What is
Plagiarism?
Education
always involves a complex and critical engagement with the thoughts, positions,
theories and information worked out and presented by other people. Your job as
a student is to seriously and critically reflect upon this material and
incorporate it into your own work. No matter how original your work is, it will
always owe some debt to the work of other people. Thus, for ethical, social and
legal reasons it is essential that you always give credit to the work done by
others. If you make use of someone else’s work but do not clearly (and
properly) acknowledge the source, then you are guilty of plagiarism.
Plagiarism is unethical because it is a combination of theft and lying. It is
un-social, because it is simply bad manners to take credit for someone else’s
work, or to fail to recognize how someone else has helped you. Finally,
plagiarism also involves some rather serious penalties, which we will speak
more about in a moment.
Since
plagiarism is such a bad thing, it is important that we discuss in some detail
what it is.
What
is Plagiarism?
First,
there are two basic ways in which you may make use of someone else’s work.
A) Direct Quotation. This involves lifting whole passages (either large or small –e.g. a
phrase of three or four words, or a whole paragraph) word for word from someone else’s work. A direct quotation requires
you to correctly use quotation marks (“”) and to correctly cite the source of
the quotation.
B) Paraphrasing. This involves making use of someone else’s ideas but putting them
into your own words. You must be careful here. Paraphrasing does not involve
merely altering a few words, or changing the word or sentence order in minute
ways. To correctly paraphrase something you must both capture the meaning of
the original piece and do so in (more or less) wholly new language.
Paraphrasing does not necessarily require quotation marks (it only requires
quotation marks if you use a direct quote of some phrase in your paraphrase)
but always requires an appropriate citation.
Using statistics, graphs, charts or other
quantifiable information also always requires the correct use of citation.
Second,
given the above there are six possible ways of committing plagiarism.
A) Improper Quotation. An improper quotation involves a failure to either use quotation
marks correctly, or to cite the source correctly, or both.
1. If you lift a passage from
another author word for word without quotation marks and without citation, you
are effectively stealing that other person’s work and passing it off as your
own. Even if this is unintentional, it is the practical result of your action.
2. The same is true if you use
quotes but offer no citation,
3. Or use a citation but do not
use quotes.
B) Incorrect/Inappropriate Paraphrasing. An inappropriate paraphrase involves:
1. Passing off a direct quote
as a paraphrase. Even if you cite the source correctly, you are still
suggesting that the work is your paraphrase when it is in fact a word for word
quote. (This is, in effect, the same as 3 above.)
2. If you merely change a few
words, or alter the sentence structure or order, without actually putting the
passage in your own words, whether or not you cite correctly, this is still
plagiarism.
3. Even if you paraphrase
correctly (actually use your own words to capture the meaning of the original
text) but you fail to cite, it is plagiarism.
Third,
the only exception to quoting and citation is using “information that is common
knowledge” (62). If you are unsure whether or not something is common
knowledge, cite it.
Fourth,
the above makes it pretty clear that in order to avoid plagiarism you must know
how to properly cite your sources. If you are unsure how to properly cite
material you must see me or your English professor, or a tutor in ISS, or buy a
textbook that contains the information. After today, improper citation will not
be excused for ignorance. This means you must not only know how to cite in the
body of your paper but also how to organize a works cited or bibliography page.
Fifth,
Finally, since we have discussed plagiarism in class, I will not accept any plea of ignorance as exculpatory if I catch you plagiarizing. If you have any questions, or at any time are unsure whether what you are doing is plagiarism, you need to come and speak with me. If you are caught plagiarizing, the minimum penalty you can expect in this class is a requirement to re-do the assignment with the grade reduced one-fifth.
Other useful sites:
Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It (http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html)
Anti-Plagiarism Strategies
for Research Papers (http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm)\
Avoiding Plagiarism by Sharon
Williams (http://www.tarleton.edu/~mkerr/Avoid_Plagiarism.htm)
Avoiding Plagiarism (http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm)
Student Plagiarism in an
on-line world (http://www.asee.org/prism/december/html/student_plagiarism_in_an_onlin.htm)
Easy Steps to Combatting Plagiarism (http://www.coastal.edu/library/easystep.htm)