Plagiarism

According to the Random House Dictionary, plagiarism is "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s original work."

To be accused of plagiarism is serious, and the consequences of plagiarism are serious indeed. Plagiarism is a form of theft, for you are stealing someone else’s ideas or words. You may use someone else’s ideas or words, but you must document them. This applies to published or unpublished writing and to material taken from online computer services or AI.

The availability and easy accessibility of online materials may increase the temptation to plagiarize. Students are strenuously advised to resist that temptation, and they are warned that the consequences are serious. If you are uncertain about whether you might be plagiarizing, talk to your teacher and/or put your work through Turnitin.com, available through the library.

Use of electronic translators and AI: The use of electronic translators to translate phrases and sentences from English to Spanish or French (or visa versa) is considered academically dishonest, as it is a misrepresentation of the student’s abilities.  The same applies to the use of artificial intelligence in writing or other disciplines. 

Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism

• Always put quotation marks around any direct statement from someone else's work.

• Give credit to the author for any SUMMARY of his/her ideas or statements, even though quotation marks are not used, because these ideas are clearly not your own.

• Cite any material, ideas, or thoughts you found in a specific source if it is evident that they came from your reading and are not common knowledge.

• Cite any summary - even if it is in your own words - of a discussion from one of your sources.

• Cite any images, charts, graphs, or tables that are created by others or that you make with someone else's information.  Put the citation immediately below the image, chart, graph or table (Meriwether 50-51). 

Taking Notes  

You may try different note-taking methods; what is important is to find a system that works for you and that helps you stay organized.  Taking the time to take careful notes now will save you time later. Your teacher may have specific recommendations and/or requirements for note-taking.Note-taking methods include the following:

1. keeping a notebook, with pages of notes organized by source (separate pages for each source)

2. "reading with a pen," e.g., using a pen or highlighter on your own copies of articles or texts

3. completing a worksheet for each source

4. double-entry (or two-column) note-taking, description follows

5. annotated note-taking, description follows

6. taking notes in categories, description follows

7. Double-entry (two-column) Notes

Whichever method you use for your research paper, you must be sure to keep your notes in order and keep your notes together. You must keep track of authors, titles, page numbers and/or site addresses. Someone reading your paper later should be able to check your references and find them easily.

Sample Double-entry (two-column) Notes

Source: James R. Fleming, Clean Air Act: A Guide to Legislation

Download Double-entry Note taking Graphic Organizer (PLACEHOLDER)

Annotated Note-Taking

To annotate means to add critical commentary or explanatory notes or to provide explanations for words and phrases within the text. Annotating generally takes place in the margins of text or on a separate piece of paper if you can’t write on the reading.

Why annotate?

Unlike highlighting, which is passive, annotating will help you stay focused and involved with your text. It will also help you to monitor and improve your comprehension. If you come across something you don’t understand or that you need to ask your instructor about, you’ll be able to quickly make note of it and then go on with your reading.

To annotate:

Annotating can be used in many different ways.  You’ll want to decide what type you will use based on your purpose for reading and the type of text. Ways to annotate include:

1. Underline important terms

2. Circle definitions and meanings

3. Write key words and definitions in the margins

4. Signal where important information can be found with key words or symbols in the margin 

5. Write short summaries in the margin at the end of sections

6. Write questions in the margin next to the section where the answer is found

7. Indicate steps in a process by using numbers in the margin

8. Describe the usefulness of the information in the margin

9. Discuss the limitations of the author’s argument 

10. Make notes about the reliability of the source

11. Make notes about the author’s background, bias, or assumptions

12. Summarize conclusions the author presents and evaluate them

13. Describe your reaction to the text

14. Write connections you make to the text (text to self, text to text, or text to world)

Taking Notes in Categories

Research-based assignments often have various parts. Because of the amount of information one generally goes through in a given research topic, is can be useful to label information from your sources according to the part of the project in which it will be most  useful.

Three Categorization Strategies:

1. Numbers – If you can write on the sources, make up a number for each part of the project. Then, when you find good information, decide which part of the project it would be most helpful for and put the appropriate number in the margin beside the information. When you go to write the paper, look through your sources for the appropriate number to complete each section.

2. Colors – If you can write on the sources, make up a color for each part of the project. Then, when you find good information, decide which part of the project it would be most helpful for and highlight or underline the information using the appropriate color. When you go to write the paper, look through your sources for the appropriate color to complete each section.

