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Some students do not know what constitutes plagiarism. The purpose of this article is to identify plagiarism and explain how students can avoid committing this serious academic integrity transgression.
When writing academic papers, writers must avoid using too many quotations within their papers. Doing so may lead instructors to conclude you are simply packaging the ideas of others and not applying your own analysis and thought to what you are stating within your paper. In a short paper, having more than two or three quotations may be too many. How well you express what you quote will really become a determining factor on what type of grade you might receive. Certainly, this can vary by academic institution and from instructor to instructor.
The key is to use quotations carefully. Ensure a selected quotation is essential and there is no better way to express an idea, otherwise, you may simply summarize or paraphrase the idea, and then continue to discuss the merits of these ideas. Instructors want to read what you think, what your analysis is, what you’ve learned on specific topics.
Instructors are interested in what your academic products state, that your delivered work reflects primarily your personal insights, appropriately considered thoughts, and you acknowledge the original ideas of others upon which you have made scholarly commentary on the topics of academic and professional interest to your reading audience. Instructors do not want, nor will they tolerate, students who commit plagiarism either knowingly or through a lack of knowledge of what constitutes plagiarism.
You can find good definitions of plagiarism within many writing handbooks. Plagiarism is essentially taking the written work, ideas or illustrations of another person and passing along these items as your own work. If you do this and don’t cite your sources, you commit plagiarism.
While researching papers, we read the words, ideas and illustrations of others. We often process those ideas with other ideas and eventually we may digest this material into our own ideas. When writing academic papers, students often take notes from many written products, such as books, magazines, encyclopedia or online sources. This is an acceptable method of acquiring information. There are three methods to use such information when incorporating it into an academic document: quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.
When you quote, you use the precise words, concepts or illustrations of another person. You must place all quoted words within quotation marks. If what you are quoting is lengthy, then you should use indentation rather than quotation marks to clearly identify it as directly quoted material. You must also use either a footnote, endnote, or parenthetical citation. Footnote citations appear at the bottom of the specific page of the paper. Endnotes provide the full and proper citation at the end of the paper. Parenthetical citations must include a works cited page at the end of the document.
A quotation may be less than an entire sentence; it may be a verbatim copy of just a few words or a phrase from a sentence. If using a partial quotation, you must place an ellipsis within the sentence to indicate where words were omitted. An ellipsis consists of three periods when the omitted words are at the beginning or the middle of the quoted sentence. If the omitted words are at the end of quoted material, it is represented by an ellipsis plus the final period at the end of the sentence, then the closing quotation mark.
Using someone else’s words — even three or four consecutive words — not placed within quotation marks may constitute plagiarism. Now, some words and ideas fall into the realm of common knowledge, and do not need quotation marks. What are examples of common knowledge? Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or the American Civil War began in 1861. If unsure if it is common knowledge, quote and cite your source. Additionally, using the ideas of another person must be properly cited. If you use another’s drawings, illustrations, graphs or photographs within your work, you must properly cite those as well. You should determine in what writing style guide format your instructor wants citations recorded, and then use those styles to cite your quotations.
When you paraphrase, you take an author’s ideas from the source document and completely rewrite those ideas using your own writing style and words. When you are finished paraphrasing, the material will no longer be how the original author originally wrote it. You must footnote, endnote or parenthetically cite where you obtained the ideas that you paraphrased. When you have paraphrased material, the product still contains the ideas of others, not your own ideas.
A summary contains the main items of another’s works, but it is not a quotation nor is it a rewritten paraphrase of another’s works. The summary basically provides the essence of the original author’s ideas.
Here are several tips for avoiding plagiarism. Do not:
n Submit someone else’s paper or product as your own work.
n Make minor changes to an existing paper (even a paper you wrote previously) and then proceed to claim it as original work for a current assignment.
n Fail, for any reason, to place quotation marks around directly quoted material, whether you’ve cited the material with a footnote, endnote or not; this will still constitute plagiarism.
n Incorporate specific words, groups of words, sentences or even more lengthy quotations and not cite from where you obtained the information.
n Employ the words, thoughts, concepts and illustrations of others, even if you properly paraphrased the content, and then not properly cite the source.
n Accumulate information from multiple sources and not cite and properly annotate the individual sources.
There are three common documentation styles in academic writing: The Modern Language Association, the American Psychological Association, and the Chicago Manual. You can find helpful information online at sites like the Purdue University’s Online Writing Laboratory at http://owl.english.purdue .edu/. There are many other places to find correct and scholarly information on properly citing the source of information.
Academic instructors expect all students’ academic work is scholarly. Students must assume responsibility to learn what “right” looks like. If you have a question, ask your instructor. You can also use a good handbook for writers, an ideal place to begin. You may also easily find information online.
Plagiarism has a legal component beyond just within the academic world. In the legal world, it is unacceptable to present as a defense that you did not know something was a violation of the law. Cite and document sources correctly; there are no acceptable excuses for not knowing how and when to cite sources. Don’t compromise integrity and honor while writing a paper.
An instructor may find an incorrectly quoted item of information by simply typing the words of a suspicious sentence into a search engine, such as Google, and if that sentence is part of a written document on the Internet, it will often appear.
While a student may have an endnote citation, if the student did not place quotation marks around the words quoted from the source, the student committed plagiarism. As a good student and writer, simply don’t forget to enclose quoted materials within quotation marks.
Place quoted material in notes in extra large quotation marks, highlight the quoted material or use a uniquely colored index card as a reminder it is quoted material. Another key is to not “cut and paste” material from online sources and then insert those quoted words into a paper.
