<p>Okay, I am seriously freaking out! For an IB IOP, I did a lot of research and found a book and a journal article that I really liked and found fascinating and I used it to prepare my presentation. I wrote an outline, highlighted, took notes, and paraphrased a lot of stuff and used things from the text to organize my presentation, and I was really excited and interested because the topic was pretty cool. I then did my presentation and turned the outline with my notes and such in to my teacher, not thinking to really cite because it wasn't a formal paper and just my notes. I'm terrified that I will be accused of plagiarism though when she sends it into IB as my statement of intent because I've been reading all night on what plagiarism is exactly and everything and what I wrote looks like what's called "patchwork plagiarism" and plus I didn't properly cite anything and I know this can ruin my admissions and my whole life! What do I do?!</p>
<p>I am not familiar with the IB program, but I would tell your teacher that you did use sources (and really enjoyed the research) and ask if you should hand in a works cited page.</p>
<p>I think most people would be hard pressed to even call that plagiarism; you just turned in an assignment without a works cited page. Unless the IB program is just plain bizarre, I doubt this is going to ruin anything.</p>
<p>I did use a lot of info from these sources though, since I found it so interesting, and I kind of merged it with my own ideas so now I’m not really sure what was mine or the article’s and book’s, and I think it sounds like the patchwork plagiarism I read about. 
Plus no citing makes it look like I’m trying to pass it off as my own, no? If I email my teacher I’m sure she’ll let me add the works cited, but I’m still scared because it still sounds like patchwork plagiarism! :[</p>
<p>If the ideas are not your own, you need to give credit. Credit can come in many forms. If you were giving a speech, you might say, “According to _______, …” Many, many young people are unclear about what plagiarism is and isn’t. Many, many young people are terrible cheaters. Just e-mail the teacher and ask the question. It is obvious that you did not set out to intentionally cheat. It is also obvious that you put some work into the project. You are always right to give credit; if there is ever a question as to where the information came from, you have provided sources.</p>
<p>You might also take a look at the Purdue University online writing lab’s plagiarism information. It makes it pretty clear.</p>
<p>Yeah, I read the Purdue information and plagiarism.org and Duke and stuff, and I know I definitely should have cited, but I’m also concerned because it sounds like what was described as patchwork plagiarism on the Duke site, since a lot of the things in the outline were merging so many ideas, but I have cited them properly in MLA now and I emailed asking if I could add my works cited page and I shall probably receive a response tomorrow. Trouble is, even with a citation, could it still be called plagiarism because things are other people’s ideas?</p>
<p>I think that because you have taken action you will be fine. I regularly catch plagiarism and I am much more sympathetic to those who made a mistake.</p>
<p>It is fine for you to rely on other people’s ideas as long as you attribute so it’s clear you aren’t passing off their ideas as your own. For example, if you are describing scholar A’s ideas, and then present scholar B and C’s criticisms of A, along with your own analysis which is in partial agreement with the ideas of scholar D, there is going to be a lot of attribution, footnotes, etc., but it is not going to be plagiarism.</p>
<p>I’m just nervous because I paraphrased a lot and some of it sounds very similar, looking back on it now. The thing is, they’re just my notes for the actual oral presentation, so I thought it was all right, but now that I read more about plagiarism I’m getting kind of scared. I hope she accepts my works cited page, and I hope IBO accepts it too. :/</p>
<p>It sounds as if you’re fine. Just be sure that when you do a major paraphrase, you say, for example, B and C suggest that bla bla bla, whereas D’s more legalistic approach supports bla bla. It’s fine if the bla bla is paraphrase as long as you make it clear who – or what combination of scholars – you’re parapharsing.</p>
<p>The presentation is already over and I didn’t really mention author names, I just presented everything together that I read and thought myself ack!!! Also the part of the statement of intent, which is an outline and notes to help me prepare for the presentation, I’m concerned about too. I have a works cited page at the bottom now, which I didn’t hand into my teacher before but am asking if I can now, but I don’t know if in text is necessary since it’s not really a formal paper? It’s an outline-ish / introduction paragraph with a statement of my intent…</p>
<p>It sounds as if you’ve corrected whatever problem there might have been. Clearly, it would have been good if you’d mentioned your sources, but you gave an informal oral presentation and now you’ve presented the teacher with all of the citations. Wait and see what she says, but it’s hard to imagine that you’re going to have a serious issue here.</p>
<p>She accepted my works cited page. Should everything be all right now?</p>
<p>lol, stop freaking out! of course it’s ok if your teacher told you so.</p>
<p>I’m just nervous because I don’t know if she knew I used the sources until now when I sent it to her and maybe it was bad of me to present like that without citing authors because it might have sounded like they were my own ideas plus a lot of my paraphrasings sound really really similar in my notes to the article and book I used, and now I’m giving her a works cited later.</p>
<p>Calm down. It’s taken care of. Do take it as a learning opportunity though - universities are VERY strict about plagiarism and are often unwilling to overlook incidents just because they were unintentional.</p>
<p>She accepted your works cited page, so the ideas “patchworked” together on your outline are now accounted for. You’re fine. Just take this as the lesson it is and remember always to credit your sources. The stakes of plagiarizing get much higher in college, where honor codes are law.</p>
<p>definitely ask your teacher and turn in a cited/bibliography</p>
<p>at our son’s school–all papers require sources to be cited–even printing out the web sites</p>
<p>better safe than sorry</p>