IXL | Identify and correct plagiarism | 4th grade language arts

Read the following text from The Complete History of Alaska by Cole D. Snow.

In 1867, the United States bought Alaska from Russia. At the time, people thought that buying the land was a mistake. The purchase turned out to be one of the smartest deals in American history. Alaska was blessed with an astonishing amount of oil, gas, and other natural resources.

A student used information from the above text to write a report about the state of Alaska. Select the sentence in the student's report that plagiarizes the above text.

William Seward was Secretary of State for Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He helped the United States buy the land we now call Alaska. The purchase turned out to be one of the smartest deals in American history. The United States only paid about two cents for each acre of land.

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question

Read the following text from Prominent American Poets by Paige Wordsmith.

Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Georgia Douglas Johnson were poets during the Harlem Renaissance. Their poems explored the pain and beauty of African American life in the 1920s. Among the three, Hughes became the most famous. Hughes's moving poetry makes him one of the most important writers in American history.

A student used information from the above text to write a report about Langston Hughes. Select the sentence in the student's report that plagiarizes the above text.

Langston Hughes was born in Missouri, but he lived most of his adult life in New York. Most of his poems were about Harlem and the people who lived there. Hughes's moving poetry makes him one of the most important writers in American history. His work has influenced countless poets over the last hundred years.

key idea

Plagiarism occurs when you use someone else's words or ideas and present them as your own.

For example, look at the following text from Golfing Like a Pro by Woodrow T. Driver:

Learning how to putt is the single most important skill that golfers should practice to improve their game.

A student used the information above to write the following report about golf:

Golf is an amazing game. To get better, you have to practice several different skills. The single most important skill that golfers should practice to improve their game is putting on the green.

The underlined sentence plagiarizes Woodrow Driver's text. It uses many of Driver's exact words without saying that they belong to him.

solution

The underlined sentence in the student report is plagiarized.

It uses Paige Wordsmith's exact words without saying that they belong to Wordsmith.

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