3. Notes pages – If you can’t or don’t want to write on the sources, make a notes page for each section of the project. Then, when you find good information, decide which part of the project it would be most helpful for and summarize or paraphrase it on the notes page for that part. Don’t forget to parenthetically cite the source after the summary/paraphrase so that you’ll know where the information came from. Then, when you go to write the paper, use the notes page for each part to help you complete that part.

Category Note Examples

Let’s say you have a project in which you need to tell the causes, effects, and attempted solutions for a current world problem. That assignment clearly breaks down into three parts:1) causes 2) effects, and 3) solutions. You’ve decided to research the problem of famine in Africa. You’ve looked at your first source, and you’ve found good information about the cause of illegal immigration in Europe. Here is how you would note the information using the three strategies:

Original Source:

Widespread famine threatens more than 40 million people in Africa, including 14 million in southern Africa and another 14 million in Ethiopia.  Drought is partly to blame, as is the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has killed or sickened millions of farmers who would otherwise be planting or harvesting crops. Africa-watchers also blame corrupt and inefficient governments. Some aid experts say the United States isn't helping matters by donating genetically modified (GM) corn to needy countries, a number of which question the safety of eating the food.  They also fear that farmers will use GM seeds to plant crops that could contaminate the continent's non-GM strains, possibly making them unfit for export to Europe. But Americans and others say GM food is perfectly safe and should be used to feed Africa's starving people.

Strategy 3: Note Pages 

Causes

• Drought 

• HIV/AIDS kills farmers

• Corrupt/inefficient goats

• U.S. donating genetically modified corn 

  • • • • might be unsafe to eat

        • contaminate non-gm corn = can’t export to Europe

(“Famine in Africa: Are affluent nations doing enough to avert disaster?”) 

How to Recognize Unacceptable and Acceptable Summaries

Think of secondary sources as writing about primary sources and about the creators of primary works. In general, you should SUMMARIZE secondary sources, not quote them, unless the wording of the original is especially well phrased. However, do quote primary sources (Lester 62).

Here's the ORIGINAL text, from page 1 of Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890s by Joyce Williams, et al.:

Original Passage:

The rise of industry, the growth of cities, and the expansion of the population were the three great developments of late nineteenth century American history. As new, larger, steam-powered factories became a feature of the American landscape in the East, they transformed farm hands into industrial laborers, and provided jobs for a rising tide of immigrants. With industry came urbanization the growth of large cities (like Fall River, Massachusetts, where the Bordens lived), which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade.

Here's an UNACCEPTABLE summary that is plagiarism:

The increase of industry, the growth of cities, and the explosion of the population were three large factors of nineteenth century America. As steam-driven companies became more visible in the eastern part of the country, they changed farm hands into factory workers and provided jobs for the large wave of immigrants. With industry came the growth of large cities like Fall River where the Bordens lived which turned into centers of commerce and trade as well as production.

What makes this passage plagiarism?

The preceding passage is considered plagiarism for two reasons:

1. the writer has only changed around a few words and phrases, or changed the order of the original's sentences

2. the writer has failed to cite a source for any of the ideas or facts.

If you do either or both of these things, you are plagiarizing.

NOTE: This paragraph is also problematic because it changes the sense of several sentences (for example, "steam-driven companies" in sentence two misses the original's emphasis on factories).

Here's an ACCEPTABLE summary that is not plagiarism:

Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. Steam-powered production had shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, and as immigrants arrived in the U.S., they found work in these new factories. As a result, populations grew, and large urban areas arose. Fall River was one of these manufacturing and commercial centers (Williams 1).

Why is this passage acceptable?

This is acceptable summarizing because the writer:

1. accurately relays the information in the original 

2. uses her own words

3. lets her reader know the source of  her information

Here's an example of quotation and SUMMARY used together, which is also ACCEPTABLE:

Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. As steam-powered production shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, the demand for workers "transformed farm hands into factory workers," and created jobs for immigrants. In turn, growing populations increased the size of urban areas. Fall River was one of these manufacturing hubs that were also “centers of commerce and trade” (Williams 1).

Why is this passage acceptable? 

