Question

In the case below, the original source material is given along with a sample of student work. Determine the type of plagiarism by clicking the appropriate radio button.

Original Source Material

Student Version

We shall take the simpleminded view that a theory is just a model of the universe, or a restricted part of it, and a set of rules that relate quantities in the model to observations that we make. It exists only in our minds and does not have any other reality (whatever that might mean). A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements. It must accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must make definite predictions about the results of future observations.

References:
Hawking, S., & Mlodinow, L. (2008). A briefer history of time (Reprint.). New York, NY: Bantam.

When asked if they believe in theory of evolution or that human activity is contributing to climate change, politicians sometimes reply "It's just a theory." Sure a theory is just a model of the universe, or a restricted part of it, and a set of rules that relate quantities in the model to observations that we make. While proposing a theory is easy, coming up with a good theory is much harder.

Which of the following is true for the Student Version above?

a.Word-for-Word plagiarism

b.Paraphrasing plagiarism

c.This is not plagiarism

Answer 1

a.Word-for-Word plagiarism

Step-by-step explanation:

This is word-for-word plagiarism because the student had quoted part of the work of the original source word for word and had failed to provide references(citing or bibliography). The student's version starts off with his own explanation but goes ahead to quote the original source where he writes "a theory is just a model of the universe, or a restricted part of it, and a set of rules that relate quantities in the model to observations that we make" without properly citing the author of this definition for theory. This is therefore word-for-word plagiarism as there were no references for work borrowed from and the student therefore claims the original source's definition for theory to be his own.