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Case Study

Based on the definition of plagiarism provided, how should a researcher diagnose the student's decision to omit a citation in this scenario? Explain your reasoning.

Case context: A graduate student is drafting the introduction for a research study. They read a compelling theoretical argument in a published journal article and decide to incorporate the core concepts into their own paper. The student carefully rephrases the concepts so that the wording is entirely their own, but they do not provide a citation because they believe that summarizing the concepts in new words makes it their original work.

Question: Based on the definition of plagiarism provided, how should a researcher diagnose the student's decision to omit a citation in this scenario? Explain your reasoning.

Sample answer: The researcher should diagnose the student's action as plagiarism. The definition states that plagiarism involves using someone else's words or ideas without giving them proper acknowledgment. Even though the student changed the words, they still used the original author's ideas. By failing to provide a citation, they engaged in the theft of individual thought and research without proper acknowledgment.

Key points:

  • Diagnoses the student's action as an act of plagiarism.
  • Explains that plagiarism applies to the unacknowledged use of ideas, not just exact words.
  • Points out that the student failed to give proper acknowledgment through a citation.
  • Recognizes that this constitutes the theft of individual thought.

Rubric: The response must demonstrate comprehension by correctly identifying that stealing ideas, even without stealing exact words, still constitutes plagiarism when proper acknowledgment is not given.

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Updated 2026-05-27

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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU

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