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A Time Management Tool for Researching and Writing Your Paper

Step 3 – Issues of Plagiarism

Key Points

  • Plagiarism can easily occur. Be aware of its different forms.
  • Take steps to avoid plagiarism, such as taking accurate notes and using RefWorks to track your citations.
  • There are great educational benefits in properly using and citing your sources.

What Is It?

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work as your own. Here are some examples:

  • Quoting someone's words but not properly citing the author’s information
  • Paraphrasing an idea and not citing the source
  • Cutting and pasting anything from the Internet without citing it
  • Having someone else write all or part of your paper
  • Using someone’s image, audio, video, spreadsheet or other work without proper citation
  • Buying or submitting someone else's research paper
  • Citing a source with fake bibliographic information
  • Submitting a paper you wrote for a previous class in your current class is normally considered cheating

Why Cite Your Sources?

  • You add credibility and evidence to your argument by using ideas from experts in the field
  • You acknowledge and show respect to the original writer
  • You connect your paper and ideas to a larger conversation in the field
  • You allow readers to find your sources
  • You gain educational skills in the areas of research, analysis, evaluation and writing

For a further exploration of these issues, see the interactive tutorial Plagiarism.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Even if it’s accidental, it’s still plagiarism. And one of the easiest ways to slip into plagiarism is paraphrasing. “Paraphrasing” is when you use someone else’s ideas, but put them in your own words. Following are some examples of unacceptable and acceptable paraphrasing.

How to Recognize Unacceptable and Acceptable Paraphrases

From: Wright, C. C. (1993). The women of Shakespeare's plays: Analysis of the role of the women in selected plays with plot synopses and selected one act plays  (p. 41). Lanham : University Press of America:

"Ophelia in many ways is a pawn in this play. She is used by the king and her father in order to uncover the reason for Hamlet’s madness. She is again used by Hamlet to prove to the eaves-droppers that he is mad. She is also manipulated by a social custom which will allow a man of superior position to woo a woman from a lesser station while forcing her to remain respectfully distant."

Here’s an UNACCEPTABLE paraphrase:

In many ways, Ophelia is a pawn in this play. The king and her father use her in order to discover the reason for Hamlet’s insanity. She is used again by Hamlet to show the eaves-droppers that he is crazy. Ophelia is also controlled by a social custom that allows men of superior position to court women from a lower social station while forcing them to remain respectfully distant. 

Here’s an ACCEPTABLE paraphrase:

Ophelia was viewed by the men around her as simply a tool to be used to carry out their plans, and the social traditions of the time supported their outlook. For example, as a prince, Hamlet is free to court Ophelia. But as a woman of lower social stature, her only acceptable role is to be demure and deferential (Wright, 1993). 

What makes this passage plagiarism?

The preceding passage is considered plagiarism for several reasons:

  • Only a few words and phrases have been changed around
  • The order of the original’s sentences have been followed exactly
  • No source was cited for any of the ideas or facts.

If you do any of these things, you are plagiarizing. 

Why is this passage acceptable?

This is acceptable paraphrasing because:

  • Information from the source document is accurately conveyed
  • The wording is unique, not a copy of the source
  • The original source is cited

Common Knowledge

Common knowledge isn’t plagiarism. Common knowledge is defined as facts that can be found in numerous places and are likely to be known by a lot of people.

Example: An increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere would create a greenhouse effect. 

This is generally known information. You do not need to document this fact. However, you must document facts that are not generally known and ideas that interpret facts.

Example: Carbon dioxide, a benign, life-giving molecule, has been miscast by a worldwide political movement to be an environmental hazard in what will soon be discovered to be the hoax of the century (Olson, 2009).

In this example, the idea that carbon dioxide has been miscast as an environmental hazard is not a fact but an interpretation; consequently, you need to cite your source.

Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism

  • Put quotation marks around everything that comes directly from the text, especially when taking notes.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Use a citation manager. Citation managers like Zotero and Paperpile are web-based management services that let you:
    • Keep track of your sources.
    • Directly import references from databases and the library catalog to your personal account.
    • Automatically create a bibliography in the style you need—APA, MLA and more.
  • If you’re not sure, cite it!

Consequences of Plagiarism

SJSU’s Academic Integrity Policy S07-2, Section 3.0 states:

“There shall be two major classifications of sanctions that may be imposed for violations of this [plagiarism] policy: Academic and Administrative. Academic sanctions are actions related to the coursework or grades determined by the faculty member. Administrative sanctions are actions that address a student's status on campus and are determined by the Office of Student Conduct & Ethical Development. Academic sanctions and Administrative sanctions may be imposed simultaneously.” 

This means that if you are found to have plagiarized, you can be given an F for the paper or an F for the course. Potentially, you could be expelled from the university. So remember, if you’re not sure, cite it! And if you’re unsure how to cite it, ask a librarian.

Now that you have a good grounding in plagiarism and how to avoid it, it’s time to move on to Step 4: Work with Your Topic to begin your research.

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“What Is It?” and “Why Cite Your Sources?”are adapted from: The Assignment Research Calculator by the Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno.
“Avoiding Plagiarism” is adapted from: Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It by The Writing Tutorial Services & Trustees of IU, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
Olson, J.A. (2009). Climate Change: Hoax of the Century. Retrieved July 1, 2009, from InfoWars Web site: https://www.infowars.com/climate-change-hoax-of-the-century/