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ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

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1

GLOSSARY

paper – an essay or another written document, especially when required as
homework for a class
* For school next week, I have to turn in two papers and take a midterm exam.

to slap (something) on – to add something to a document very quickly and
carelessly, without spending a lot of time in preparation or implementation
* The text is okay, but let’s slap a few graphics on the report before we send it
out.

to wise up – to understand the unpleasant truth or reality about something; to
stop being naive or too innocent in one’s thinking
* Did you really believe Gerald when he said those things to you? You’re going to
have to wise up and realize that he just says whatever he thinks you want to
hear.

to cheat – to achieve something or win a game by doing something that is
dishonest and gives one an advantage over other people who are trying to do the
same thing
* Athletes who take steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are
cheating to win.

to get caught – for someone to find out about something bad one has done
when one was trying to hide it
* You should have seen the look on little Mina’s face when she got caught taking
cookies from the cookie jar.

to flunk – to receive a failing grade; to get an F; to not pass an exam or class
* The final exam is really difficult. If you don’t study, you’ll flunk.

to be/get expelled – to be told to leave a school or university and not come
back, usually as a punishment for poor grades and/or bad behavior
* Students who use illegal drugs will be expelled.

goody two-shoes – a rude, teasing term for a person (usually a young girl) who
always follows the rules, does everything right, and tries to please people in
authority
* Sheila is a goody two-shoes who always does her homework and always raises
her hand before speaking during class.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

2

to lift – to take without permission; to steal
* The store’s security cameras recorded an image of someone lifting the new
MP3 players when the clerk wasn’t watching.

to paraphrase – to express someone’s idea in one’s own word; to rephrase how
someone else has said or written something
* Even if you paraphrase an idea, you still have to indicate where you originally
found it.

source – where a statement or idea comes from, usually a book, journal,
newspaper, or website
* According to our sources, sales have increased by 20% over the past six
months.

to represent (something) – to present something in a certain way
* The marketing manager is representing the new strategies as if they were
revolutionary, but they’re just the same things all of our competitors are doing.

attribution – a statement that indicates where an idea or statement came from;
credit
* Yes, you may use our materials as long as you include the full attribution.

to plagiarize – to present another person’s words or ideas as one’s own
* Many professors use special software to determine whether their students are
plagiarizing others’ work in their essays.

degree – diploma; the official piece of paper showing that one has completed a
university program in a particular area
* Ahmed has a graduate degree in computer science and an undergraduate
degree in electrical engineering.

damn straight – an informal phrase used to show one’s full agreement with what
another person has said
* A: Are you going to report all of your income on your tax return?
B: Damn straight! I don’t want to get in trouble with the government.

to shortchange (someone) out of (something) – to give someone less than
what he or she deserves; to cheat someone or treat someone unfairly
* Poor Brandon. He has no idea his mother shortchanged him out of a job offer
by calling his interviewers to ask for special treatment.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

3

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. Why does Paul tell Samantha to wise up?
a) Because he doesn’t think she has enough education.
b) Because she doesn’t understand how things really work.
c) Because she thinks too highly of the professor.

2. According to Samantha, what might happen to people who get caught
cheating?
a) They might get kicked out of school.
b) They might have to pay a fine.
c) They might never get a job.

______________


WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?

paper
The word “paper,” in this podcast, means an essay or another written document,
especially when required as homework for a class: “Please write a paper on your
interpretation of the book The Scarlet Letter.” A “paper” can also be a
newspaper: “Did you see the front-page story in the paper this morning?” The
“funny papers” are the comics, or the colored drawings used to tell short,
humorous stories in the newspaper: “Yevgeny likes to read the funny papers
before he reads any other part of the newspaper in the morning.” Finally,
“scratch paper” refers to inexpensive paper or a small part of a piece of paper
that has already been written on, used to make unimportant notes or
calculations: “Quick, give me a piece of scratch paper so I can write down your
phone number.”

to lift
In this podcast, the verb “to lift” means to take without permission or to steal:
“Everyone was shocked to learn that the novelist had lifted entire paragraphs
from other books.” The phrase “to lift (someone’s) spirits” means to cheer
someone up or to make someone feel happier: “A little bit of sunshine always lifts
my spirits.” The phrase “to not lift a finger” means to not help at all: “Last time
your sister visited, she didn’t lift a finger to help with anything.” Finally, the phrase
“to lift off” means for an airplane or another flying machine to leave the ground
and begin traveling through the air: “The crowd counted down from 10 and then
watched the space shuttle lift off.”

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

4

CULTURE NOTE

Detecting Plagiarism

The “rise” (increased use and popularity) of the Internet has made it “easier than
ever” (easier than ever before) for students to copy others’ work and present it as
their own for “academic assignments” (homework). Many teachers and university
professors are responding by using online tools to “detect” (find) plagiarism.

“Manual detection” (finding plagiarism without the use of tools) is difficult,
because the individual must have read the source material and remembered
exactly what it said. “Computer-assistance” (with help from a computer) detection
is much easier, because a computer can compare a very large number of source
materials against a piece of text that has been “excerpted” (with a small part
taken out) from the student’s “submission” (what a student has presented to the
teacher).

