Avoiding Plagiarism Presented by the Center for Writing and Languages In partnership with the Integrated Learning Resource Center

What is plagiarism? Plagiarism (papers, projects or any assignment prepared outside of class) includes, but is not limited to... Omitting quotation marks or other conventional markings around material quoted from any printed source Paraphrasing a specific passage from a specific source without properly referencing the source Replicating another student's work, in whole or in part and submitting it as original (Source:

Documentation Styles MLA -Parenthetical citations -Used in English and sometimes COMS APA -Parenthetical citations, date emphasized -Used in psychology and other human sciences

More Documentation Styles Turabian -Footnotes -Used in history, philosophy, and religion AMA -Sources are numbered and keyed to endnotes -Used in medical sciences

Library Helps for Citing Placeholder—Rory will provide content.

Using sources Quoting: Using author’s exact words Paraphrasing: Restating author’s ideas in your own words and your own sentence structure Summarizing: Briefly stating author’s main point in your own words and sentence structure. A summary is shorter than the original text. All three must be followed by citations.

When to use each method Quote when the individual words are just as important as the message (e.g., poetry). Paraphrase when the message is more important than the word choice. This is often the case! Summarize when you are dealing with a large amount of relevant source material (e.g., you’re writing a book review).

How not to paraphrase Do not try to go directly from the page to the computer screen, word by word. This makes it too easy to copy the author’s sentence structure. This method can also lead to awkward word choice if you try to avoid plagiarism by looking up a synonym for each word.

How to paraphrase Start with a manageable amount of source material. Read it several times to make sure you understand it. Close the book or other source and put it aside. Write the main ideas of the passage you’ve just read in your own “voice”: the way you would say it. Go back to the original source and check your paraphrase for accuracy.

Note-taking I think Rory is covering this as well.

SafeAssign Some instructors will require you to upload your papers to SafeAssign. This is a Blackboard-based program that finds parts of a paper that match other student papers, websites, and some published sources. It is not a fool-proof program, but it is useful for alerting instructors to possible plagiarism.

Your response to SafeAssign Don’t plagiarize! Don’t pay attention to the percentage. A paper with a large number of direct quotes may have a high percentage. That doesn’t mean it’s plagiarized. Don’t worry—your instructors won’t make decisions based on the percentage alone; they will check your papers and use their own judgment.

Questions? Ask us now, or contact – the Undergraduate Writing Center – the Graduate Writing Center – Rory Patterson, research librarian