6.5 Avoiding Plagiarism
What is Plagiarism and How Can I Avoid It?
Plagiarism is fairly easy to avoid as long as you pay close attention to how you integrate your source material and make sure that you give credit to the source when using someone else’s words or ideas. There are two ways to use someone’s ideas: you may use them word for word (verbatim) as a quote, or you may paraphrase the idea in your own words. Either way, the original author should be credited for their words or ideas.
Plagiarism (sometimes called “literary theft”) is the presentation of someone else’s work as your own.
More formally stated, it is the act of claiming language, ideas, opinions, theories, software code, artistic material, or anything else developed by another person without acknowledging that person as the source of the material. Because of the ubiquity of information online and the ease with which we can cut and paste, it is very easy to commit plagiarism and not even be aware of doing so. But whether the plagiarism is intentional or unintentional, it is considered dishonest, unfair, and unethical.
There are serious consequences for both intentional and unintentional plagiarism. Ignorance is not an excuse. As a student, the consequences of plagiarism can range from the loss of credit for an assignment or course to expulsion from school. In the work world, the consequences of plagiarism can range from loss of your professional reputation and credibility to the loss of your job and the destruction of your career. As a student, you should be familiar with your school’s and/or instructors’ academic integrity policies.
Examples of Plagiarism
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- Copying and pasting from a source into your work without attribution
- Purchasing a paper online or from another student
- Turning in the same work in two different classes (self-plagiarism)
- Failing to put quotation marks around direct quotes in your work
- Copying a diagram, image, graph, or photo into your work without referencing the source
- Copying and pasting text and changing just a few words or phrases to “put it into your own words,” sometimes referred to as patch writing
- Using information gained in a personal interview or conversation without citing the source
- Failing to cite sources for any information that you used in your paper
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*Only information considered to be universally common knowledge, such as dates of important events and widely known facts, can be used without citing the source.
Credit must always be given to others for:
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- their words, either quoted or paraphrased;
- their artistic material (photos, charts, slideshows, etc.); and
- their research findings, analysis, and conclusions.
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The best way to avoid plagiarism is to simply list the sources you used in preparing your work (many writers find it helpful to jot down or bookmark all their sources as they find them and compose their drafts). You may not end up using all of your sources, but saving them as you work (even if you may not use