Many of the online tools can check for different levels of plagiarism. The most
basic ones can “highlight” (put in another color for easy identification) sections of
text that are “verbatim” (with exactly the same words) with the original sources.
More advanced tools can identify instances of “word substitution” where the
student has copied the same sentence structure as the original source, but has
changed out some of the words with “synonyms” (words that have similar
meanings) to try to avoid getting caught for plagiarism.

One of the most commonly used “plagiarism checkers” (tools that detect
plagiarism) checks for plagiarism from websites. Users on the plagiarism
checking website can enter the “URL” (website address starting with
http://www...) of a website and it “returns” (presents) a list of websites with
“identical” (the same) or similar “content” (text).

______________

Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – b; 2 – a

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
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5

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 910 – Plagiarizing
a Paper.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 910. I'm your host, Dr.
Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in
beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Our website is ESLPod.com. Go there to download a Learning Guide for this
episode.

This episode is a dialogue between Paul and Samantha about someone who is
cheating in school. Let’s get started.

[start of dialog]

Paul: All done.

Samantha: You’re done with your paper? How can that be? I’m just getting
started.

Paul: I’m just a better student than you are.

Samantha: Let me see that. You didn’t write this.

Paul: No, I didn’t. I downloaded somebody’s paper from some website and
slapped my name on it. The professor will never know. Wise up. Do you want
me to find one for you?

Samantha: No way! Not only is it cheating, if you get caught, you could flunk the
class or get expelled.

Paul: Don’t be such a goody two-shoes. Everybody does it. I know a guy who
pays somebody in another state to write all of his papers for him and another guy
who lifts his papers from old books. Don’t tell me you’ve never paraphrased
ideas from a source and represented them as your own.

Samantha: Are you kidding me? Borrowing ideas from a book with proper
attribution is what you’re supposed to do. You, on the other hand, are
plagiarizing your way to your degree.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

6

Paul: Damn straight! Look who’s done with his homework and who is still
working on hers.

Samantha: I’d rather earn what I get and know that I didn’t shortchange myself
out of an education!

[end of dialog]

Paul begins our dialog by saying, “All done,” meaning “all finished.” I'm
completely finished with whatever I was doing. Samantha says, “You’re done
with your paper?” “Paper” here, when we are talking about school, refers to an
essay or another written document that is required as part of your homework. It
could be a report on a book. It could be an analysis of some subject – any of
those things would be called a “paper.”

Samantha says, “How can that be?” “How is that possible?” she means. “I'm just
getting started,” meaning I'm just getting started on my paper. Paul says, “I'm just
a better student then you are.” Samantha says in reply, “Let me see that. You
didn't write this.” Samantha is saying that Paul didn't even write this paper that he
said he completed.

Paul says, “No, I didn't. I downloaded somebody’s paper from some website and
slapped my name on it.” Paul says that he bought, he purchased, or at least, he
downloaded from the Internet, this paper and then “slapped” his name on it. “To
slap (slap) on something” means to add something, usually something to a
written document.

Let's say you're preparing a report for your boss and, you, at the very last minute,
right before you need to give it to him, you remember that you didn't put a
conclusion on it. You didn't summarize your findings. So, you decide to “slap on”
a conclusion. It means to add something to a document very quickly, but not very
carefully, often done without a lot of preparation.

It's not a good idea to slap something on a document right before you need to
turn it in. That's, however, what Paul is saying about his name. He slapped his
name on this document. He just changed the name and put his own name on it.

He says, “The professor” – the teacher, the instructor – “will never know. Wise
up. Do you want me to find one for you?” Paul is saying that the professor will
never discover that this is not his paper, and he tells Samantha to “wise up.” “To
wise up” is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to understand something about the
real world, about the way things really work. We often use this expression when

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

7

someone seems innocent or what we would describe as “naïve” (naïve).
Someone who's naive is someone who doesn't have a lot of experience, who
thinks things are more honest, perhaps, than they really are, or who thinks that
people are more honest than they really are.

Paul is saying that Samantha should wise up, and then offers to find a paper for
her. Samantha, however, says, “No way. Not only is it cheating, if you get caught,
you could flunk the class or get expelled.” Samantha is not going to do what Paul
did. She's not going to be dishonest. She's not going to cheat. “To cheat” (cheat)
is to get something unfairly, to win a game unfairly, or to get a grade that you
don't deserve because you did something that you weren't supposed to do.

Samantha says, “If you get caught,” meaning if someone finds out about this bad
thing that you did, “you could flunk the class.” “To flunk” (flunk) means not to
pass a class in school, to get what we would call a failing grade, or a failing mark.
Usually, that means getting an “F.” That means that you failed, that you flunked,
that you did not pass the class.

That happened to me a couple of times. I took German once and flunked, but I
didn't really complete the course, and then I also took a class in computer
programming back in the 1980’s. I believe it was “COBALT” (Cobalt). I flunked
that class, too. So, even professors flunk classes.

