You should develop good note-taking skills to help prevent plagiarism. You need also to understand how to quote from your original source, how to paraphrase, and how not to patchwrite. If you want to ask or pay someone to help you with the paper, make sure you're not committing collusion.
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Note-taking is an important skill to develop. For one thing it will help you organize the information you gather during your reading and research, which will make writing your paper easier. For another, proper note-taking can help prevent plagiarism. If you take notes carefully you can track:
There is more than one way to take notes as you read. This section demonstrates one effective method. In the method below:
You copy a paragraph directly from an article you found.
You cite the source, but you forget to use quotation marks.
= PLAGIARISM
When you quote the exact words of the original source in your essay, you must:
You find a neat idea in an article, so you use it in your paper.
You don’t bother to cite the source of the idea, because you’ve expressed it in your own words.
= PLAGIARISM
When writing a paper, you should not have too many quotations. It is much more common that you would paraphrase information from your sources. Paraphrasing means expressing an author’s ideas in your own words through changing both the language and the sentence structure. (A related technique is summarizing. Summarizing also involves putting the author’s ideas into your own words, but summaries omit much of the detail.)
Paraphrasing is not easy. In particular, it is impossible to paraphrase something you do not really understand. If you don't understand it, you will be overly dependent on the original words of your source. This can be a challenge for anyone studying a new subject or working in a second language.
Using reference sources such as subject encyclopedias might help you to develop a better understanding of your topic. Reference sources may include these features:
The Walsh Library website has specific subject guides to guide you to recommended databases and sources for your subject area.
Note: Do not forget to list in the bibliography any reference sources you use.
Remember, when you paraphrase or summarize, you must cite the source. Even if you have not used the same words, you have borrowed ideas.
You copy a short passage from an article you found.
You change a couple of words, so that it's different than the original.
You carefully cite the source.
= PLAGIARISM
In the scenario above, even though you have acknowledged the source of the ideas with a citation, you have still committed plagiarism. The reason: the new passage is too close to the original text. This form of plagiarism is called patchwriting.
Patchwriting occurs when a student paraphrases a passage but leaves it too similar to the original. In patchwriting, the writer may delete a few words, change the order, substitute synonyms and even change the grammatical structure, but the reliance on the original text is still visible when the two are compared.
Read the following passage about wrestling. Note the differences between the paraphrasing and patchwriting examples.
Atkinson, M. (2002). Fifty million viewers can’t be wrong: Professional wrestling, sports-entertainment, and mimesis. Sociology of Sport Journal, 9, 47-66.
Original passage:
“Where mainstream sports typically refrain from displaying unapologetically violent acts, professional wrestling dives in head first. A large portion of wrestling’s cultural appeal is generated by the psychological arousal/excitement provided by witnessing highly aggressive and violent forms of physical interaction in this sphere. Wrestling takes that which is pushed behind the scenes of social life and places it in the center ring” (Atkinson, 2002, p. 62-63).
Acceptable Paraphrase:
Most sports do not encourage blatant acts of violence, while professional wrestling embraces the same behavior. Wrestling appeals to audiences because people enjoy watching aggressive and violent acts in the ring. What is normally not condoned in ordinary society is made acceptable in wrestling. (Atkinson, 2002, p. 62-63)
This is an acceptable paraphrase. Notice that the ideas of the original are included, yet they are stated in different words than the original. Next, note the difference between the acceptable paraphrase example above and the patchwriting example below.
Original passage:
“Where mainstream sports typically refrain from displaying unapologetically violent acts, professional wrestling dives in head first. A large portion of wrestling’s cultural appeal is generated by the psychological arousal/excitement provided by witnessing highly aggressive and violent forms of physical interaction in this sphere. Wrestling takes that which is pushed behind the scenes of social life and places it in the center ring” (Atkinson, 2002, p. 62-63).
Patchwriting:
Mainstream sports refrain from showing unremorseful violent acts while professional wrestling unapologetically revels in the same type of violence. A large part of wrestling’s appeal is generated by the very aggressive and violent interaction in this sport. While such violence is usually behind the scenes of social life, it is the centre of wrestling’s existence. (Atkinson, 2002, p. 62-63)
In the patchwriting example, a few words have been changed here and there, but not enough has been done to make the attempted paraphrase different from the original. The blue text identifies words and phrases which occur in both the original and the attempted paraphrase.
You pay a tutor for editing assistance, and he drastically re-writes your original paper.
You give this new edited version to your professor.
= PLAGIARISM
The above scenario is an example of collusion, another form of plagiarism. Collusion involves receiving unauthorized help from tutors and friends in writing your essay. It is important to clarify with your professor or instructor what type of help (if any) is acceptable for a specific assignment.
The following ways of getting help are almost certainly acceptable, unless your professor has specifically banned them:
If you want to do one of the following, you should check with your professor first:
If you have permission to receive assistance, you should acknowledge all the help you receive. One method is to include an acknowledgements page with your paper. Be sure to name everyone who helped you and to describe how they assisted you. Some instructors will require contact information, especially for tutors.
You use part or all of a previously completed essay in a new assignment.
You do not acknowledge that you are borrowing from your own previous work.
= PLAGIARISM
"Like all plagiarism the essence of self-plagiarism is the author attempts to deceive the reader. This happens when no indication is given that the work is being recycled or when an effort is made to disguise the original text...." (Hexam, 2005, emphasis added)
While it is often acceptable - and encouraged - to build on in-class work, notes, and ideas as you write papers on similar topics throughout your academic career, it is vital that you provide a clear path back to the original use of these ideas, just as with citing the work of others.
Marie Briggs is a student at Walden University. She wrote a paper last term on personality theory, and she wants to use some of her work in that paper in another paper this term. Since she is citing previously completed work - even though it is her own - she needs to cite it just as she would someone else's work. Here is what her in-text citaiton might look like:
Briggs (2012) asserted that previous literature on the psychology of tightrope walkers was faulty in that it "presumed that risk-taking behaviors align neatly with certain personality traits or disorders" (p. 4).
Her reference list would also include this paper:
Briggs, M. (2012). An analysis of personality theory. Unpublished manuscript, Walden University.
*Remember, these citation examples are in APA style - if you are asked to use another style, like MLA or Chicago, your references will look slightly different.
If you are ever unsure whether to cite your previous work, or whether it is okay to incorporate that previous work into new projects and papers, consult with your instructor or with a librarian.
APA example credit: Walden University, 2015
Image credit: Flickr user quinnanya