Samples from

The Plagiarism Book 2nd Edition
ISBN 1-929463-02-2

©2001 Gary K. Clabaugh & Edward G. Rozycki
Newfoundations Press
P.O. Box 94
Oreland, PA 19075


edited 8/25/01

(P. 4) Try your own hand at the Rewrite Game

Try playing the Rewrite Game with your friends. Disguise some familiar songs, poems, or texts by rewriting them. In doing so, you will be practicing what you will learn more thoroughly in this book. And most important, you will be learning writing skills that will stand you in good stead for the rest of your academic career.

Some More Examples -- try to figure out the original


A. It has been eighty-seven years in this North American land since our ancestors acting freely created a new form of government based on the idea of human equality. (Appropriate Citation) Hint: Presidential Speech.

B. There was a beautiful woman, alone in the world with her three daughters. She met a man, who, too, had no one but his three sons. They married and formed one family called ... (Appropriate Citation) Hint: TV show theme.

C. The thing I have to answer is whether to go on existing or not. Is it better to face the hardships of life or to commit suicide? Dying, it's like going to sleep. Sleeping ... and maybe dreaming? (Appropriate Citation) Hint: Shakespeare..

D. It is impossible to deny that God has created all human begins equal and given them the right to live, to conduct themselves in freedom and to go after the things that make them happy. (Appropriate Citation) Hint: Governmental Document

... (many more examples of this sort are used to illustrate paraphrase processes in the text.)

A Basic Transformation : Change of Voice with examples and exercises (p.25) Active Voice -- Passive Voice

An explanation of this complex transformation, should you need it, is given in Chapter 14.

Try your intuition first. Examine the following examples and try to make appropriate changes in the exercises that follow.

Hints are given.

Example A:

Original: Mrs. Wilson's Siamese cat was run over by the green truck.

Change of voice: The green truck ran over Mrs. Wilson's Siamese cat.

Example B:

Original: The Calder Institute can report new developments immediately.

Change of voice: New developments can be reported by the Calder Institute immediately.


1. Retailers often sell furniture at reduced prices.

Furniture is often ______________ by ___________________ at reduced prices.

2. Beta-blockers can reduce blood pressure.

_______________________can be reduced by _____________________.

3. Simpson is investigating baboon behavior in small colonies.

_____________________in small colonies is ___________ investigated by Simpson.

... A transformation of secondary importance with examples and exercises.

(page 37) Using 's to Condense - ...Sue's fast running

Again, a careful examination of examples is worth many words of explanation.

Example 1:

Original: John drives recklessly. That scares me.
C&J (compress & join): John's reckless driving scares me.

Example 2:

Originals: Mary doesn't know what to do. That bothers me.
C&J: Mary's not knowing what to do bothers me.


1. Some children come to school late. That affects their grades

Some children's ________________________________________affects their grades.

2. Sam wrestles aggressively. That makes my back hurt.

___________ aggressive ______________________ makes my back hurt.

... (All paraphrase processes are illustrated and provided with exercises.)

Essay on Plagiarism and the Web

(page 57)... The Web makes plagiarism more tempting than ever. In fact, web sites offer down-loadable papers for free and for pay to students nationwide. (We were able to locate over 130 free online essay sites.) These prewritten essays address thousands of topics in dozens of categories. The quality ranges from laughable to professional(?) provided you can afford to pay a minimum of, say, $500.00 for the latter.

There's nothing new in selling pre-written essays. Youth oriented magazines have long included ads offering term papers for sale. But in those "good old days" you had to dig through the library, find something, then retype it. Web site papers can be downloaded in an instant. And such effortless cheating is seductive. Remember, though, the very same technology greatly simplifies catching cheats. Instructors just go on the Web and search for key words of phrases. It takes no time to find where they came from. ...