This is acceptable summarizing because the writer:

1. records the information in the original passage accurately

2. gives credit for the ideas in this passage

3. indicated which part is taken directly from her source by putting the passage in quotation marks and citing 

Note that if the writer had used these phrases or sentences in her own paper without putting quotation marks around them, she would be PLAGIARIZING. Using another person's phrases or sentences without putting quotation marks around them is considered plagiarism EVEN IF THE WRITER CITES IN HER OWN TEXT THE SOURCE OF THE PHRASES OR SENTENCES SHE HAS QUOTED. 

(Reproduced with permission from Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN)

Summarizing Facts and Ideas

Summarizing is a common method to use when the ideas in a source are good but you would like to condense them to make your point.

To summarize:

1. Choose a short section that makes an important point

2. Delete unimportant and/or repetitive information

3. Keep information that is necessary for meaning such as information that tells who, what, where, when, why, and how

4. Substitute general words for lists.  For example, “flowers” can replace “tulips, pansies and roses”

5. Select a topic sentence or create one

6. Organize what’s left in your own words1

7. Introduce a summary as you would introduce a quote

From: Marzano, Robert J., Debra J. Pickering and Jane E. Pollock, Classroom Instruction That Works (New York: Prentice Hall, 2004) 35.

Two Examples of Good Summaries

The Original 1:

“The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world…

• For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.

• For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.

• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.

• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.

• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury.

• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.”

(Section from the Declaration of Independence)

The Summary 1:

According to the Declaration of Independence, King George the third of England used his military, his power over trade, his power to tax, and his power over the Judicial systems in Britain and America to cause harm to Americans. The Original:

The Original 2:

"Chandragupta II expanded the Gupta empire from its base in the Ganges Valley as far west as Gujarat and as far south as Maharashtra. He gained additional influence in the Deccan, the central plateau of Southwestern India by arranging a marriage between his daughter Prabhavathi and Rudrasena II, the Vakataka king. Prabhavathi ruled over the Vakataka lands as regent for her sons after Rudrasena II died so the region was almost effectively part of the Gupta Empire.” 

(Excerpt from the World Book Encyclopedia entry on Chandragupta II ).

The Summary 2:

According to World Book Encyclopedia, Chandragupta II extended the Gupta Empire and gained influence in a nearby region by having his daughter marry the king of that region. When the king of that region died Chandragupta’s daughter had power over the area since her sons were too your to rule (Chandragupta II).

Six Rules for Using Quotations Effectively

RULE 1: INTRODUCE

Prepare the reader for the quotation before it is inserted.  Make its context clear.  In research papers, let the reader know who is speaking and why he or she is qualified to speak.

An example from an English paper (Note the locations of parenthetical citations):

          By act four, Miller makes clear which characters can withstand the heat of the crucible.  The critical moments find Reverend Hale counseling Elizabeth: "Life, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it" (Miller 43).  This abandonment of his earlier beliefs seems weak and spiritless next to Elizabeth’s quiet: "I think that be the Devil’s argument" (Miller 44).  Hale has been reduced to ashes, but Elizabeth’s mettle remains unalloyed though the witch hunt rages around her.

An example from a Social Studies paper (Note the locations of parenthetical citations):

          The President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, has been particularly outspoken about the crisis in recent months.  He insists that the African AIDS epidemic must be considered within its unique African context.  At a recent press conference, he explained, "AIDS in Africa cannot be treated the same way it is treated in other places around the world.  It would be a criminal betrayal of our responsibility to our own people" (Smith 2).  Mbeki deserves great credit for bringing this crisis to the media’s attention and for pointing out the unique elements of the African continent’s struggle with the disease.

RULE 2: FOLLOW UP

Comment upon, reinforce, or summarize the quotation after it is inserted. Don’t just bring the quotation in and dump it, wheelbarrow fashion. If a paragraph ends with a quote, you haven’t done enough to comment on that quote. Notice the final sentence in each of the examples above. Without those sentences, each example would be incomplete.

RULE 3: CHOOSE CAREFULLY

Quote only as much of a text as is necessary to make your point.  In the example below, the sentences in italics are the crucial ones. The writer should have used just those two sentences to support the idea that the mother-daughter relationship is complex.

