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On Plagiarism
From the Penn State Department of English

The Department of English insists on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Any plagiarism will be penalized severely. The following discussion has been prepared so that no student will commit plagiarism out of ignorance.

Plagiarism is the act of passing off someone else's work as your own.

Sometimes plagiarism is simple dishonesty. People who buy, borrow, or steal a paper to turn in as their own work know they are plagiarizing. Those who copy word-for-word—or who change a word here and there while copying—WITHOUT ENCLOSING THE COPIED PASSAGE IN QUOTATION MARKS AND IDENTIFYING THE AUTHOR should know that they are plagiarizing.

But plagiarism can be more complicated in act and intent.

Paraphrasing, which is stating someone else's ideas, can be a useful way to support your own ideas, but it can lead you unintentionally to plagiarize. Jotting down notes and ideas from sources—and then thoughtlessly using them without properly introducing them with attributions to the authors or titles of those sources in introductory phrases—may result in a paper that is only a mosaic of your words and those of others that appear, nonetheless, to be yours.

Another innocent way to plagiarize is to allow your fellow students and friends to give you too much rhetorical help or do too much editing and proofreading of your work. If you think you have received substantial help in any way from people whose names will not appear as authors of the paper, acknowledge that help in a short sentence at the end of the paper or in your list of Works Cited. If you are not sure how much help is too much, talk with your instructor, so the two of you together can decide what kind of outside help (and how much) is proper, and how to give credit where credit is due.

As they are drafting their work, conscientious writers keep careful track of when they use ideas and or words from sources. They diligently try to distinguish between their own ideas, those of others, and common knowledge. They try to identify which part of their work comes from an identifiable source and then document their use of that source in accordance with established academic or professional conventions, such as a parenthetical citation and a Works Cited list. If you are in doubt about what needs documenting, talk with your instructor.

When thinking about plagiarism, it is hard to avoid talking about ideas as if they were objects like tables and chairs. Of course they are not. You should not feel that you are under pressure to invent new ideas—which is probably impossible. So-called original writing consists of thinking through ideas and expressing them in your own way. The result may not be new, but if honestly done, it may well be interesting and worthwhile reading. Print or electronic sources, as well as other people, may add good ideas to your own thoughts. When they do so in identifiable and specific ways, give them the credit they deserve.

These examples should clarify the difference between dishonest and proper uses of sources.

THE SOURCE

It is not generally recognized that at the same time when women are making their way into every corner of our work-world, only one percent of the professional engineers in the nation are female. A generation ago this statistic would have raised no eyebrows, but today it is hard to believe. The engineering schools, reacting to social and governmental pressures, have opened wide their gates and are recruiting women with zeal. The major corporations, reacting to even more intense pressures, are offering attractive employment opportunities to practically all women engineering graduates.

From Samuel C. Florman, "Engineering and TheFemale Mind" Copyright by Harper's Magazine

WORD-FOR-WORD PLAGIARIZING

In the following example, the writer devises part of the first sentence in hopes the reader won't notice that the rest of the paragraph is simply copied from the source. The plagiarized words are italicized.

Because women seem to be taking jobs of all kinds, few people realize that only 1 percent of the professional engineers in the nation are female. A generation ago this statistic would have raised no eyebrows, but today it is hard to believe. The engineering schools, reacting to social and governmental pressures, have opened wide their gates and are recruiting women with zeal. The major corporations, reacting to even more intense pressures, are offering attractive employment opportunities to practically all women engineering graduates.

Quotation marks around all the copied text, followed by a parenthetical citation, would avoid plagiarism. But even if that were done, a reader might well wonder why so much was quoted from Florman. Beyond that, a reader will wonder why the writer chose to quote instead of paraphrase this passage, which as a whole is not very quotable. Furthermore, a paper consisting largely of quoted passages would be relatively worthless.

PLAGIARIZING BY PARAPHRASE

In this case the writer follows the progression of ideas in the source very closely—too closely—by substituting his or her own words and sentences for those of the original.

Original

Paraphrase

It is not generally recognized that at the same time when women are making their way into every corner of our work-world, only 1 percent of the professional engineers in the nation are female.

Few people realize, now that women are finding jobs in all fields, that a tiny percentage of the country's engineers are women

A generation ago this statistic would have raised no eyebrows, but today it is hard to believe. The engineering schools, reacting to societal and governmental pressures, have opened wide their gates and are recruiting women with zeal. The major corporations, reacting to even more intense pressure, are offering attractive employment opportunities to practically all women engineering graduates.

