Plagiarism Plagiarism is a topic no one wants to discuss, but it is often seen in academic circles. It could be considered the elephant in the living room that everyone sees, but no one acknowledges. What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism is using other people's words as your own without giving credit to the original writer. There are students who intentionally plagiarize other people's works because they are lazy, are procrastinators, or don't understand the material. So, they copy, word for word, entire passages from books or articles and pass it off as their own. Other students purchase papers on the Internet. Last, students pay other students (smarter? than they) to write papers for them. I am not talking about these people. In these cases, the plagiarism is obvious and deliberate. I am going to discuss the situations where the plagiaristic acts are not deliberate and not so obvious.

I Can Use The Author's Words If I Cite the Source, Right? Yes and No. Citing the source will take care of a paraphrase but it won't take care of those beautifully worded phrases that you just couldn't pass up. See the paragraph by Jeffcoat. You must put quotation marks around any phrase that is not yours and cite the author, year, and page number. Before you start taking phrases from other works ask yourself why you are doing it. If it supports or adds credibility to your argument, then it is justified. If you understand what the author is saying and can explain how it fits into your paper, then it is appropriate. If it just sounds great, find another way to say it that sounds just as good and belongs to you. There is another reason not to use too many quotations from other people. Your paper will look like a patchwork quilt held together by an original word or phrase here and there. In the end, there will be precious little original writing and you will not have benefited from the assignment. You will not have written a paper, but have cut and pasted one together. Not anyone's idea of a successful endeavor. See Mosaic (Georgetown University), which is a paragraph constructed of many phrases taken from other peoples' work. Consider the following passage: Having God's Word available to the public in the language of the common man, English, would have meant disaster to the church. No longer would they control access to the scriptures. If people were able to read the Bible in their own tongue, the church's income and power would crumble. They could not possibly continue to get away with selling indulgences (the forgiveness of sins) or selling the release of loved ones from a church-manufactured "Purgatory". English Bible History Article & Timeline ©2002 by author & editor: John L. Jeffcoat Retrieved March 21, 2005 from http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/ If I wrote: Having the Holy Bible in the language of the commoner, English, would have ruined the Roman Church. The clergy could no longer control access to the Bible and, therefore, they could not control the people. They would no longer get away with selling indulgences (the forgiveness of sins) or selling the release of loved ones from Purgatory, which the Church had invented. Without a citation and quotation marks around the phrases I took from the original paragraph, this paragraph is plagiarism. The plagiarized phrases are in red. These are called "apt" (Georgetown University) phrases. Even if I only used one of the phrases in the whole paper and didn't put quotation marks around it, I am guilty of plagiarism. It is still plagiarism even if I cite Jeffcoat at the end of the paragraph because I am not being honest. I am expressing my ideas in Jeffcoat's words, which are better than I could do on my own. I have to put quotation marks around each phrase and cite the page number after each one. If I do put quotation marks around the phrases and cite the page number am I still doing all I should do as an honest writer? Mosaic Having the Holy Bible in the language of the commoner, English, would have ruined the Roman Church. The clergy could not longer "control access to" (Jeffcoat, 2002) the Bible and, therefore, they could not control the people. They would no longer "get away with selling indulgences (the forgiveness of sins) or selling the release of loved ones from Purgatory" (Jeffcoat), which the Church had invented. This paragraph is properly cited, but the substance belongs to Jeffcoat and not to me. In this case, I should quote the original passage or paraphrase the passage.

What is a Paraphrase? Paraphrasing is telling a story in your own words and giving credit to the originator of the story. Students often get into trouble when they like an author's phrasing (like the last section) or when they really don't understand the topic. If you can paraphrase well, it will show that you understand what the author is trying to say. This is especially true if the author uses jargon or uses word in odd ways. But I Didn't Know! Many colleges have different codes of academic honesty and professors deal with this issue differently. Under most codes of academic honesty it is your responsibility to know the rules. If you plagiarize someone's work, even if it was unintentional, and you get caught, then you are responsible (Georgetown University). Many professors subscribe to services that compare papers to those that are for sale on the Internet and tell them the likelihood of it being plagiarized. Other professors are so familiar with the literature; they can spot a plagiarized paragraph a mile away. What can you do to decrease your chances of being accused of plagiarism when you are innocent? 1. Engage your professors in the writing process. Let them know that you are writing your papers. 2. Save your notes and rough drafts. 3. Show your rough drafts to your professors. 4. Learn the topic well enough to carry on an intelligent conversation. (Georgetown University). What you can do to lessen the temptation to lift phrases from other people: Start writing early--this will give you the time necessary to think, chew, mull over and digest the material, and develop your own ideas about your topic. By that time you will be able to write about the topic in your own words. Read many sources--this will give you a broad base and you won't be dependent on any one author's ideas or wording. Limit the use of on-line or other electronic resources--these resources are not considered very scholarly anyway and you will be less likely to cut and paste. If you must use them, print them first. Ask for help or invest in a thesaurus--ask someone else if they can give you ideas on how to word something in a different way if you are stuck. Use a thesaurus to find synonyms. As an editor, I often check references if I suspect plagiarism. I understand that generally it is unintentional and done only because you liked the author's phrasing. If I find plagiarised material, I will tell you to put quotation marks around the phrase and cite it, paraphrase it and cite it, or delete it. Remember, any phrase that belongs to another author is plagiarism unless it has quotation marks and it’s cited. I will also suggest that you look over your paper for any other instances where you use a good sounding or "apt" (Georgetown University) phrases. Sources used for this page: Georgetown University Honor Council Retrieved March 24, 2004 from http://www.georgetown.edu/honor/plagiarism.html University of Californina at Davis Student Judicial Affairs, Avoiding Plagiarism Retrieved March 24, 2005 from http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm#reasons