☰ Year plan · Communication Technology

Finding information the smart way

Week 5 · Theme 1, Lesson 5 Digital Research Skills · 3 lessons
1

Copy, cut and paste: use them wisely

ICT P6 Term 1, Theme 1: pp. 26–29
GoalExplain copy, cut and paste and say how to use other people’s ideas honestly.
New words
copy · to make a duplicate and leave the original where it iscut · to take something from one place so it can be put somewhere elsepaste · to put copied or cut material into a new placesource · the book, page or person that an idea comes from
Explanation

When you write on a computer, three commands help you: copy, cut and paste. Think of paper. Copy is like using a photocopier: you get a second page, and the first page stays. Cut is like using scissors: the piece leaves its place. Paste is like glue: you stick the piece into a new place. The keys that do these jobs are different on different devices, so ask your teacher; you do not have to memorise them today. There is a warning. When you copy someone’s words into your own work and do not say where they came from, you are taking their effort. Do this instead. Read the idea, close the book, and write it in your own words. That is called paraphrasing. Then name the source, for example ‘According to my school book…’. Copying and pasting a whole answer teaches you nothing, and a teacher can often see that it is not yours.

CommandLike…What happens
copya photocopiera second copy; the first stays
cutscissorsthe piece leaves its place
pastegluethe piece goes into a new place
Worked examples
bookown wordssource named
Nour’s book says: ‘The camel stores fat in its hump, and the fat gives it energy on long walks in the desert.’ Nour closes the book and writes: ‘A camel keeps fat in its hump to get energy for long desert journeys.’ Then she writes ‘According to my school book’. That is paraphrasing with a source.
cutpaste
Marwan cuts a paragraph from the end of his story and pastes it near the beginning, because it fits there better. The paragraph moved. That is cut and paste.
Salma copies a whole answer from a web page into her homework and writes no source. Her teacher says: ‘This is not your work.’ What should Salma do? Read, close the page, write in her own words, and name the source.
Class activity

Paraphrase it. Read this sentence three times: ‘A bee visits many flowers each day to collect sweet nectar.’ Cover it and write the idea in your own words, without looking. Write ‘According to…’ and the name of an invented book. Compare with a partner: did you use the same words?

Practice
1
Which command is like scissors?
2
After you copy, how many pieces do you have: one or two?
3
Which is the honest way to use an idea from a book? Say the letter.
ABC
paste the page and say nothingown words and the name of the bookcopy it into a friend’s homework
4
What is paraphrasing?