Question

Etta turned in a compare and contrast essay on the two Civil War Generals Grant and Lee. Etta used Wikipedia to find information on the two generals' lives and military careers, and figured that since everyone knows about Wikipedia and it's publically edited, she wouldn't have to cite it much. Etta wrote some paragraphs in which she looked at the Wikipedia page and used some of the phrases and words from the site and some of her own. She wrote other paragraphs in which she put all of the Wikipedia information into her own words and her own writing style. At the end of the essay, Etta made a page called "Works Cited" and included the URL for Wikipedia. Etta was surprised when she received her essay back as a zero, and her instructor said it was plagiarized and that Wikipedia is not an acceptable academic source.
What must she do to avoid plagiarizing?

a) Put a parenthetical citation one time at the end of the paragraph

b) Place quotation marks around any three words or more in a row that she quoted from the website and include a parenthetical citation every time

c) Place quotation marks around any three words or more in a row that she used, but she does not need a citation for Wikipedia since everyone knows about it

Answer 1

Answer:

B). Place quotation marks around any three words or more in a row that she quoted from the website and include a parenthetical citation every time.

Explanation:

Plagiarism is exemplified as the process of copying or imitating someone's idea, thoughts, words, or language without appropriately acknowledging the author or the work from where the information has been used/copied. It is considered as an offense in literary context to copy someone's idea without acknowledging the source and leads to shaking the credibility or reliability of the claim as well as the author.

As per the question, to avoid plagiarism Etta needs to 'put the quotation marks after every three words or extra in continuity for the information that has been quoted from the website along with a parenthetical citation.' This would reflect that she has acknowledged the sources aptly that she has referred to in her essay. This would further assist in establishing the credibility of her claim. Therefore, option B is the correct answer.