Naples High School Library Media Center:  The Library Media Center & Citing Sources
http://www.collierschools.com/nhs/lmc/citations.htm
This site, written & regularly updated by Adam Janowski LMS, provides an excellent summary for high school students who need to understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.  You will find answers to the following questions:

What is plagiarism?
What are the consequences for plagiarism?
How does a student avoid plagiarism?
What does “citing a source” mean?
When should you cite a source?
What needs to be included when you cite a source?

This is just an excuse.  If you are really honest with yourself - you know that it is wrong.  According to a survey publisher in the "Journal of College Student Development", over 89% of colleges students surveyed agree that it is wrong to plagiarize. 

Patrick M. Scanlon and David R. Neumann. "Internet Plagiarism Among College Students."

     Journal of College Student Development.  May/June 2002. 

http://tutorials.sjlibrary.org/plagiarism/index.htm

Just fill out the registration using the word "test" (without the quotes) in both the first name and the last name space.  Make up a number for your registration number.

Kantrowitz, Barbara and Julie Scelfol. "Harvard to Hornstine: No Way." Newsweek.
       21 July 2003: 50. MasterFILE Select. Ruben A. Cirillo High School Library.
       2 October 2003. <http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=10238319&db=mfh>.

STUDENT BOOK DEAL CALLED OFF

The Age of the Internet: Ruining Reputations in Record Time

Interesting, especially since in this modern age, it pretty much only takes less than two days for your reputation, career, credibility and future to be ruined by the Internet. From a public relations angle, Viswanathan’s issued apology is weak and does not address how more than 20 passages that borrowed key characteristics of the source’s sentence structure and actual wording could have been “internalized” to such an extent that it was “unintentionally” picked up, edited ever so slightly (using the number 169 instead of 170) and recopied into the book.

The lesson: be afraid of plagiarism. It creates paper-trail timebombs that can destroy a career you've spent decades building—especially today, when teachers routinely keep copies of papers and the Internet makes it a snap to compare texts and locate sources."

Britain Admits That Much of Its Report on Iraq Came From Magazines
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/08/international/europe/08BRIT.html?th 

Talk about how information can have life and death consequences! The British government issued a report "depicted as an up-to-date ... assessment by the British intelligence services of Iraq's efforts to hide its activities."  However, "The British government admitted ... that large sections of its most recent report on Iraq, praised by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell as "a fine paper" in his speech to the United Nations ..., had been lifted from magazines and academic journals."  Can we depend on the accuracy of this report? What happens to our ability to trust the information when the article was represented as government findings and turns out to be information available to anyone with a library card and an internet connection?

UPDATE - David Kelly suicide.   David Kelly, a former weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s,  was a leading authority on Iraqi weapons of mass destructions and a senior adviser to both the British Ministry of Defense and Foreign Office.   He had serious doubts over the accuracy of the dossier and expressed these doubts to the British news media. Mr. Kelly eventually committed suicide.

Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Britain, stands to loose his position if the British public and the British government come to believe that Blair authorized the war based on false or inadequate information.

"Doris Kearns Goodwin, Liar: First She Plagiarized. Then She Claimed It Wasn’t Plagiarism," by Timothy Noah at Slate.com 22 Jan. 2002
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2061056

Plagiarism allegations disturb teachers: Classroom debates surround recent cases - CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2002/fyi/teachers.ednews/01/31/plagiarism.fallout.ap/

Quoted from a history professor at The University of Pennsylvania:

"Childers, who teaches a course on World War II, told his class of some 250 students that he'd drop the book (Band of Brothers) from the syllabus starting with the fall semester.
'This is not just academic minutia or nitpicking on the part of a bunch of egghead scholars,' Childers says. 'Those are your words, your images, your expressions, and for somebody simply to take them and use them as if they are his own or her own, it's not right.'"

Shafer, Jack. "The Jayson Blair Project:How did he bamboozle the New York Times?"
        Slate.  8 May 2003.  30 August 2003

Jayson Blair was a young journalist of the New York Times who was caught both plagiarizing and making up informationfrom other newspapers - most notably in stories about Jessica Lynch and The Washington D.C. sniper killings.  He was fired immediately.  Slate journalist, Jack Shafer says:

"What can you say about a trusted professional who makes stuff up and publishes it as fact?

