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Suppose a student named Larissa was planning a speech about the history of drive-in movie theaters. She had drawn her inspiration from a magazine article she saw in an airport while traveling home from school for the holidays. She thought the topic was unusual enough to make an interesting presentation, and her instructor agreed and approved her choice.

When trying to research the topic, however, Larissa could find little or no material beyond the magazine article she had found in the airport. Panic set in as the day for her in-class speech approached. In desperation, Larissa decided that no one in her class at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor would know about the article because it had been published in Nevada Horizons, a magazine sold only in the greater Las Vegas area. Rationalizing her actions, she used nearly all of the article verbatim as her speech.

It turned out that the magazine article had appeared simultaneously in several different publications, including a large national newspaper where Larissa’s instructor had read it. Larissa earned an F in the class and was suspended from school.

Clearly, what Larissa did constituted plagiarism. But what if she had taken only one-third, one-half, or even just a few lines from the story and represented the material as her own? Would any of these scenarios still constitute plagiarism? Yes. Whether she lifted five pages or one page or only a single sentence, she would still be stealing the original author’s words and ideas. By analogy, a shop owner won’t care whether you stole one or two eggs or an entire dozen. Either way, you stole.

Plagiarism is particularly common among students who research their speech topics online. The temptation to lift and use text from a Web site can be overwhelming, but doing so without attribution is stealing. Students face the related danger of unintentional plagiarism when they copy a quotation from a source and paste it into their notes without writing down the citation information. When they return to their notes later, they may not remember that they had copied and pasted the material as opposed to writing it themselves.

Most of the direct quotations you use in a speech will be short—a line or two or, at most, a paragraph. To avoid plagiarism, you must attribute the quote to its source. How should you cite the source? If Larissa had just used several quotes from the magazine article, she might have attributed the material in the following way:

As Roberta Gonzales wrote in the June 19 issue of Nevada Horizons (p. D4), “The growth and popularity of drive-in theaters tracked with the affordability of automobiles for a larger and younger population of drivers.”

The first part of this sentence is the attribution, which includes the page number. In delivering your speech, it’s OK not to cite the page numbers of all your sources. However, we strongly suggest that you document a complete citation on your speech outline or text. That way, anyone (including your instructor) who wants to check your facts can easily do so. Before preparing your speech, make sure to check with your instructor to find out if he or she has additional expectations for proper attribution.

Click the "Next" button to try Video Activity 3.2, “Citing Someone Else’s Idea.”