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Plagiarism in college writing
Introduction
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Plagiarism involves using another person's words or ideas without giving proper credit. Giving proper credit to your sources enhances the reader's regard for your ability as a writer and researcher, someone who is able to find, use, and give credit to a variety of sources. Follow these guidelines to avoid plagiarism and enhance your image as a responsible writer who carefully documents sources.
Keep careful records as you do research. Sometimes plagiarism results from rushed or careless note-taking: the student copies a passage from a library source, but forgets to put quotation marks around the original author's words. Several days later, when writing the paper, the student may be hazy about whether the passage is an exact quotation or a paraphrase. Or the student prints out material from a website, but later discovers that the URL did not print. Or the student photocopies a page from a journal article, but forgets to record the entire page span of the article.
Avoid these problems by thinking ahead as you do research to the information you'll need when you prepare your final draft and Works Cited page. Photocopying source material saves time and creates an accurate record. As you take notes or photocopy material, keep track of direct quotations, page numbers, journal volume numbers, publication dates, URLs, access dates, and so on. If you set up an index card with the citation information for each source, you'll have a system for recording the citation information and can easily alphabetize the cards when constructing your Works Cited page. (Or use the Writing in the World Worksheets to help you track your book, periodical, and online sources. See Worksheets 24, 25, and 26.)
Remember that in-text citations and Works Cited entries are required even if you are not using the author's own words. If you summarize or paraphrase an author's ideas, you must include in your text not only the author's name but also the page number for the material. Likewise, images or tables drawn from another source must be credited—even if, for example, you re-keyboard the information in the table.
Pay special attention to the following points:
- Identify the author of a source, either through an attribution phrase or an in-text citation.
- Place quotation marks around directly quoted material.
- Include adequate citation information (including page number).
- Put paraphrases in your own words, being careful not to distort the author's meaning.
- Give credit even when you are summarizing or paraphrasing a source.
Remember: Keep careful records throughout your research process; and when in doubt, credit your source.
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