Original Source Excerpt
Such savvy borrowing may be lost on some educators, but others, like librarians, are catching up. “Students are finding it so easy to use these sources that they will dump them in the middle of the papers without any attribution,” says John Ruszkiewicz, an English professor at Texas. “What they don’t realize is how readily [professors] can tell the material isn’t the student’s and how easy it is for instructors to search this material on the Web” (434).
Student Version A—Plagiarism:
Students borrowing from the Web may be lost on some educators, but some teachers and librarians are catching up. Some students use chunks of other sources right in the middle of their papers without citations. But what these students often don’t realize is how easily professors can tell the material isn’t the student’s and how the instructors can easily search and find this material on the Web too.
This paraphrase is an example of plagiarism because the student uses many of the same phrases as the original passage and the same overall style and structure as the original author with just a few substitution words or phrases (without using any quotation marks and without citations).
Student Version B—Attempted Paraphrase—But Still Plagiarism:
According to Mark Clayton, students borrowing from the Internet may be missed by some teachers, but others are catching it. Students find it easy to use these sources and will put them in their papers without citations or credit. However, they don’t realize that professors can tell the material isn’t the student’s and that it is easy for them to search the web and find this material too.
This paraphrase is an example of “accidental” plagiarism because the student has combined a couple sentences, substituted a few words, but still has used the same overall structure with minor substitutions and has given a nod to the original author with a tagline but still does not have a proper parenthetical citation anywhere in the paraphrase.
Student Version C—Appropriate Paraphrase—Not Plagiarism:
According to Mark Clayton's article, "A Whole Lot of Cheatin' Going On," many students are using the Internet to research sources on topics they write about, but they are using these sources in their papers without giving any credit to the original authors. Clayton also points out that teachers and librarians are figuring out what's going on and can recognize when it is not the student's own work. Furthermore, teachers can find the sources themselves on the Internet and prove that the student has plagiarized (434).
This student has paraphrased using his or her own words and sentence constructions, and the student has accurately reflected the author's ideas and cited him correctly both with a tag and a parenthetical citation.
Content in this “Examples of attempted paraphrasing” section is reused with permission from Sims, Marcie. The Write Stuff: Thinking Through Essays. Upper Saddle River : Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
As you will recall, paraphrasing what another author has said involves putting their thoughts (and ideas) into your own words. When using someone's a book or article, it is their intellectual property. It is often helpful to read over a sentence or paragraph several times before attempting to paraphrase it. Set it aside, then, without looking at the sentence or paragraph, begin to write the author's ideas down, but use your own vocabulary and your own sentence structure as this gives the writing your own "voice". One way to go about changing the sentence structure is to begin by starting at a different place in the original passage and/or sentence(s), basing your choice on the focus of your paper. This will naturally lead to some changes in wording. You might also break up long sentences in the original passage, combine short ones, expand phrases for clarity, or shorten them for conciseness. In this process, you'll naturally eliminate some words and change others.
Remember, whenever you use someone else's ideas, you must give them credit. This is done by citing your source, even your paraphrased text, through an In-text citation.
Here's an example of the first paragraph of the chapter "Watching TV Makes Your Smarter" on page 120 in Steven Johnson's book, Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter:
On January 24 [2005], the Fox network showed an episode of its hit drama 24, the real-time thriller known for its cliffhanger tension and often-gruesome violence. Over the proceeding weeks, a number of public controversies had erupted around 24, mostly focused on its portrait of Muslim terrorists and its penchant for torture scenes. The episode that was shown on the 24th of January only fanned the flames higher: In one scene, a terrorist enlists a hit man to kill his child for not fully supporting the jihadist cause; in another scene, the secretary of defense authorizes the torture of his son to uncover evidence of a terrorist plot.
Here's how we might paraphrase this paragraph:
Steven Johnson notes that the popular television drama 24 caused a public outcry when an episode, which aired on January 24, 2005, portrayed Muslim terrorists using a hit man to murder the child of a man who would not fully endorse the jihadist cause (120). In the same episode, torture is used by a government official against his own son in order to uncover a terrorist plot (Johnson 120).
Be sure to notice that because we used Steven Johnson's name in the first sentence, we need only to list the page number at the end. In the second sentence, we must list Johnson's name and the page number to help our reader understand where the information came from.
To avoid plagiarism writers must be aware of three concerns: ethical, legal, and methodological.
Every time you use another person’s words or thoughts, you have both a legal and ethical obligation to give that person (also called a source) credit. To fulfill those obligations you must know the methods by which to correctly credit that source. That means using a specific documentation style or format (the most common being MLA, APA, and Chicago Manual of Style). Thus, avoiding plagiarism starts with being aware of what it is and then taking the precautions necessary to document and cite all the sources, even if the writers just gained an insight or idea from another person.
Here are some helpful tips:
Take careful notes and mark direct quotes and summarized ideas with the page numbers they came from.
In the process of searching for secondary sources, especially when using the Internet, you should be sure to take detailed notes about the source information of any piece you are even considering using in your paper.
Make sure to use your own words and sentence constructions and even your own style when you paraphrase or summarize the ideas of others. You still need to credit the original source clearly to avoid plagiarism.
Many students intentionally cheat and copy ideas or words without giving credit to the original author. Some students, though, are guilty of just being unaware of the rules for citing sources or maybe even of dismissing that nagging feeling that they might be improperly using other people’s ideas. You should never try to claim lack of awareness as an excuse. Since you are in college now, as a writer, you must be responsible and scholarly and always give credit for others’ ideas or words. You are stealing someone else’s intellectual property when you plagiarize. It is a serious offence with serious consequences.
Content in this “Tips for avoiding plagiarism” section is reused with permission from Sims, Marcie. The Write Stuff: Thinking Through Essays. Upper Saddle River : Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.