Chapter 7 - Bedford Researcher

Chapter 7 in the Bedford Researcher is all about plagiarism. It fills you in on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. It also throws in some helpful tips about how to tell if something is common knowledge or not, meaning that if it is common knowledge you would not need to cite a source to back up the fact. I picked up a bunch of useful things from this chapter, but the most important to me was the section n how to avoid plagiarism. The list of tips the book gives to avoid plagiarizing starts with conducting a knowledge inventory. This can be done by asking yourself three questions: 1) What do you already know about the issue? 2) What don't you know? 3) What do you want to know? This provides a good groundwork to avoiding plagiarism. The book also mentions taking notes carefully, so that you will know whether something you've written down was from a source or your own writing. Also, distinguishing your ideas from your sources ideas. This is important so that you don't write something believing it was yours when it was really taken from someone else. The book mentions other things, but the things i mentioned are what stuck out to me. This chapter provides everything you will need to ensure you will not plagiarize.