Avoiding Plagiarism

from Bemidji State University Writing Resource Center

You would not want to be accused of stealing a car or a wallet, nor do your friends want theirs stolen. Similarly, you do not want to be accused of stealing someone's words or ideas, nor do writers want theirs stolen. To use someone's words or ideas in your writing without letting your readers know where they came from is a form of theft called plagiarism. You can avoid plagiarizing if you are careful to do the following:

	Put the words of an author in quotation marks, record them accurately, and follow the quotation with a citation that indicates you source. And use quotation marks even when you borrow a phrase or a single, special word from another person. (Follow the style of citation recommended by your professor. MLA, APA, and Turabian are three common styles)
	Write a summary or paraphrase in your own words and sentence patterns. Follow it with a citation. Just changing some words does not make a paraphrase; the ideas must be digested, understood, and written in your own words.
	In addition, it is wise to lead into your quotation or paraphrase by using the author's name. For example, you can writing, "According to Deborah Tannen," followed by a quotation from Tannen or your paraphrase or summary of Tannen's ideas.
	Be careful not to plagiarize your teacher or colleagues, as well. If you borrow words or ideas from anyone--teacher, students, best friends--be sure to give them credit by quoting and citing them, or paraphrasing and citing. They will thank you for it.

And a final note concerning plagiarism and the Internet:

To avoid plagiarism, cite the source of anything that you borrow from the Internet, including material from Web pages, e-mail, and newsgroups. These materials are the words and ideas of people who deserve to be given credit.

More On Avoiding Plagiarism

Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab

Academic writing in American institutions is filled with rules that writers often don't know how to follow. A working knowledge of these rules, however, is critically important; inadvertent mistakes can lead to charges of plagiarism, or the unacknowledged use of somebody else's words or ideas. While other cultures may not insist so heavily on documenting sources, American institutions do. A charge of plagiarism can have severe consequences, including expulsion from the university. This handout is designed to help writers develop strategies for knowing how to avoid accidental plagiarism.

Since teachers and administrators may not distinguish between deliberate and accidental plagiarism, the heart of avoiding plagiarism is to make sure you give credit where it is due. This may be credit for something somebody said, wrote, emailed, drew, or implied.

Choosing When to Give Credit

Need to Document	No Need to Document
When you are using or referring to somebody else’s words or ideas from a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium	When you are writing your own experiences, your own observations, your own insights, your own thoughts, your own conclusions about a subject
When you use information gained through interviewing another person	When you are using "common knowledge" — folklore, common sense observations, shared information within your field of study or cultural group
When you copy the exact words or a "unique phrase" from somewhere	When you are compiling generally accepted facts
When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, and pictures	When you are writing up your own experimental results
When you use ideas that others have given you in conversations or over email

Deciding if Something is "Common Knowledge"

· You find the same information undocumented in at least five different sources

· You think it is information your readers will already know

· You think the person could easily find the information with general reference sources