PLAGIARISM: WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO AVOID IT

>>> What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is theft of another person's writings or ideas. Generally, it occurs when someone steals expressions from another author's composition and makes them appear to be his own work.

Plagiarism occurs when a writer duplicates another writer's language or ideas and then calls the work his or her own. Copyright laws protect writers' words as their legal property. To avoid the charge of plagiarism, writers take care to credit those from whom they borrow and quote.

>>> How To Avoid Plagiarism?

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:

a) another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;
b) any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge;
c) quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or
d) paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.

>>> How to Recognize Plagiarism?

To help you recognize what plagiarism looks like and what strategies you can use to avoid it, scroll down to the appropriate topic.

1) How to Recognize Unacceptable and Acceptable Paraphrases
2) An Unacceptable Paraphrase
3) An Acceptable Paraphrase
4) Another Acceptable Paraphrase
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>>> How to Recognize Unacceptable and Acceptable Paraphrases?

Here’s the ORIGINAL text, from page 1 of Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890s by Joyce Williams et al.:

The rise of industry, the growth of cities, and the expansion of the population were the three great developments of late nineteenth century American history. As new, larger, steam-powered factories became a feature of the American landscape in the East, they transformed farm hands into industrial laborers, and provided jobs for a rising tide of immigrants. With industry came urbanization the growth of large cities (like Fall River, Massachusetts, where the Bordens lived) which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade.
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What makes this passage plagiarism?

Here’s an UNACCEPTABLE paraphrase that is plagiarism:

The increase of industry, the growth of cities, and the explosion of the population were three large factors of nineteenth century America. As steam-driven companies became more visible in the eastern part of the country, they changed farm hands into factory workers and provided jobs for the large wave of immigrants. With industry came the growth of large cities like Fall River where the Bordens lived which turned into centers of commerce and trade as well as production.

This passage is considered plagiarism for two reasons:

a) the writer has only changed around a few words and phrases, or changed the order of the original’s sentences.
b) the writer has failed to cite a source for any of the ideas or facts.

If you do either or both of these things, you are plagiarizing.

NOTE: This paragraph is also problematic because it changes the sense of several sentences (for example, "steam-driven companies" in sentence two misses the original’s emphasis on factories).
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Why is this passage acceptable?

Here’s an ACCEPTABLE paraphrase:

Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. Steam-powered production had shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, and as immigrants arrived in the US, they found work in these new factories. As a result, populations grew, and large urban areas arose. Fall River was one of these manufacturing and commercial centers (Williams 1).

This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer:

a) accurately relays the information in the original uses her own words.
b) lets her reader know the source of her information.

Here’s an example of quotation and paraphrase used together, which is also ACCEPTABLE:

Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. As steam-powered production shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, the demand for workers "transformed farm hands into industrial laborers," and created jobs for immigrants. In turn, growing populations increased the size of urban areas. Fall River was one of these hubs "which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade" (Williams 1).

This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer:

a) records the information in the original passage accurately.
b) gives credit for the ideas in this passage.
c) indicated which part is taken directly from her source by putting the passage in quotation marks and citing the page number.

Note that if the writer had used these phrases or sentences in her own paper without putting quotation marks around them, she would be PLAGIARIZING. Using another person’s phrases or sentences without putting quotation marks around them is considered plagiarism EVEN IF THE WRITER CITES IN HER OWN TEXT THE SOURCE OF THE PHRASES OR SENTENCES SHE HAS QUOTED.
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>>> Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism

a) Put in quotations everything that comes directly from the text especially when taking notes.
b) Paraphrase, but be sure you are not just rearranging or replacing a few words.

Instead, read over what you want to paraphrase carefully; cover up the text with your hand, or close the text so you can’t see any of it (and so aren’t tempted to use the text as a “guide”). Write out the idea in your own words without peeking.

c) Check your paraphrase against the original text to be sure you have not accidentally used the same phrases or words, and that the information is accurate.
 

Produced by Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

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