No single explanation can cover every case, but my guess is that most liars make things up for the simple reason that they don't have the talent or the ability to get the story any other way... Most reporters don't make things up because 1) they're ... ethical or 2) they know they'll get caught.....

The Blair revelations should distress everybody who creates or consumes copy. How many prevaricators lurk out there? But the wrong takeaway from the Blair-Cooke-Glass-Forman disasters is to assume that young people can't be trusted to report. Instead ...., their sordid experiences in the journalism trade indicate that so many young people get caught making stuff up because you can't get away with it for very long. Journalism ain't perfect, but it loves to eat its sinners."

Goldman, David. "Storyteller: Stephen Glass makes fact from fiction." 
        Biography,Oct99,p22, 1p.

This article reports the firing of  Stephen Glass, associate editor of The New Republic who was caught making up his news stories.  He cited non-existent sources and even posted a fake corporate website to back up one of his stories.  An investigation uncovered many examples of fabricated stories throughout his career.

http://www.sanantoniolightning.com/copy1.html

Robertson, Lori. "Ethically Challenged."  American Journalism Review, March 2003.  
        <http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=573>

The above  article  quotes Fred Brown, Chairman of the Society of Professional Journalists who says,

"We in the media have become more sensitive to ethical problems than we were perhaps 10 or 20 years ago.  We understand that in an environment where people are bombarded by all kinds of media...it's important that serious media have credibility and are serious about maintaining it."

It is easy to plagiarize - but it is just as easy to search.  Sacramento Bee Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez says, 

"There are many more eyes looking at more publications across the country.  There's a potential for increased plagiarism, but I also think that the potential to get caught is greater."

As the author of this article says,

"Just as a writer can highlight and copy, an editor can hit the search button." 

Regarding Consequences, the article goes on to make these points:

• "Public embarassment coupled with swift punishment may be the best deterrent to crimes of copying and out-and-out lying."
• "Rosmary Armao says, "If I knew about it [plagiarism], I wouldn't hire them,  There are so many good people in the market, whey take somebody with that mark against them?"

EXAMPLES OF JOURNALISTS WHO LOST THEIR JOBS:

• Dennis Love

"On November 21, The Sacramento Bee fired Love for plagiarizing and fabricating material in his stories on the presidential campaign."

• David Cragin

David Cragin, a journalism intern, was fired from  Mercury News for plagiarizing from the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle.

• Mona Prufer

Prufer was a features editor from South Carolina's Sun News resigned when it became apparent that she had plagiarized material in her weekly books and cooking columns.

• Steven Helmer

Helmer was fired from the Bloomsburg Pennsylvania Press Enterprise for making up one or more people in a news article he wrote about a local shopping mall.

CHICAGO SUN TIMES EDITOR RESIGNS

Editor quits after admitting he plagiarized. by Fitzgerald, Mark
Editor & Publisher, 3/18/95, Vol. 128 Issue 11, p11, 1p, 1bw

This article "focuses on the resignation of Chicago Sun Times newspaper editor Mark
Hornung after admitting plagiarizing an editorial column from the Washington Post. Hornung's reasons for plagiarizing the editorial"  (EBSCOhost)

NOVELIST JANET DAILEY

Romance novelist Janet Dailey apologizes for plagiarizing.  "Mrs. Dailey agreed to Ms. Roberts' proposed terms to settle the matter, including an payment to the Literacy Volunteers of America, said Mrs. Dailey's publicist in Los Angeles, Sanford Brokaw. The amount was not disclosed."
http://www.news-star.com/stories/073097/life1.html

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT/PLAGIARIZING IN THE MUSIC WORLD

• Robbie Williams Faces Plagiarism Suit
  http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1434761/20000322/story.jhtml

• Court Upholds $5.4 Million Bolton Plagiarism Decision
  http://www.livedaily.com/news/1168.html
  

• "French jazz pianist Jacques Loussier sued the rapper Eminem for $10 million, claiming his hit song 'Kill You' borrowed heavily from Loussier's 20-year-old song 'Pulsion.'  the suit is pending."  From: "Combating Plagiarism."  CQ Researcher.  19