Once you have carefully tracked your research, avoiding plagiarism is relatively straightforward: when the work of others informs your ideas, give credit by summarizing or paraphrasing that work or by accurately quoting it--and always cite your source.
Once you have developed your argument and know what resources, data, and evidence you will incorporate into the final published product, you should start thinking about how to incorporate those resources into your writing. For every outside piece of information that you present in your writing, whether it is from a primary research or from a secondary resource, make sure you do the following:
introduce the resource
incorporate the resource as a summary, paraphrase, or direct quote in your writing
interpret the resource (explaining why it is important or significant) and connecting it to your argument
document the location of the resource (both in-text and end-text)
If you follow these four steps when incorporating resources into your writing, you will be sure to avoid plagiarism as well as provide your readers with the information they need.
Paraphrasing allows you to maintain your voice while demonstrating that you understand the source because you can restate its points in your own words and with your own sentence structure. Paraphrase from a source when you want to condense or summarize long passages, arguments, or ideas; make your writing more concise; stay in control of your ideas and argument and maintain your voice; or signal your knowledge of key lines of conversation and concepts from your sources.
A paraphrase should convey the important information in a passage in your own words and sentence structure. Imagine that you read the following passage about the well-known concept of American exceptionalism (from Walter A. McDougall's Promised Land, Crusader, State: The American Encounter with the World since 1776).
Passage in source
American Exceptionalism as our founders conceived it was defined by what America was, at home. Foreign policy existed to defend, not define, what America was.
Maintaining the sentence structure and plugging in synonyms in your paraphrase is insufficient, because doing so hews too closely to the original.
Paraphrase (unacceptable)
American exceptionalism as the founding fathers envisioned the concept was given meaning by America as a homeland. Programs focused on other countries were there to protect America, not delineate it.
If you write the following sentence, however, you have successfully paraphrased the passage by changing the wording and sentence structure.
Paraphrase (acceptable)
As conceived, American exceptionalism was based on the country's domestic identity, which foreign policy did not shape but merely guarded.
To properly give credit to your source in MLA style, you also need to include an in-text citation directing your reader to a works-cited-list entry and, if you are citing a paginated book, the location in the work where the idea is set forth.
In your writing (only using this source in your writing)
As Walter A. McDougall argues, for the founding fathers American exceptionalism was based on the country's domestic identity, which foreign policy did not shape but merely guarded (37).
In your writing (using multiple sources in your writing)
As Walter A. McDougall argues, for the founding fathers American exceptionalism was based on the country's domestic identity, which foreign policy did not shape but merely guarded (McDougall 37).
Works Cited
McDougall, Walter A. Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World since 1776. Houghton
Mifflin, 1997.
Quoting can be effective when someone else's words are the focus of analysis or perfectly express an idea. Quotations are most effective in research-based writing when used selectively. Quote only words, phrases, lines, and passages that are particularly apt, and keep all the quotations as brief as possible. Always explain the relevance of the quotation to your point. Your project should be about your own ideas, and quotations should help you explain or illustrate those ideas and how you arrived at them.
Quote from a source when the exact wording is important to your claim [main idea], the phrasing is particularly compelling, or you want to focus on the language in the source. Quoting should not be used as a substitute for paraphrasing ideas you do not fully understand.
Quotations should be transcribed accurately from the source and integrated into your prose grammatically and in a way that distinguishes others' ideas from your own. Imagine, for example, that you read the following passage, which coins a term that you wish to discuss in your paper (from Michael Agar's book Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation).
Passage in the source
Everyone uses the word language and everybody these days talks about culture. . . . "Languaculture" is a reminder, I hope, of the necessary connection between its two parts . . . .
If you want to quote from this source in your writing, you must use quotation marks around the borrowed words and give credit to the source. You do this by including an in-text citation that directs the reader to an entry for the work in the list of works cited and to the page number where the quoted material appears in the source.
In your writing (incorrect)
At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that has been called "languaculture."
In your writing if only using this source (correct)
At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that has been called "languaculture" (60).
In your writing if only using multiply sources (correct)
At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that has been called "languaculture" (Agar 60).
Works Cited
Agar, Michael. Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation. HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.
Documentation is required for any work that you quote from or paraphrase, that you refer to substantively, whether the reference is to a specific place in the source (a page, a chapter) or to the source as a whole; or that you acknowledge as the source of facts you provide or ideas you formulate. But documentation is not required for every type of borrowed material
Common Knowledge
Information and ideas that are common knowledge among your readers need not be documented. Common knowledge includes information widely available in reference works, such as basic biographical facts about prominent persons and the dates and circumstances of major historical events. When the facts are in dispute, however, or when your reader may want more information about your topic, it is good practice to document the source of the material you borrow.
Passing Mentions
Documentation is also not required when you mention a work or author in passing. For example, if you state that your favorite graphic narrative is Fun Home, you have not quoted from or paraphrased the book, referred to any aspect of it specifically, or used it to advance an idea. You have simply stated that the book exists and given an opinion about it. This is a passing mention. It does not require a source citation.
Allusions
When you're making an allusion for rhetorical effect--that is, making an indirect or partial reference to a well-known passage that serves as a cultural touchstone--you usually do not need to cite a source.
The Force was definitely with our team's goalie when she deflected the ball.
Junior year of high school may not have been the best of times, but it wasn't the worst either.
The female protagonist's "to be or not to be" moment came when she contemplated the difficult journey ahead.
Epigraphs
An epigraph is a short quotation at the beginning of a work that establishes its theme or mood, and they should be used sparingly. Primarily ornamental, epigraphs are not discussed subsequently in the text. Do not place an epigraph in quotation marks. On a line below the epigraph, generally provide only the author and the title of the work the epigraph comes from; no further documentation is needed, and the work is not included in the works-cited list.
All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities
--Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
A quotation that you discuss in the essay should not also be treated as an epigraph. Provide documentation for such a quotation as for any other work you cite.