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Resources
- Plagiarism
DID YOU KNOW…
If students change a few words in a copied passage without referring to
a source, they have plagiarized.
If students have used ideas, views, theories, or conclusions without reference
to a source, they have plagiarized. As mentioned, these ideas could come
from sources students may not think to credit, such as Web sites or videos.
Writing
with Sources
If the idea you are using is someone else's, it must be referenced. Whether
you quote from the source directly or take the idea and write it in your
own words, the author must be referenced. StFX has a
Zero Tolerance policy on plagiarism. See section 3.9 of the Academic calendar
for further details: http://www.mystfx.ca/calendar/
Key
Terms |
Definitions |
Quoting
|
Using exact words, phrases
or complete sentences from someone else in a book, article, Internet,
movie, or video without giving credit to the author. |
Paraphrasing |
Expressing information
in your own words to reflect an author's ideas. You are trying to
capture the essence of a paragraph or section and the paraphrase may
be as long as the original (Troyka, 2004, p.172-175). |
Summarizing |
In order to write a summary,
you must have a good grasp of the information. Present in your own
words the main points in their original order without distorting their
emphasis or meaning (Reinking, Hart, von der Osten, Cairns, &
Fleming, 1999, p. 328). |
Common
Knowledge |
Facts that can be found
in numerous places and are likely to be known by educated people do
not need to be references; however, you must reference interpretations
associated with commonly known facts (Troyka, 2004, pp. 165- 167). |
Assessing Your Writing For Plagiarism
Original |
|
Revised |
| Twenty-three
percent of all Canadian women have experienced a breast cancer scare. |
The
percentage would not be considered general knowledge, so it must be
referenced. Omission of the reference is an example of plagiarism.
You must give credit to the person or organization for the idea and/or
the research. |
According to CNO (1999) 23 percent of Canadian women will have some breast cancer problems in their lifetime.
"The
Health Care Consent defines a treatment as anything that is done for
therapeutic, preventative, palliative, diagnostic, cosmetic or other
health related purposes" (CNO, 1999, p. 11). |
You
have plagiarized if -
-
You took notes from the text that did not distinguish summary and
paraphrase from quotation. Then you presented wording from the notes
as if it were all your own.
-
You presented facts without saying where you found them.
-
You repeated or paraphrased someone’s wording without acknowledgment.
-
You took someone’s unique or particularly apt phrase without
acknowledgment.
-
You paraphrased someone’s argument or presented someone’s
line of thought without acknowledgment.
- You
copied and pasted information from the Internet without quotation
marks or without citing the source.
To
avoid plagiarism, you can:
-
Use different coloured highlighters to distinguish common facts from
the author’s opinion or line of argument; common facts do not
need to be cited, but the author’s line of reasoning does need
to be cited.
-
Write down word for word information you will use as in-text quotations
or which you will paraphrase.
-
Write down all the necessary documenting information: page number,
author, publisher, city and date of publication.
-
Never copy and paste anything from an Internet site.
-
If you use electronic resources choose material from reputable sites
and articles which are peer-reviewed.
-
Make a list of the writers and viewpoints you discovered in your research.
Using this list, double-check the presentation of material in your
paper.
- Identify
the sources of all material you borrow – exact wordings, paraphrases,
ideas, arguments, and facts that are not commonly known.
Keep
the following three categories distinct in your research notes:
• summaries of others’ material
• exact wordings you copy
• your own ideas, questions, and responses
Adapted from Gibaldi, Joseph. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers . 6th ed. New York: The Modern Languages Association of America , 2003.
Dilemma |
Solution |
You
have your own great ideas about a paper topic, but you are required
to write strictly from academic sources. There is no room for personal
knowledge or opinion in your paper.
|
Don't
abandon your great ideas. Instead, find scholarly sources - not Web
sites - that support your ideas.
Take ownership of your papers by deciding what sources or quotations
to use and by effectively synthesizing that information into the argument
or focus you have chosen for your paper. |
When
you are still uncertain about your use of sources, check with your professor,
a librarian or the Writing Centre.
The StFX Academic Integrity committee has developed an excellent site with links and information from across the continent: http://library.stfx.ca/info/academic_integrity/index.php
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