Editor’s note: Retired Col. Neal H. Bralley is an assistant professor in the Department of Logistics and Resource Operations, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
Some students do not know what constitutes plagiarism. The purpose of this article is to identify plagiarism and explain how students can avoid committing this serious academic integrity transgression.
When writing academic papers, writers must avoid using too many quotations within their papers. Doing so may lead instructors to conclude you are simply packaging the ideas of others and not applying your own analysis and thought to what you are stating within your paper. In a short paper, having more than two or three quotations may be too many. How well you express what you quote will really become a determining factor on what type of grade you might receive. Certainly, this can vary by academic institution and from instructor to instructor.
The key is to use quotations carefully. Ensure a selected quotation is essential and there is no better way to express an idea, otherwise, you may simply summarize or paraphrase the idea, and then continue to discuss the merits of these ideas. Instructors want to read what you think, what your analysis is, what you’ve learned on specific topics.
Instructors are interested in what your academic products state, that your delivered work reflects primarily your personal insights, appropriately considered thoughts, and you acknowledge the original ideas of others upon which you have made scholarly commentary on the topics of academic and professional interest to your reading audience. Instructors do not want, nor will they tolerate, students who commit plagiarism either knowingly or through a lack of knowledge of what constitutes plagiarism.
You can find good definitions of plagiarism within many writing handbooks. Plagiarism is essentially taking the written work, ideas or illustrations of another person and passing along these items as your own work. If you do this and don’t cite your sources, you commit plagiarism.
While researching papers, we read the words, ideas and illustrations of others. We often process those ideas with other ideas and eventually we may digest this material into our own ideas. When writing academic papers, students often take notes from many written products, such as books, magazines, encyclopedia or online sources. This is an acceptable method of acquiring information. There are three methods to use such information when incorporating it into an academic document: quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.
When you quote, you use the precise words, concepts or illustrations of another person. You must place all quoted words within quotation marks. If what you are quoting is lengthy, then you should use indentation rather than quotation marks to clearly identify it as directly quoted material. You must also use either a footnote, endnote, or parenthetical citation. Footnote citations appear at the bottom of the specific page of the paper. Endnotes provide the full and proper citation at the end of the paper. Parenthetical citations must include a works cited page at the end of the document.
A quotation may be less than an entire sentence; it may be a verbatim copy of just a few words or a phrase from a sentence. If using a partial quotation, you must place an ellipsis within the sentence to indicate where words were omitted. An ellipsis consists of three periods when the omitted words are at the beginning or the middle of the quoted sentence. If the omitted words are at the end of quoted material, it is represented by an ellipsis plus the final period at the end of the sentence, then the closing quotation mark.
Using someone else’s words — even three or four consecutive words — not placed within quotation marks may constitute plagiarism. Now, some words and ideas fall into the realm of common knowledge, and do not need quotation marks. What are examples of common knowledge? Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or the American Civil War began in 1861. If unsure if it is common knowledge, quote and cite your source. Additionally, using the ideas of another person must be properly cited. If you use another’s drawings, illustrations, graphs or photographs within your work, you must properly cite those as well. You should determine in what writing style guide format your instructor wants citations recorded, and then use those styles to cite your quotations.
When you paraphrase, you take an author’s ideas from the source document and completely rewrite those ideas using your own writing style and words. When you are finished paraphrasing, the material will no longer be how the original author originally wrote it. You must footnote, endnote or parenthetically cite where you obtained the ideas that you paraphrased. When you have paraphrased material, the product still contains the ideas of others, not your own ideas.
A summary contains the main items of another’s works, but it is not a quotation nor is it a rewritten paraphrase of another’s works. The summary basically provides the essence of the original author’s ideas.
Here are several tips for avoiding plagiarism. Do not:
n Submit someone else’s paper or product as your own work.
n Make minor changes to an existing paper (even a paper you wrote previously) and then proceed to claim it as original work for a current assignment.
n Fail, for any reason, to place quotation marks around directly quoted material, whether you’ve cited the material with a footnote, endnote or not; this will still constitute plagiarism.
n Incorporate specific words, groups of words, sentences or even more lengthy quotations and not cite from where you obtained the information.
n Employ the words, thoughts, concepts and illustrations of others, even if you properly paraphrased the content, and then not properly cite the source.
n Accumulate information from multiple sources and not cite and properly annotate the individual sources.
There are three common documentation styles in academic writing: The Modern Language Association, the American Psychological Association, and the Chicago Manual. You can find helpful information online at sites like the Purdue University’s Online Writing Laboratory at http://owl.english.purdue .edu/. There are many other places to find correct and scholarly information on properly citing the source of information.
Academic instructors expect all students’ academic work is scholarly. Students must assume responsibility to learn what “right” looks like. If you have a question, ask your instructor. You can also use a good handbook for writers, an ideal place to begin. You may also easily find information online.
Plagiarism has a legal component beyond just within the academic world. In the legal world, it is unacceptable to present as a defense that you did not know something was a violation of the law. Cite and document sources correctly; there are no acceptable excuses for not knowing how and when to cite sources. Don’t compromise integrity and honor while writing a paper.
An instructor may find an incorrectly quoted item of information by simply typing the words of a suspicious sentence into a search engine, such as Google, and if that sentence is part of a written document on the Internet, it will often appear.
While a student may have an endnote citation, if the student did not place quotation marks around the words quoted from the source, the student committed plagiarism. As a good student and writer, simply don’t forget to enclose quoted materials within quotation marks.
Place quoted material in notes in extra large quotation marks, highlight the quoted material or use a uniquely colored index card as a reminder it is quoted material. Another key is to not “cut and paste” material from online sources and then insert those quoted words into a paper.
Editor’s note: Retired Col. Neal H. Bralley is an assistant professor in the Department of Logistics and Resource Operations, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
