Information Literacy Objectives & Assessment

Access and use information ethically and legally.

FRAMEWORK: INFORMATION HAS VALUE

Lesson Objectives: Upon completion of information literacy instruction, students should be able to:

1. Recognize different types of plagiarism and how to avoid them.
2. Cite sources correctly in the appropriate documentation style.
3. Recognize that personal information can be collected, used, and sold online.

Did I Plagiarize? The Types and Severity of Plagiarism Violations

Are you worried that you plagiarized? Ask yourself these 7 questions; and if you can confidently answer "yes" to all of them, then you did not plagiarize. If you answer "no" to one or more of these 7 questions, then you did plagiarize; and you will need to ask yourself the following 13 questions to determine what type or types of plagiarism have occurred and the severity of these types of plagiarism. 

1. Are you CONFIDENT that your ideas are your own OR that they are so obviously common knowledge (like the face that the earth is round) that you didn’t need to cite any sources?

2. Did you give credit to ALL original authors for any text you directly quoted?

3. Did you give credit to ALL original authors for any ideas you summarized or paraphrased, even if you completely changed the wording?

4. Did you give credit to ALL original artists for any images or graphics you used or referred to?

5. Are you CONFIDENT that you didn’t distort or misinterpret an author’s or artist’s original meaning when you cited them?

6. Are you CONFIDENT that the organization and style of your work is your own creation and that you didn’t mimic the style or layout of someone else?

7. Did you use a proper and recognized citation method OR did you include enough citation information that a reader could locate the original work on his/her own?

If you answered yes to all of the above questions, then No! you did not plagiarize.

If you’re confident that what you have written and/or designed is entirely original—in concept, style, structure, diction, and everything else—then you have not plagiarized. Or, if you have used another’s ideas to elaborate on or validate your own, but you cite the original author or artist (and you provide their name and all pertinent information so that your reader could locate the original source on their own), then you are also free or plagiarism violations. Plagiarism-free mean you have recognized any and all individuals or organizations that influenced your thoughts, writings, and designs and that you have made every effort to cite them according to conventional citation practices.

If you answered no to any of the above questions, then Yes! you may have plagiarized.

If you couldn’t answer “yes” to ALL of the questions (even if you answered “yes” to all but one), then you are most likely in violation of plagiarism standards. Note that even the slightest of plagiarism infractions is serious. Even if you didn’t mean to plagiarize or you weren’t familiar with all plagiarism standards, you are held accountable. Lack of understanding or intent does not free you from serious penalty. However, not all plagiarism violations are treated with the same severity; some are certainly more severe than others. And repeated infractions, just like with the law, can cause harsher penalties.

How Serious Is It? Ask yourself the following 13 questions to determine the type or types of plagiarism and their severity. 

1. Did you steal, copy, or purchase another’s entire document and take full credit for it being your own? If so, this is an identity theft form of plagiarism and insanely severe.

2. Did you copy large portions (entire paragraphs and sections) of another’s work and not give full credit? If so, this is a copycat form of plagiarism and extremely severe.

3. Did you cherry-pick a few terms and phrases to change but kept the rest of the text and ideas from another’s work relatively unchanged without giving credit? If so, this is a cherry-pick form of plagiarism and terribly severe.

4. Did you duplicate (re-use) an entire work of your own for another purpose or publication and not cite yourself? If so, this is a mitosis form of plagiarism and immensely severe.

5. Did you reuse large portions of a work of your own for another purpose or publication and not cite yourself? If so, this is a recycle form of plagiarism and profoundly severe.

6. Did you paraphrase multiple sources and stitch them together, making them sound like your own? If so, this is a remix form of plagiarism and hugely severe.

7. Did you cite a source that doesn’t exist or did you make up what the source actually said? If so, this is a ghost citation form of plagiarism and very, very severe.

8. Did you cite many sources correctly but not cite others at all? If so, this is a half-n-half form of plagiarism and very severe.

9. Did you misinterpret or cite a source out of context? If so, this is a warp form of plagiarism and remarkably severe.

10. Did you cite everything correctly but use very little of your own thought? If so, this is a mosaic form of plagiarism and quite severe.

11. Did you cite everything correctly but your work still closely reflects another’s? If so, this is a reflection form of plagiarism and notably severe.

12. Did you make a mistake in your citation? Wrong words, wrong author, or something similar? If so, this is a miscue form of plagiarism and somewhat severe.

13. Did you mostly cite everything correctly but got a bit sloppy on some and failed to note small things like page numbers or publishers? If so, this is a half-hearted form of plagiarism and mildly severe.

TheVisualCommunicationGuy.com

2014

References: http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/types-of-plagiarism/

Content modified from: https://clark.libguides.com/c.php?g=497997&p=6279171

Ask students to perform a Google search for the exact same keywords or phrase and compare them side by side - explain why they are different:

APA Journal Article Citation 

For those who prefer plain text over graphics, let's go over the information element by element. 

Author(s). 

Usually listed on the first page of an article 

List author names in same order as listed on the first page of the article. 

2 to 20 authors: Separate authors with a comma and use “&” before the last author. 

More than 20 authors: List first 19, insert ellipsis, and final author’s name. 

Format is Last Name, Initials. Place period after final author’s initials. 

Example: Lee, J. R. 

Example: Lee, J. R. Brown, G. & Smith, L. 

(Publication Date). 

Usually listed on the first page of an article or in the margins 

Place year of publication in parentheses. 

Place period after closing parentheses. 

Example: (2023). 

Article title.  

On title page or first page of article 

Write title in sentence case. 

Only Capitalize: First word of the title first word after punctuation proper nouns. 

Do not use italics. 

