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Plagiarism: How To Avoid Plagiarism

The purpose of this guide is to help students, researchers, and faculty understand what plagiarism is, why it matters, and how to avoid it.

Avoiding Plagiarism-Credit Where Credit is Due

Basically, there is only one way to avoid plagiarism—give credit where credit is due. this means citing a source whenever you use information that is not your own unless it is common knowledge.

If you come up with an idea on your own, you don't have to give credit to anyone (except yourself). Also, if you are writing about something that is common knowledge, you don’t have to give a citation for your source.

Common knowledge, by the way, is information you and your reader are likely to know without referring to some other source. It can vary from subject to subject.

Quotation

  • Using a small portion of a work exactly as it appears in the original

  • The original author or source should always be cited

    • Paraphrasing

  • Putting a passage in your own words

  • It does not mean changing a few words or even sentence structure, it is to show that you understand a passage on your own terms.

  • May take from a longer section than a quote and condense it slightly

  • Author/source should still be credited

    • When to Quote

  • When another writer's language is especially memorable or uniquely expressive 

  • When another writer's language is so clear and economical that making the same point in your own words would be ineffective.

  • When you want the solid reputation of a source to lend authority to your own writing.

    • 6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing

    1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
    2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.
    3. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
    4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.
    5. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.
    6. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.

    Original source: Purdue OWL: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing. 

    Summarizing

  • Using your own words to describe the main idea(s) of a passage

  • Summaries are usually shorter and cover ideas more broadly than the original passage or a paraphrase

  • As with quotes and paraphrasing, the source of the passage summarized is to be cited