Download Original source (text) Verbatim plagiarism, or unacknowledged

Original source (text) Alvin Kernan, The Playwright as Magician. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. pp. 102–103. From time to time this submerged or latent theater in becomes almost overt. It is close to the surface in Hamlet’s pretense of madness, the “antic disposition” he puts on to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from plucking out the heart of his mystery. It is even closer to the surface when Hamlet enters his mother’s room and holds up, side by side, the pictures of the two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made, presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he leaps into the open grave at Ophelia’s funeral, ranting in high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief. Verbatim plagiarism, or unacknowledged direct quotation (lifted passages are underlined) Almost all of Shakespeare’s Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theater. For example, there is Hamlet’s pretense of madness, the “antic disposition” that he puts on to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from plucking out the heart of his mystery. When Hamlet enters his mother’s room, he holds up, side by side, the pictures of the two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made, presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he leaps into the open grave at Ophelia’s funeral, ranting in high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief. In this first example you will see a paragraph that a student might read if he or she was assigned to write a paper on Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. You can see that this paragraph is taken from a book written by Alvin Kernan. Now take a look at the paragraph the student wrote. As you can see, the first sentence has changed somewhat. And, the remainder of the paragraph (as you can see from the underlined sentences) is exactly the same, or word-­‐for-­‐word, as the original author’s. The result is clear plagiarism. The few small changes of the wording do not relieve the student of the responsibility to give credit to the original author. In cases where using the exact words of an author are necessary, a student must put those words inside of quotation marks and cite the author in order to indicate that the words and ideas are not original. What would happen to a student who did this? This type of plagiarism violates UNK’s Student Code of Conduct. Therefore, the student would automatically fail the course and the situation would be brought to the attention of UNK’s Student Conduct Officer. The Student Conduct Officer would institute sanctions that could be anything from expulsion to student conduct education sessions. The sanction that is given to the student depends on the severity of the situation.