Avoiding Plagiarism
What is it?
The intellectual crime of plagiarism involves the use of another person's written material without proper acknowledgement of that source. In colleges and universities, there are two kinds of plagiarism: deliberate and "innocent." Deliberate plagiarism is the most commonly discussed type of plagiarism, referring to papers purchased online from internet paper mills or papers that are recycled from one generation of students to the next.Deliberate plagiarism usually results from an accumulation of pressures and deadlines near the end of the semester.
Avoiding Deliberate Plagiarism
- plan ahead-- leave plenty of time for composition and revision
- complete rough drafts and maintain a backup copy of your work
- keep detailed notes on your sources, including bibliography and page numbers
- improve your grade by meeting with your professor to discuss your ideas
"Innocent" Plagiarism
Some students may plagiarize unknowingly by failing to properly acknowledge their sources. Plagiarism often innocently occurs within homegrown papers that make use of quoted material. In these instances, plagiarism happens when a writer does not properly acknowledge the source of information:
- by failing to put quotation marks around text which is taken directly from another source
- by omitting a parenthetical citation crediting the author (this is necessary for paraphrases as well as quotes)
| Original Quote | Failure to Use Quotation Marks or Citation |
|---|---|
| "The people who shelve the books in Widener talk about the library's breathing-- at the start of the term, the stacks exhale books in great swirling clouds; at end of term, the library inhales, and the books fly back. So the library is a body, too, the pages of books pressed together like organs in the darkness" (Battles 6). | In Library: An Unquiet History, the librarians who shelve the books in Widener talk about the library's breathing-- at the start of the term, the stacks exhale books in great swirling clouds; at end of term, the library inhales, and the books fly back. |
In the example above, though the writer acknowledges the source of the quote, s/he does not indicate with quotation marks the use of language taken directly from the original source; s/he also needs to include a parenthetical citation (Battles 6) with the author's name and the page number on which the quote was found.
"Innocent" plagiarism often carries the same penalties as deliberate plagiarism; so when in doubt, always cite your sources.
Other Resources:
- Lehigh University's policy on academic integrity
- Plagiarism: What is it and How to Recognize and Avoid it by Indiana University's Writing Tutorial Services
- Avoiding Plagiarism by Purdue University's Online Writing Lab
- Avoiding Plagiarism: Mastering the Art of Scholarship by University of California, Davis
- Academic Dishonesty: Plagiarism by Oregon State
- Avoiding Plagiarism by Northwestern University
- "Plagiarism Court: You Be the Judge"
- Plagiarism, a tutorial from San Jose State University