on a topic they researched for a different class last semester and wants to reuse some of their previous work. What is the most academically honest first step to take?

Accepted Answer

Consult the current instructor about the course and university policy on reusing previous work.

Answer

Copy and paste sections from the old paper, since it is their own work.

Answer

Cite themselves as a source using a standard citation format.

Answer

Use the same sources but write a completely new paper from scratch without mentioning the old one.

Question 6

What is the primary academic purpose of a citation style guide like APA, MLA, or Chicago?

Accepted Answer

To provide a consistent and systematic way for writers to give credit to sources and for readers to find them.

Answer

To make the reference list look uniform and professional.

Answer

To test a student's ability to pay close attention to small details of punctuation and formatting.

Answer

To ensure that students only use sources published within the last ten years.

A student finds a sentence in a journal article that perfectly summarizes a key concept for their essay.They copy the sentence directly into their paper and add a citation at the end.What critical element is missing to avoid plagiarism?

A student finds a sentence in a journal article that perfectly summarizes a key concept for their essay.
They copy the sentence directly into their paper and add a citation at the end.
What critical element is missing to avoid plagiarism?