Years ago this would have surprised no one but now it seems incredible. Under great pressure, engineering schools are searching out women, and big companies are offering good jobs to practically all women who graduate with engineering degrees.

The writer appears to be generating his or her own ideas. In fact they are Florman's ideas presented in the writer's words without acknowledgment. The writer could avoid plagiarism here by introducing the paraphrase with an attribution to Florman and following them with a parenthetical citation. Such an introduction is underlined here:

Samuel Florman points out that few people realize. . . .(page number).

Properly used, paraphrase is a valuable technique. You should use it to simplify or summarize so that the ideas or information, properly attributed in the introduction and documented in a parenthetical citation, may be woven into the pattern of your own ideas. You should not use paraphrase simply to avoid quotation; you should use it to express another's ideas in your own words when those ideas are not worth quoting verbatim.

MOSAIC PLAGIARISM

This is a more sophisticated kind of plagiarism. The writer lifts phrases and terms from the source and embeds them into his or her own prose. Words and phrases that the writer lifts verbatim or with slight changes are italicized:

The pressure is on to get more women into engineering. The engineering schools and major corporations have opened wide their gates and are recruiting women zealously. Practically all women engineering graduates can find attractive jobs. Nevertheless, at the moment, only 1 percent of the professional engineers in the country are female.

Mosaic plagiarism may be caused by sloppy note-taking, but it always looks thoroughly dishonest and will be judged as such. In the example above, just adding an introduction and a parenthetical citation will not eliminate the plagiarism since quotation marks are not used where required. But adding them would raise the question of why the writer thinks those short phrases and basic statements of fact and opinion are worth quoting. so the best solution is to paraphrase everything: recast the plagiarized parts in your own words, introduce the passage properly, and add a parenthetical citation.

SUMMARY

Using quotation marks around original wording avoids the charge of plagiarism, but when overdone, makes for a patchwork paper. When most of what you want to say comes from a source, either quote directly or paraphrase. In both cases, introduce your borrowed words or ideas by attributing them to the author and follow them with a parenthetical citation.

The secret of using sources productively is to make them work to support and amplify your ideas. If you find, as you work at paraphrasing, quoting, and citing, that you are only pasting sources together with a few of your own words and ideas—that too much of your paper comes from your sources and not enough from your own mind—then go back to the drawing board. Try redrafting the paper without looking at your sources, using your own ideas; only after completing a draft should you add the specific words and ideas from your sources to support what you want to say.

If you have doubts about the way you are using sources, talk to your instructor as soon as you can.  (Updated Jan. 1997)

Excerpts from Indiana University guidelines on plagiarism:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html

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

Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism

1. Put in quotations everything that comes directly from the text especially when taking notes.

2. 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.

3. 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.

MORE EXAMPLES - How to Cite Correctly from UC-Davis http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm

The Original Source:

" In research writing, sources are cited for two reasons: to alert readers to the sources of your information and to give credit to the writers from whom you have borrowed words and ideas." 6

Plagiarism-NOT OK!  (same words, no quotation marks):

In research writing, sources are cited to alert readers to the sources of your information and to give credit to the writers from whom you have borrowed words and ideas.

The student has used the author's exact words, leaving out only a phrase, without quotation marks or a citation.

Also Plagiarism0 NOT OK! (incorrect paraphrase):

In research writing, we cite sources for a couple reasons: to notify readers of our information sources and give credit to those from whom we have borrowed. (Hacker).

The student has made only slight changes, substituting words such as "a couple" for "two", "notify" for "alert", and "our"/"we" for "your"/"you," leaving out a few words, and giving an incomplete citation.

A Solution-OK! (appropriate paraphrase):

A researcher cites her sources to ensure her audience knows where she got her information, and to recognize and credit the original work. (Hacker, 1995, p. 260).

This student has paraphrased in her own words, while accurately reflecting and citing the author's ideas.

A Different Solution-OK! (quotation with cite):

In her book A Writer's Reference, Diana Hacker notes, "In research writing, sources are cited for two reasons: to alert readers to the sources of your information and to give credit to the writers from whom you have borrowed words and ideas." (1995, p. 260).

By introducing his source, the student signals that the following material is from that source. All verbatim words are in quotation marks, and the source of the quote is cited with a page number.

Information on proper citation styles:

Quick guide to citation: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/crsweb/infolit/andyou/mod8/citing2.htm

Penn State links to citation guides: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/gateway/referenceshelf/writ.html#cit

 

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