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Writing – Plagiarism Examples

Example 1 - Word for Word Plagiarism

 

 

Knossos is one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece. One of the first cities on European soil, a centre which radiated the light of one of the most brilliant civilizations of Greek and European prehistory, was the Minoan civilization. It was discovered in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos who uncovered a portion of othe western storerooms. When he donated a few large "pithoi" (large storage jars) to museums in Europe, he got the attention of A.J. Evans, a well-funded British archaeologist, who bought the site after Crete was liberated from the Turks in 1900. The excavations that would take place from 1900 to 1902 would reveal one of the most brilliant civilizations of ancient times - the Minoans.

 

 

Verdict:  Plagiarized.

  1. It is unlike the writing style of the rest of the paragraph and it is ungrammatical (missing verb).
  2. It includes spellings of British English ("centre") and American English ("civilization") . It was probably was lifted from another source and dropped into this writer's text.)
  3. It is not "common knowledge".

Recommendation:  

  1. Use quotation marks to enclose a borrowed sentence. Use brackets within a quote to add necessary words "[It was] one…   or   It was "one  …"
  2. Use an in-text citation and then include the full source in the "works cited" list. (See Citation styles.)

 

Knossos is one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece. "[It was] one of the first cities on European soil, a centre which radiated the light of one of the most brilliant civilizations of Greek and European prehistory, was the Minoan civilization" (Weber 22). It was discovered in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos who uncovered a portion of othe western storerooms. When he donated a few large "pithoi" (large storage jars) to museums in Europe, he got the attention of A.J. Evans, a well-funded British archaeologist, who bought the site after Crete was liberated from the Turks in 1900. The excavations that would take place from 1900 to 1902 would reveal one of the most brilliant civilizations of ancient times - the Minoans.

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Works Cited  (Place this at the end of the paper.)

Weber, James. Knossos: A New View on Ancient History.  Crete: Chania Press, 1989. Print 

 

(The book above is fictitious and is used for example.)

 

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