How to Avoid Plagiarism
Give Credit Where Credit's Due
Plagiarism — claiming the ideas, research, theories or words of others as one's own — is a serious academic offense. When you write reports, essays and papers for high school and college classes, it’s critical that you give full credit to others’ work.
Most students know when they are intentionally plagiarizing; for example, if they copy an entire essay out of a book or buy a paper from an Internet site. However, many people don’t understand that using others' words, facts, ideas or data without giving proper credit is also plagiarism.
Cite Your Sources
Citing sources, or citation, means giving information about where an idea came from; for example, naming the author and book that you’re quoting. You must cite your sources for any words, facts, ideas or data in your paper that aren’t yours. When in doubt, give credit and provide a citation.
Different disciplines, publications and professors have different standards for citation. Use the preferred style and be consistent in the way you format your citations.
Footnotes and Endnotes
One form of citation is the footnote or endnote. To use this form, put a superscript number after a quote, paraphrase or fact. Add a note either at the bottom of the page or at the end of the text that begins with the same number and gives the source of the material. Your citation and foot- or endnote should look something like this:
Commenting on the history of climate change, Kennedy notes, "We have known since the early 1900s that global temperatures between 90,000 and 10,000 years ago underwent sudden dramatic shifts."12
12. Don Kennedy, "New Climate News," Science, volume 290 (November 10, 2000), 1091.
In-Text Citations
Citations within text are fine if you are referring to a small number of assigned texts or if your paper includes a bibliography — a list of the works you cite that gives details about each one.
To use this form, when you present a quotation, a paraphrase or an idea, credit the source by adding brief identifying information in parentheses. Usually you should include either the name of the publication or the author of the work, along with the page number where the information was found. For example:
Bellow writes, "Knowledge divorced from life equals sickness" (More Die of Heartbreak, p. 7).
Here is another acceptable way to format in-text citations:
The term "hunter-gatherer," when used to describe nomadic societies that practice neither agriculture nor animal husbandry, places undue emphasis on hunting both as a source of nutrition (Oakes, 1980, 121) and as a time commitment (Peachtree, 12).
Make sure you include enough information about each of the sources you are citing so that it can be identified in your bibliography. This writer's bibliography included one article by Peachtree, but two articles by Oakes — so a date was needed.
Citing Material from Websites
A good general rule is to give the website's name, the page's URL, the date of publication if you are citing an article or a journal, and the date you consulted it, as shown below:
Carnes, Mark C. "Setting Students’ Minds on Fire." The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 6, 2011. Online. Available: http://chronicle.com/article/Setting-Students-Minds-on/126592/. March 14, 2011.
The Internet has a lot of unsubstantiated information, as well as plagiarism of every sort, so evaluate sources carefully before relying on them. And remember that just because information on a website is easy to cut and paste doesn’t mean it’s up for grabs.
When Don't You Have to Cite?
Common Knowledge
You don't have to give credit for a fact stated in your own words, such as information that is common knowledge:
“Hey Jude” is a song by the Beatles, an acclaimed English rock band.
Your Own Ideas
You also don't have to give a citation for facts or ideas that you yourself have established. Make the origin of your material clear:
After conducting a survey of sophomore engineering majors, I found that 72 percent cite the potential for high salaries after graduation as an important factor in their choice of major.
Is Paraphrasing Plagiarism?
Paraphrasing is putting information and ideas into other words for the sake of clarity or brevity. Used properly, paraphrasing can be a powerful tool for both explaining ideas and making persuasive arguments.
What constitutes proper and improper use of the paraphrase? Here is an example of an original text:
The lost-wax casting process (also called cire perdue, the French term) has been used for many centuries. It probably started in Egypt. By 200 BCE the technique was known in China and ancient Mesopotamia and was soon after used by the Benin peoples in Africa. It spread to ancient Greece sometime in the sixth century BCE and was widespread in Europe until the eighteenth century, when a piece-mold process came to predominate.
—Marilyn Stokstad, Art History, Volume Two (New York, Prentice Hall, Inc. and Harry Abrams, Inc., 1995), 31.
And here is a paraphrase:
The lost-wax casting process is an ancient method for making metal sculpture. While the ancient Egyptians appear to have been its first practitioners, other cultures around the world also developed or imported the technique. Probably, introduced to Europe by the ancient Greeks in the sixth century BCE, lost-wax casting remained an important artistic method up to the eighteenth century (Stokstad, 31).
Rather than simply restating the text, the author of the paraphrase changes the text to draw out a particular idea and leaves out the details that aren't relevant to the point being made. Moreover, the author adds some clarity by including a short definition of the lost-wax method in the opening sentence.
Most importantly, the source is cited by author and page number. The rest of the information about Marilyn Stokstad’s book — its title, publisher and date of publication — would be found in the bibliography at the end of the paper.
A Note on Notes
It's very easy to copy a source unintentionally. To avoid doing this, use quotation marks to set off the exact words of the original quote in your notes and include the citation information. Then you can later decide whether to quote or paraphrase, according to your reason for citing the text.
Oral Presentations
It’s easy to use other people's words in a speech without realizing it. Do your best to make it clear when you are borrowing. For example, you can say, "As President John F. Kennedy said, 'And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.’”
Keep a written list of citations you can use as a reference if you are asked about your quotes.
Preventing Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be a risk if you depend too heavily on outside sources. Rely on your own ideas, be conscientious about citing your sources and be careful about how you paraphrase. You’ll avoid plagiarism — and produce better papers and speeches.
