Avoiding Plagiarism

Are you finishing up a paper? Visit SWC's Writing Center (420D) and read through these tips on how to avoid plagiarism (from Facts on File Issues & Controversies).

"What Is Plagiarism?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to plagiarize is to 'steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as ... [your] own.' Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. Intentional plagiarism includes actions such as buying a paper from a Web site, copying an entire paper from another source, turning in someone's paper as your own, and hiring someone to write a paper for you. Unintentional plagiarism is less clear. The following actions are forms of plagiarism, whether intentional or not:

• Not placing a direct quotation in quotation marks. You have plagiarized if you use someone else's exact words or phrases and do not use quotation marks, even if you include a parenthetical reference or a footnote after it.

• Following another's sentence too closely. If you only change a word or two in the sentence, delete some words, or change the order of the sentence, you are plagiarizing, not paraphrasing.

• Placing parenthetical references or footnotes in the wrong place so that paraphrased material looks like your own idea.

• Using another's original idea without including a parenthetical reference or a footnote.

• Using too much of someone else's work. If most of your paper is made up of other people's ideas and words, even if you cite correctly, it may be considered plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a very serious offense in both the academic and professional worlds."

"Avoiding Plagiarism." Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. .

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