Samantha is telling Paul that he will flunk this class if he is caught, or possibly get
expelled. To be or to get “expelled” (expelled) means that you are told you must
leave the school, leave the university. You can no longer be a student here. It's
the worst possible punishment you can get. It means you can no longer go to
school at that place.

Paul is not too worried, however. He says to Samantha, “Don't be such a goody
two-shoes.” This is an old expression – a “goody (goody) two (two) [-] shoes
(shoes).” When you call someone a “goody two-shoes,” it means that this is a
person who always follows the rules. It's an insulting term, however. It's
something that you are saying to criticize someone. Someone who’s a goody
two-shoes is too good, is too honest, is too willing to follow the rules, instead of
doing what everyone else does. Of course, this is a very relative description; that
is, it depends on who you are and what the situation is. Usually, however, it is
used as an insult, especially among children.

Paul then says that “Everybody does it,” meaning everybody cheats. “I know a
guy” – I know a man – “who pays somebody in another state to write all of his
papers for him and another guy” – another person – “who lifts his papers from old

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

8

books.” Paul is saying he has two friends, or two people he knows: one of them
pays someone else to write his papers, another one steals his papers from old
books. He copies old books.

Paul says, “Don't tell me you've never paraphrased ideas from a source and
represented them as your own.” “To paraphrase” (paraphrase) means to express
someone else's ideas, but in your own words, using your own words to give the
same idea. A “source” (source) is where you get information from. It could be a
book. It could be the Internet. It could be a friend – all of those could be sources
of information. “To represent something” means to present it in a certain way.
Paul is saying that even Samantha has taken other people's ideas and called
them her own. She's represented them as her own.

Samantha says, “Are you kidding me?” Are you joking? She says, “Borrowing
ideas from a book with proper attribution is what you're supposed to do.” She’s
saying that if you take an idea from another source, you need to have proper
“attribution” (attribution). “Attribution” is a statement indicating where you got this
idea from, or where you got this quote from. She says, “You on the other hand
are plagiarizing your way to your degree.” Samantha is saying that Paul is
plagiarizing his way to his degree. “To plagiarize” (plagiarize) means to take
someone else's words and use them as if they were your own, to take someone
else's writing and say that it was your writing. That is “to plagiarize.” And of
course, that is dishonest and not allowed by any school – any good school,
anyway. A “degree” (degree) is the same as a diploma. It's an official piece of
paper showing that you have completed your studies at a university or college.

Paul, however, is not going to change his mind. When Samantha says that he's
plagiarizing his way to his degree, he says, “Damn straight.” This is somewhat of
a vulgar expression. “Damn” (damn) when you say it in anger or in excitement, is
a vulgar, impolite phrase. Often, you say it when you are angry about something.
Here, however, Paul is using it as a way of emphasizing. “Damn straight” means
you are in complete agreement with the other person. You agree with the other
person in everything they say. You're saying, “Yes, that's correct. I agree with
you.” But you use it usually in cases where you are trying to emphasize to the
other person how much you agree with that statement.

Again, it's a vulgar expression. You shouldn't use this at work. You shouldn't
probably use it at all. You could say, instead of “Damn straight,” you could say,
“Absolutely!” or “Yes, that's absolutely right.”

Paul continues by saying, “Look who’s done with his homework and who is still
working on hers.” He’s saying, “I'm done with my homework. You're still working

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

9

on your paper.” Samantha says, “I'd rather earn what I get and know that I didn't
shortchange myself out of an education.” “To earn it” means to get it by working.
“To shortchange yourself out of something” means to give someone less than
what they deserve, to cheat someone out of what they should be getting. “To
shortchange someone out of something” is to be dishonest with them. Samantha
is saying she doesn't want to shortchange herself out of an education. She wants
to get a real education by doing her own work.

Now let's listen to the dialog this time at a normal speed.

[start of dialog]

Paul: All done.

Samantha: You’re done with your paper? How can that be? I’m just getting
started.

Paul: I’m just a better student than you are.

Samantha: Let me see that. You didn’t write this.

Paul: No, I didn’t. I downloaded somebody’s paper from some website and
slapped my name on it. The professor will never know. Wise up. Do you want
me to find one for you?

Samantha: No way! Not only is it cheating, if you get caught, you could flunk the
class or get expelled.

Paul: Don’t be such a goody two-shoes. Everybody does it. I know a guy who
pays somebody in another state to write all of his papers for him and another guy
who lifts his papers from old books. Don’t tell me you’ve never paraphrased
ideas from a source and represented them as your own.

Samantha: Are you kidding me? Borrowing ideas from a book with proper
attribution is what you’re supposed to do. You, on the other hand, are
plagiarizing your way to your degree.

Paul: Damn straight! Look who’s done with his homework and who is still
working on hers.

Samantha: I’d rather earn what I get and know that I didn’t shortchange myself
out of an education!

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 910 – Plagiarizing a Paper

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

10

[end of dialog]

She never cheats or plagiarizes. She's an original scriptwriter. I speak, of course,
of our wonderful, Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come
back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast was written and produced by Dr. Lucy
Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational
Development.