Using Source Material and Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of another person’s wording, phrasing, ideas, or collection of facts as your own. It demonstrates a lack of respect for the value of ideas and knowledge and is considered a form of stealing. Because violations of academic integrity are serious, it is critical to understand plagiarism and the proper use and acknowledgment of source material.

The rules for documenting sources are straightforward. The following items taken from other sources must be acknowledged through proper documentation:

• Direct quotations
• Ideas from other sources, whether paraphrased or summarized
• Facts that are not common knowledge (facts found in encyclopedia articles, such as dates of significant events, are generally considered common knowledge and typically do not require citation)

When in doubt about whether to document a particular item, always cite it. Documentation not only upholds academic integrity but also highlights the extent of your research and allows readers to explore your topic further.

When quoting directly, you must document the source and indicate every instance of another author’s wording. Ensure quotations are exact, including all words and punctuation. If part of a quotation is irrelevant and its omission does not alter the meaning, you may use an ellipsis (three spaced periods for omissions within a sentence; four for omissions at the end of a sentence). Any additions or comments within a quotation should be enclosed in brackets. Quotations should be used sparingly, reserved for significant wording, critical facts, or authoritative sources, and not as filler.

When paraphrasing or summarizing an author’s ideas, use your own words and sentence structure entirely. Avoid looking at the original text while writing to ensure originality. Substituting synonyms into the author’s sentence structure is considered plagiarism, just as failing to quote verbatim passages is. Fully integrating paraphrases and summaries into your own style demonstrates a clear understanding of the material and enhances the readability of your work. Even when paraphrasing or summarizing, you must cite the author’s name and page number to acknowledge the source.

The following example, excerpted from H. Ramsey Fowler’s The Little, Brown Handbook (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1980, pp. 484–485), illustrates poor and proper paraphrasing:

Original: In each case I have tried to show that all the action in a “Jamesian novel” may be taken as a result of philosophical differences of opinion among the principle characters, and that these differences in turn are explainable by reference to the characters’ differing social backgrounds.

Poor Paraphrase: The action in a “Jamesian novel” comes from philosophical differences of opinion between characters. These differences can be explained by examining the characters’ differing social backgrounds (Crews 8).

The poor paraphrase uses several verbatim expressions from the source without quotation marks, such as “action in a ‘Jamesian novel,’” “philosophical differences of opinion,” and “the characters’ differing social backgrounds.” Despite citing the source, the writer plagiarizes by failing to use quotation marks for the author’s exact words.

Improved Paraphrase: In Henry James’s novels, the characters’ actions stem from philosophical perspectives shaped by their social upbringing and status (Crews 8).

In the improved paraphrase, the writer captures the source’s meaning but rephrases it in their own words and sentence structure, fitting the larger context of their work while properly citing the source.

Crews, Frederick C. The Tragedy of Manners: Moral Drama in the Later Novels of Henry James. 1957. Hamden: Shoe String Press, 1971.