An example from an English paper:

          Waverly Jong, in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, has a complicated relationship with her mother from the time she is a young girl. When Waverly quarrels with her because she thinks that her mother takes too much credit for her victories in chess, her mother withdraws into a punishing silence.  Then Waverly regrets having antagonized her. She worries and schemes and makes herself sick, wishing that her mother would care for her in the old way:  "And sure enough, I won her back. That night I developed a high fever, and she sat next to my bed, scolding me for going to school without my sweater. 

          In the morning she was there as well, feeding me rice porridge flavored with chicken broth she had strained herself.  She said she was feeding me this because I had the chicken pox and one chicken knew how to fight another.  And in the afternoon, she sat in a chair in my room, knitting me a pink sweater while telling me about a sweater that Auntie Suyuan had knit for her daughter June, and how it was most unattractive and of the worst yarn.  I was so happy that she had become her usual self" (Tan 435).  Obviously Mrs. Jong is not an easy woman to be around, but it is equally obvious that she loves her daughter.

RULE 4: LONG QUOTATIONS

Indent on the left side quotations of four lines or greater.  Use a full sentence and a colon to introduce them.  Do not use quotation marks because the indentation already makes it clear to the reader that the material is being quoted.  Double-space between your own words and the quoted material.

An example from an English paper:

          The fate of the village of Umuofia is revealed by the title of Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart.  The sad destiny of the village is made to seem inexorable, just like the sad fate of Okonkwo, the main character.  In the very first paragraphs of the novel Achebe tells of Okonkwo’s successes as a wrestler and warrior as well as his enterprising ways as a farmer.  However, a few pages later he also reveals Okonkwo’s tragic flaw:

Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand.  His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children.  Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man.  But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness… It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. (Achebe 90)

Thus, Achebe shows us that Okonkwo’s weakness is psychological, and as we watch his story unfold, we recognize that all his mistakes can be traced to this one deep seated fear.

RULE 5: EDIT

• Adapt a quotation to fit your own sentence by using an ellipsis (…) to show omitted words or phrases.

• Adapt a quotation to fit your own sentence by using brackets to supply a necessary additional word.

An example from an English paper:

          Miller tells us that "The fate of each character in The Crucible is exactly that of his historical model … and his role in history" (Miller ix).  Clearly, however, Miller is interested in more than historical accuracy.

An example from a Social Studies paper:

          Audubon reports that "if there are not enough young to balance deaths, the end of the species [California condor] is inevitable.” (Grant 5).  The number of young condors, so critical to the survival of the species, depends heavily on the preservation of habitat necessary for successful nesting.

RULE 6: QUOTING POETRY

• When quoting poetry, use a slash (/) to indicate the end of a line. 

• When quoting four or more lines of poetry, indent and double-space the quoted passage, arranging it in lines. Introduce the quotation with a colon.

An example from an English paper

In the last lines of "Fern Hill," Dylan Thomas portrays the inexorable force of time as it robs him of his youth and joy, lamenting, "Time held me green and dying/ Though I sang in my chains like the sea" (Thomas 43).  Throughout the poem he characterizes childhood as just such a blindly joyful time.

An example from an English paper

The last speech of the play finds order restored to Scotland as the legitimate heir to the throne assumes power and begins to shower rewards upon the deserving, assuring them:

We shall not spend a large expense of time

Before we reckon with your several loves,

And make us even with you.  My thanes and kinsmen,

Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland

In such an honor named. (Macbeth, 5.6.73-77)

Malcolm’s willingness to share his power by honoring his peers shows the audience that the new king will embody the virtues that Shakespeare believes a ruler must have.

Paraphrasing a Source

Paraphrasing means methodically changing the author’s words into your own.  Paraphrasing is rarely used, but can be useful when you’re talking about a specific source that is difficult to read, and you want to make it understandable to your audience.

To paraphrase:

1. Read through the original and rewrite each sentence in your own words

2. Before you insert the paraphrase into your writing, tell the source of your information and provide some background information about it

Example of Paraphrasing a Source:

Original:

“For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.…For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:”

(Section from The Declaration of Independence)

Paraphrase:

The Declaration of Independence was written by the Continental Congress in America to announce the separation of the American colonies from Britain, and contains many accusations against King George the third.  Among the charges, Americans said the King was:  sending English troops to live in America and requiring Americans to house and feed them, refusing to punish English soldiers who committed murder in America, and making Americans go to England for trials when they were accused of fake crimes (The Declaration of Independence).