What is plagiarism?
- Self-plagiarism: Reusing your own work for multiple assignments. If you have permission from the teacher, it is okay to copy from yourself, but this should never be done without the teacher's knowledge.
- Complete plagiarism: Taking someone else's work and putting your name on it without changing anything else. Paying someone to do your work for you or copying off a friend without changing anything are examples of complete plagiarism.
- Direct plagiarism: Doing some of your own work, but also including some sections where you have directly copied from someone else without using quotations or citing your source. Copying and pasting writing from two different websites together to make a "new" paragraph in your essay is an example of direct plagiarism.
- Paraphrasing plagiarism: Reusing or copying another person's work but only changing a few words or phrases into your own words. The writing remains substantially similar to the original in organization, ideas, and style. This type of plagiarism is often called "accidental plagiarism" because many people who plagiarize in this way don't realize what they are doing. They think that they aren't copying because they have changed some of the words, but they are still mainly using the ideas and writing of another person without giving them credit for their work. Using a thesaurus to change some of the words in the original text or copying off a friend, but rephrasing some of their work into your own words are common examples of paraphrasing plagiarism.
- Mistake-based plagiarism: When you accidentally take credit for someone else's work because you forget to properly cite your sources or put quotation marks around quoted material. Usually teachers are more lenient about this type of plagiarism, but you probably won't do as well on your assignment.
- A.I. plagiarism: Using A.I. tools to generate or rewrite the majority of your work and claiming it is your own original work. There are ethical ways to use A.I. to help you with your assignments, but A.I. tools should not be used to do the majority of the writing or to substantially change your writing. If you use A.I. to help you with your assignments, you need to properly cite your use of it to avoid being accused of cheating.
Still not sure about plagiarism? Check out this short video:
How can plagiarism be avoided?
1. Taking proper research notes:
2. Write an outline and a rough draft.
3. Decide how you will present the original author's ideas:
- Take notes BEFORE you start writing your research assignment. Don't write as you research or you could accidentally borrow too many phrases from your research material and be accused of plagiarism.
- Don't cut and paste notes from a web source. Put the information in your own words when you transfer the information to your research notes.
- Don't look back and forth between your notes and your original source. Try to write the notes from memory. Cover up the print source or minimize the window of a web source to avoid temptation as you copy down the notes. Double check exact spellings, dates and specific facts after you have recorded as much as you can from memory.
- Use shorthand and abbreviations. It makes note taking faster, but also helps to make the wording in your notes more distinct from the wording in the original source.
- When you do copy an author's exact words into your notes, put them in quotations marks, so you remember to properly quote your source when you write your final paper.
- Learn how to take proper research notes.
2. Write an outline and a rough draft.
- Organize your notes into an outline. As you create the outline, try to transform the research notes into your own words again.
- As you write the rough draft that is based on the outline, try to transform the wording again.
- After taking notes, writing an outline and creating your draft, you will have rewritten the ideas from your research material so many times that it is very unlikely that the wording of your final draft will look like plagiarism of the original texts.
3. Decide how you will present the original author's ideas:
- Will you paraphrase their words or use a quotation?
- Paraphrasing: Expressing the author’s ideas in your own words.
- Paraphrasing is best for incorporating factual information into your writing.
- Quoting: Using the author’s exact words.
- Quotations are best used when the original wording is very unique or meaningful, and you feel that you could not paraphrase it without losing some of its effect or meaning.
- Make sure you use quotation marks to indicate that the writing is not your own.
- IMPORTANT: Whether you are paraphrasing or quoting, you must always give the original author credit through a citation, and you must always include their original work in your bibliography or list of works cited.
EXAMPLES:
The original passage:
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.
Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed., Pearson, 1976, pp. 46-47
A plagiarised version of the passage:
Students often overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they use too many quotations in the final research paper. In fact, only about 10% of the final essay should consist of directly quoted material. Therefore, it is important to limit the amount of directly copied source materials in your notes.
A paraphrase of the passage:
In research papers, students often quote excessively. They may avoid this problem by reducing the number of direct quotations in their research notes (Lester 46-47).
A quotation of the passage:
It is recommended that “only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter" (Lester 46). You can begin to avoid this problem during the research phase of any project. Take notes in your own words and try to keep them as brief as possible. Only record the exact wording from a source if you intend to quote it directly in your final paper.
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.
Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed., Pearson, 1976, pp. 46-47
A plagiarised version of the passage:
Students often overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they use too many quotations in the final research paper. In fact, only about 10% of the final essay should consist of directly quoted material. Therefore, it is important to limit the amount of directly copied source materials in your notes.
A paraphrase of the passage:
In research papers, students often quote excessively. They may avoid this problem by reducing the number of direct quotations in their research notes (Lester 46-47).
A quotation of the passage:
It is recommended that “only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter" (Lester 46). You can begin to avoid this problem during the research phase of any project. Take notes in your own words and try to keep them as brief as possible. Only record the exact wording from a source if you intend to quote it directly in your final paper.
