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Basic Rules for Avoiding Plagiarism
True/False Questions

1 .       That George Bush is the President of the United States is common knowledge that wouldn’t have to be cited in a paper. 

 
 


2 .       The number of votes President Bush won in Florida during the 2000 election is so important that everyone should know it, so it would be common knowledge that wouldn’t have to be cited in a paper. 

 
 


3 .       I didn’t remember that Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States and that his Vice President was Ulysses S. Grant, so that information must not be common knowledge, which means I have to give a citation for it in my paper. 

 
 


4 .       When you’re not sure about whether information in your paper is common knowledge or not, it’s usually better not to cite a source, so your reader won’t think you’re trying to pad your paper with extra citations. 

 
 


5 .       You don’t need to provide a citation for information you obtained in a conversation with a friend. 

 
 


6 .       You should provide a citation for a conversation you had in a chat room on the Internet. 

 
 


7 .       You don’t need to provide a citation for a letter from a friend that you refer to in your paper, as long as you don’t quote it. 

 
 


8 .       I heard a speaker in my history class talk about World War II. One of her ideas about the causes of the war was really interesting to me, but since I’m putting the idea in my own words, I don’t need to provide a citation for the speaker. 

 
 


9 .       One of the guests on Oprah made a comment that I want to use in my paper about child abuse. Since I’m going to rephrase the comment anyway, I don’t have to give a source citation. 

 
 


10 .       I came up with an idea for my paper on my own last week and wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget it. Now, since it’s in writing, I have to provide a source citation for the idea. 

 
 






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