54b. Avoiding plagiarism when quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing sources
Your research paper represents your ideas in conversation with the ideas in your sources. To be fair and responsible, you must acknowledge your debt to the writers of those sources. If you don’t, you commit plagiarism, a serious academic offense. (See also 51c.)
In general, these three acts are considered plagiarism: (1) failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas, (2) failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks, and (3) failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words. Definitions of plagiarism may vary; it’s a good idea to find out how your school defines academic dishonesty.
Citing quotations and borrowed ideas
You must cite all direct quotations. You must also cite any ideas borrowed from a source: summaries and paraphrases; statistics and other specific facts; and visuals such as cartoons, graphs, and diagrams.
The only exception is common knowledge—information your readers could easily find in any number of general sources. For example, most encyclopedias will tell readers that Joel Coen directed Fargo in 1996 and that Emily Dickinson published only a handful of her many poems during her lifetime.
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR HANDBOOK
When you use exact language from a source, you need to show that it is a quotation.
Quotation marks for direct quotations: 37a
Setting off long quotations: page 573
As a rule, when you have seen information repeatedly in your reading, you don’t need to cite it. However, when information has appeared in only one or two sources, when it is highly specific (as with statistics), or when it is controversial, you should cite the source. If a topic is new to you and you are not sure what is considered common knowledge or what is controversial, ask your instructor or someone else with expertise. When in doubt, cite the source. (See 56 for details.)
Enclosing borrowed language in quotation marks
To indicate that you are using a source’s exact phrases or sentences, you must enclose them in quotation marks unless they have been set off from the text by indenting (see 55a). To omit the quotation marks is to claim—falsely—that the language is your own. Such an omission is plagiarism even if you have cited the source.
original source
Without adequate discipline, the World Wide Web can be a tremendous time sink; no other medium comes close to matching the Internet’s depth of materials, interactivity, and sheer distractive potential.
—Frederick Lane, The Naked Employee, p. 142
plagiarism
Frederick Lane points out that if people do not have adequate discipline, the World Wide Web can be a tremendous time sink; no other medium comes close to matching the Internet’s depth of materials, interactivity, and sheer distractive potential (142).
borrowed language in quotation marks
Frederick Lane points out that for those not exercising self-control, “the World Wide Web can be a tremendous time sink; no other medium comes close to matching the Internet’s depth of materials, interactivity, and sheer distractive potential” (142).
Putting summaries and paraphrases in your own words
Summaries and paraphrases are written in your own words. A summary condenses information from a source; a paraphrase uses roughly the same number of words as the original source to convey the information. When you summarize or paraphrase, it is not enough to name the source; you must restate the source’s meaning using your own language. (See also 51c.) You commit plagiarism if you patchwrite—half-copy the author’s sentences, either by mixing the author’s phrases with your own without using quotation marks or by plugging your synonyms into the author’s sentence structure.
The first paraphrase of the following source is plagiarized. Even though the source is cited, too much of its language is borrowed from the original. The highlighted strings of words have been copied exactly (without quotation marks). In addition, the writer has closely echoed the sentence structure of the source, merely substituting some synonyms (restricted for limited, modern era for computer age, monitoring for surveillance, and inexpensive for cheap).
original source
In earlier times, surveillance was limited to the information that a supervisor could observe and record firsthand and to primitive counting devices. In the computer age surveillance can be instantaneous, unblinking, cheap, and, maybe most importantly, easy.
—Carl Botan and Mihaela Vorvoreanu, “What Do Employees Think about Electronic Surveillance at Work?,” p. 126
plagiarism: unacceptable borrowing
Scholars Carl Botan and Mihaela Vorvoreanu argue that in earliertimes monitoring of employees was restricted to the information that a supervisor could observe and record firsthand. In the modern era, monitoring can be instantaneous, inexpensive, and, most importantly, easy.
To avoid plagiarizing an author’s language, resist the temptation to look at the source while you are summarizing or paraphrasing. After you have read the passage you want to paraphrase, set the source aside. Ask yourself, “What is the author’s meaning?” In your own words, state your understanding of the author’s basic point. Return to the source and check that you haven’t used the author’s language or sentence structure or misrepresented the author’s ideas. Following these steps will help you avoid plagiarizing the source. When you fully understand another writer’s meaning, you can more easily and accurately represent those ideas in your own words.
acceptable paraphrase
Scholars Carl Botan and Mihaela Vorvoreanu claim that the nature of workplace surveillance has changed over time. Before the arrival of computers, managers could collect only small amounts of information about their employees based on what they saw or heard. Now, because computers are standard workplace technology, employers can monitor employees efficiently (126).
For more discussion of summary and paraphrase, see 51c.
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