I want to raise the issue of plagiarism. Do you know what the term refers to?

 

If you use a text or sthg created by another person without giving its credit to the author you may be plagiriazing his/her job. It�s difficult to absolutely avoid plagiarism, but we can do our best, can�t we?

 

read the following:

 

 

All of us are subject to use somebody else�s creation because as some of you had pointed out, we may not know how to write about sthg or may not be good at drawing, for example. Nevertheless, It would be correct to quote the source whenever we can.

 

Just copying and pasting pictures on a worksheet have been a controversial issue on the forum. But what about texts that have been copied and pasted without quoting the source or giving its credits to the author? I have seen several of them in the site.

 

Let me tell you what I have been told to do here,  in my country: We can use the texts (even adapt them) to produce worksheet but the number of words shouldn�t exceed 1,000 and we have to quote the source with as much information we have.

 

And I�m not only thinking about the legal matter. I�m just considering that as teachers we have to mind the intellectual work of other teachers. All of us may feel uncomfortable if we see our worksheets posted or recycled by another member. The same will happen with the author of those texts copied and pasted without any credits given to him/her.

 

 

No one creates from nothing, but everything has a limit! We cannot change a few words or reorder some sentences and say that the text is ours, because that�s what we�re saying if we don�t write the source. We should write the source and then, between brackets (abridged and adapted) , or just one or the other. I know that sometimes the outcome is so different from the original that it�s difficult to give the credit to the author... after so many hours of hard work, we think, or better saying, we feel that that piece of work is our job and no one else�s,  but those are the rules and we know it beforehand. The source must be there and I think we should all try to abide by the rules.

 

Even with pictures, we should start being more careful. I know I have, because some of them are really a work of art. But I confess that I am far from abiding by the rules regarding cliparts. There are some that I use frequently and that require the source like www.cutecolors.com or www.graphicgarden.com , but lots of users often use those graphics in their printables and don�t refer to the source. But I know that�s very difficult to say where we took every single picture from and I really don�t know if we have to, do we?

 

Some users (me included, twice, I think) sometimes say in the description that they don�t remember where the text was taken from, but they like it so much that they would like to share it. Is that also considered plagiarism? I mean, we�re saying it is not ours, but whose is it? I�d like to hear the members� opinions on this, because, as I�ve just said, it has already happened to me.

 

Also, when the user writes his/her own text, what should she do? I usually just write in the description something about it  ("it wasn�t easy to create a story within the story", or something like that) and, of course, no source appears below the text. What do you think?

 

Sometimes we also make games, grammar exercises.... inspired on different authors. I believe the rules also apply in this case, unless they are common knowlege, in this case, common exercises like filling in the gaps, sentence completing... nothing new!

 

Well, I�m looking forward to read your opinions on this issue. Thank you so much.

 

Best wishes,

mena

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most serious case is that of some wss based on texts copied and pasted from some other sites or books without giving the credits to its author or quoting the site. I don�t want to highlight those worksheets by giving the links but there are many. What�s more, they have received wonderful comments because of "the originality of that work" or similar ones, but even then, the uploader didn�t mention the original source. I wonder, is that correct?

 

And I agree with you, if we don�t know the source or don�t remember it, we should at least  mention that the text is not ours. Nevertheless the rules say the following "You will never send printables whose origin you don�t know (worksheets borrowed from other teachers, for example). " Should it apply to a part of the printable, I mean, to an exersice or a text, for example?

hugs, mena

All the images I have used are taken from google not any particular site. �I search in google and right click save image as (what I�m saving is a thumbnail representation of the image not the image itself).

Most if not all images are available from several sources (most of the images on this site are available on here and the original). �It becomes difficult to find the original. �Someone posted a youtube link the other day, (the sad flying kiwi) It was a copy. �I was never able to find the original.