Put a period at the end of the title. 

Example: How to use APA in college: A student’s guide. 

Journal Title, 

Usually listed on title page or in the margins of the page 

Use name of journal shown on work (abbreviations might be listed). Do not abbreviate it yourself. 

Write title in Title Case. Capitalize most words. Place in italics.  

Use lower case for: Words of three letters or less, except the first word of the title or first word of subtitle. 

Place a comma after the journal name, but do not italicize it. 

Example: Journal of Student Success, 

Volume(issue #). 

Usually listed on the title page or the margins of the pages 

Italicize the volume number. Do not italicize the issue number.  

Place issue number in parentheses. Do not include a space between vol. & issue.  

Place comma after closing the parentheses around the issue number. 

If no issue number is available, omit it and place comma after volume number. 

Example: 10(4). 

Example: 7,

Page Range. 

Usually listed on the title page, first page, or last page of the article 

Include full page range of the article. No italics.  

Do not include page abbreviations such as p., pp., or pg. 

Separate numbers in page range with en dash (-). Place period after second page number. 

Article #, no page #: Write the word “Article” and then the article number followed by a period.

Example: 15 - 23. 

Example: Article 10023. 

DOI or URL 

Usually listed on the title page, first page, or last page of the article  

Use DOI, if available. Use the URL if the article was found online but not in a database. 

If the article comes from an academic database and does not have a DOI, do not include a url.  

Copy and paste the URL or DOI directly from your browser. 

Do not place a period after the URL or DOI or write “Retrieved from” before URL or DOI.  

Example: https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111

Example: https//www.journal.com

Reference List Entry Example:

Author, A. A. (Date). Article title. Journal Title, Vol.(Issue #). Page range. DOI or URL 

Lee, J. R. (2023). How to use APA in college: A student’s guide. Journal of Student Success, 10(4). 15-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111 

APA Webpage Citation 

For those who prefer plain text over graphics, let's go over the information element by element. 

Author(s). 

Usually listed on the first page of an article 

List author names in same order as listed on the webpage.  List Govt. or group authors as written. 

2 to 20 authors: Separate authors with a comma and use “&” before the last author. 

More than 20 authors: List first 19, insert ellipsis, and final author’s name. 

Place period after final author’s initials or final group author. 

Example: Lee, J.R. 

Example: Department of Statistics. 

(Publication Date).  

Usually listed near the top or bottom of the page. 

Place year of publication in parentheses. 

Place period after closing parentheses. 

Example: (2023). 

Webpage title. 

Usually listed at the top of the webpage. 

Write title in sentence case. 

Only Capitalize: First word of the title, first word after punctuation, and proper nouns. 

Place in italics. 

Put a period at the end of the title. 

Example: APA use among college students in 2022. 

Publisher, 

Usually listed near the bottom of the page or is the name of the website 

Use name of website shown on webpage. Do not abbreviate it yourself. Leave blank if same as author. 

Write title in Title Case. Capitalize most words.  

Lower Case: words of three letters or less, except the first word of the title or first word of subtitle.  

Place a comma after the publisher’s name.

Example: Higher Education Daily,   

URL 

Listed in the browser search bar, stable URLs listed near authors and date when available 

Use DOI, if available. Use the URL if the article was found online, but not in a database. 

If the article comes from an academic database and does not have a DOI, do not include a URL.  

Copy and paste the URL or DOI directly from your browser. 

Do not place a period after the URL or DOI or write “Retrieved from” before URL or DOI. 

Example: https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111  

Example: https//www.highereddaily.com 

Reference List Entry Examples: 

Author, A. A. (Date). Webpage title. Publisher, DOI or URL 

Department of Statistics. (2023). APA use among College Students in 2022. Higher Education Daily, https//www.highereddaily.com 

APA Book Citation 

For those who prefer plain text over graphics, let's go over the information element by element. 

Author(s).  

Usually listed on the cover and the title page of the book 

List author names in same order as listed on the book.  

2 to 20 authors: Separate authors with a comma and use “&” before the last author. 

More than 20 authors: List first 19, insert ellipsis, and final author’s name. 

Format is Last Name, Initials. Place period after final author’s initials. 

Example: Lee, J. R. 

Example: Lee, J. R. Brown, G. & Smith, L. 

(Publication Date). 

Usually listed on the backside of the title page. 

Place year of publication in parentheses. 

Place period after closing parentheses. 

Example: (2023). 

Book title. 

Listed on the cover and title page.  

Use name of book shown on work. Do not abbreviate it yourself. 

Write title in sentence case. Capitalize most words. Place in italics.  

Lower Case: words of three letters or less, except the first word of the title or first word of subtitle.  

Place a period after the book title, but do not italicize it. 

Example: Mastering APA Style. 

Publisher. 

Usually listed on the title page or the backside of the title page.  

Use name of publisher listed in book. 

Write in Title Case. Capitalize most words. Do not place in italics.  

Lower Case: words of three letters or less, except the first word of the title or first word of subtitle.  

Place a period after the publisher name. 

Example: Student Publishing. 

DOI or URL 

Usually on the first few pages of the book near the copyright information. Check the bibliographic record if found in a database.

Use DOI, if available. Use the URL if the article was found online, but not in a database. 

When citing a print book, leave this element out of the citation.  

Copy and paste the URL or DOI directly from your browser. 

Do not place a period after the URL or DOI or write “Retrieved from” before URL or DOI.

Example: https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111

Example: https//www.journal.com 

Reference List Entry Examples:

Author, A.A., (Date). Book title. Publisher. DOI or URL 

Lee, J.R. (2023). Mastering APA style in college. Student Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1111/a0011111