Compare the student text with the source.

Source: Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, pages 39–40. Published by W. W. Norton & Company, 1997:

Anyone who has experienced firsthand the overwhelming power of the life-sized painted bulls and horses in the Lascaux Cave of southwestern France will understand at once that their creators must have been as modern in their minds as they were in their skeletons.

Student text:

If you've seen the ancient paintings in France's Lascaux Cave, then you know that their creators must have been as modern in their minds as they were in their skeletons.

Is the student's text plagiarized? Why or why not?

1 answer

The student's text closely resembles the source material in both structure and wording, making it a case of plagiarism. While the student has altered the phrasing slightly (e.g., changing "Anyone who has experienced firsthand" to "If you've seen" and omitting some details), the overall idea and specific phrasing remain largely intact.

Plagiarism involves using someone else's ideas, text, or work without proper attribution, and here, the student has taken a significant portion of the original text's concept and structure without crediting the author. To avoid plagiarism, the student should have either paraphrased the content significantly while attributing the idea to Jared Diamond or directly quoted the source with proper citation.