Take a look at the following examples:
Original Passage:
- University of Tulsa psychologist Judy Berry studied seventy-three Oklahoma eighth graders who had taken a parenting course. For ten days, each student had to care for a ten-pound sack of flour as if it were a baby. Berry’s research on her young subjects suggests the course worked: The teenagers in the study had a sounder sense of parental responsibility than they did before they took the course.
Plagiarized Version:
- University of Tulsa psychologist Judy Berry conducted a study of eight graders who had taken a ten day parenting course. Students had to treat a ten-pound sack of flour as if it were a baby. According to Berry’s research, the course worked. After the course, students had a better understanding of parental responsibility than they did before they took the course.
(Notice that much of the text is taken directly from the original source. This passage is not in the writer's own words.)
Paraphrased Correctly Versions:
- Extended parental role-playing can actually increase an adolescent’s awareness of parental responsibilities as shown by psychologist Judy Berry’s study involving eighth grade students (Harper, 1996).
- In a study of eighth grade students taking a parenting course involving role-playing, Psychologist Judy Berry determined that students were more parentally responsible after taking the course (Harper, 1996).