Blog #3: Plagiarism

The sections of these chapters on plagiarizing that helped me the most are the ones that focus on taking notes and how to do so effectively, in a way that eliminates even the possibility of accidentally plagiarizing. I understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it for the most part, but I think everyone can sometimes get certain phrases or sentences stuck in their head from a reading that work their way into an assignment, despite our best efforts to remain original. One thing that I will take from this reading is the section on annotating sources, printing out whatever you’re citing and taking notes directly onto the source, making it easy to tell what thoughts are your own and which thoughts need to be rephrased or rewritten in your own words to avoid plagiarism. This method allows you to take notes while also figuring out which quotations you may end up using, while also forcing you to remember which source everything comes from. Being deliberate about how you take notes and consume the information you are writing about can definitely help you from making mistakes.