What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism can be unintentional or intentional when
ideas, text, and creative work are used but not cited in academic,
professional, and personal work.
Common forms of plagiarism can include:
• Passing off another’s ideas or
work as your own
• Fabricating citations
• Copying, cutting and pasting
without citing the original source
• Paraphrasing incorrectly
• Using media files, such as
image, audio or video files, without citing them
How will you know if something is common knowledge?
Consider:
1) Can it be found in many different places?
2) Is it widely known by a lot of different people?
Use
your common sense — when in doubt, ask!
Tips to Avoid Plagiarism
Consider using tools to help organize your research and
keep your information in one place. Try keeping track of what you're quoting or
paraphrasing in a “research journal.” Some great suggestions for free, online
options at:
http://mashable.com/2009/01/25/notetaking-alternatives/.
If you just want to track your citations (without
notes), use online tools like RefWorks (http://refworks.com/).
• Cite your sources (direct quotes
and paraphrasing) as you write your rough draft. Refer back to your research
journal for accuracy
•
Use style guides to cite in the correct format. Ask a librarian about how can
save you time!
•
When in doubt, cite it! Cite all outside sources except for common knowledge.
If you still have questions about
when to cite, check with your instructor.
4 Steps to Successful Paraphrasing
1. Read the entire text,
underlining key points and main ideas.
2. In your own words, write a sentence about the main
idea of the text (i.e. summarize). Also, write key points in the text.
3. Highlight any words, phrases, or
key passages that you would want to quote directly.
4. Combine the above into a new paraphrased paragraph, using your
own words.