How to Avoid Plagiarism Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting

Reminder Plagiarism is the act of presenting the words, ideas, images, sounds, or the creative expression of others as your own.

How to Correctly Use the Thoughts of Others Integrating source material into your own writing can add credibility, complexity, and support to your project. However, there are rules about how to correctly use original source material.

How to Correctly Use the Thoughts of Others There are 3 ways to correctly use the ideas of others in your research. Summary: an extremely condensed overview of a passage. Paraphrase: a detailed restatement of a passage in your own words. Quotation: using the EXACT words of an author, copied directly from a source, word for word.

Correct Summarizing To summarize correctly, you must . . . Use entirely your own words and writing style to express another’s ideas. Do not add in your own personal opinions. Cover only the most important ideas of the passage. Make sure your summary is significantly shorter than the original passage.

When should you summarize? Summarize when you only need an overview of what the original source has to say. Summarize to condense a large amount of information into a few sentences.

Good or Bad Summary? Original Source While the Sears Tower is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraper engineering so far, it's unlikely that architects and engineers have abandoned the quest for the world's tallest building. The question is: Just how high can a building go? Structural engineer William LeMessurier has designed a skyscraper nearly one-half mile high, twice as tall as the Sears Tower. And architect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could produce a 500-story building. From "Reaching for the Sky“ by Ron Bachman, Dial (May 1990), pg. 15.

Summary #1 Architects continue to try and design taller and taller skyscrapers.

Summary #2 The Sears Tower is one the greatest achievements in skyscraper engineering so far. However, many architects still want to pursue the quest of designing the worlds tallest building. Consequently, many architects are trying to outdo the Sears Tower, which may be possible in the long run.

Correct Paraphrasing To paraphrase correctly, you must . . . Place the original text almost entirely in your own words. Use new synonyms and new phrases. Only technical terms should be repeated. Use your own sentence structure. It should NOT be the same as in the source. Do not add your own ideas, interpretations, or opinions.

When should you paraphrase? Paraphrase when you need more detailed coverage of the source material. Paraphrase to simplify or clarify source material.

Good or Bad Paraphrasing? Original Source While the Sears Tower is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraper engineering so far, it's unlikely that architects and engineers have abandoned the quest for the world's tallest building. The question is: Just how high can a building go? Structural engineer William LeMessurier has designed a skyscraper nearly one-half mile high, twice as tall as the Sears Tower. And architect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could produce a 500-story building. From "Reaching for the Sky“ by Ron Bachman, Dial (May 1990), pg. 15.

Paraphrase #1 The Sears Tower is debatably the best accomplishment in skyscraper engineering to date. However, it's doubtful that architects and engineers have given up the pursuit of the world's tallest building. The question they keep asking is: Just how high can we go? Structural engineer William LeMessurier has designed a skyscraper nearly half-a-mile high and double the size of the Sears Tower. Architect Robert Sobel declares that current technology could bring into being a 500-story building.

Paraphrase #2 How much higher skyscrapers of the future will rise than the present world marvel, the Sears Tower, is unknown. However, the design of one twice as tall is already on the boards, and an architect, Robert Sobel, thinks we currently have sufficient know-how to build a skyscraper with over 500 stories.

Paraphrase #3 Just how high can a building go? The Sears Tower is currently the tallest skyscraper in the world and is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraper engineering to date. However, architects and engineers will never abandon the quest to create the world’s tallest building because they are hopeless dreamers. For example, architect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could produce a 500-story building—a claim which is debatable. And structural engineer William LeMessurier claims he has designed a skyscraper nearly twice as tall as the Sears Tower. Although these two men dream big, the reality of a 500 story building is still years away from being realized.

Avoiding Plagiarism = Good Note Taking Good note taking while researching helps you to avoid plagiarism. Tip #1: Do not write sentences or paragraphs down word for word. Tip #2: Write down “fast fragments.” Tip #3: Paraphrase the information WHILE you are taking notes.

Avoiding Plagiarism Practice Step #1: Fast Facts Read the paragraphs below and record 4 fact fragments in the note-taking section.   Example: half of population lives in Chicago area Illinois has more people than any other state in the Midwestern region of the United States. About half of the people of Illinois live in and around Chicago, one of the world’s leading industrial and transportation centers. In addition, millions of Illinoisans live in the smaller cities and on the farms that dot the state’s gently rolling plains. These plains cover most of Illinois, and have given the state one of its nicknames, the Prairie State. (Source: World Book Online)  

Avoiding Plagiarism Practice Step #2: Sentences Now, use your fact fragments to create complete sentences. Remember, you are putting the information in your own words. Example: Half the people in Illinois live near Chicago.

Avoiding Plagiarism Practice Step #3: Paragraph Now you will use the sentences you created to write a paragraph about Illinois. 1. Look at your sentences closely. 2. Write a topic sentence that will introduce the main idea of your paragraph. 3. Decide which of your sentences will be first, second, third, etc. in your paragraph. 4. You may include the example sentence in your paragraph.

Final Thoughts Source material should never make your point for you. Instead, source material should back up what YOU are saying. Never misrepresent what the author said in the source material. Always cite (give credit) to the original source when summarizing, paraphrasing, and/or quoting.