SJHS Academic Writing
Here’s where things get tricky. Different institutions have slightly different definitions of plagiarism:
Did You Know?
“In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.”
“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices.” Council of Writing Program Administrators. 16 Feb. 2015.
Did You Know?
“Three different acts are considered plagiarism:
failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas,
failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks, and
failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words” (570).
Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 1998.
Did You Know?
The University of Toronto’s code of behavior defines plagiarism as follows:
It shall be an offence for a student knowingly:
(d) to represent as one’s own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work, i.e. to commit plagiarism.
Wherever in the Code an offence is described as depending on “knowing”, the offence shall likewise be deemed to have been committed if the person ought reasonably to have known.
Procter, Margaret. “How Not to Plagiarize.” 16 Feb. 2015.
These definitions are all similar but there are subtle differences between each one. In the first example, the definition uses the word “deliberately.” This might lead you to believe that if you accidentally commit an act of plagiarism by forgetting to cite a source, or if you didn’t know a source needed to be cited, you’re not guilty of plagiarism; however, the third example adds a stipulation that it’s plagiarism if the person “ought reasonably to have known.” So you’re still on the hook even if you didn’t mean to do it.
The first example also mentions the idea of common knowledge. You do not have to cite something that is common knowledge. So what constitutes common knowledge? The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University explains that something can be considered common knowledge if “you find the same information undocumented in at least five credible sources. Additionally, it might be common knowledge if you think the information you’re presenting is something your readers will already know, or something that a person could easily find in general reference sources.”
One way to ensure you avoid accidental plagiarism is making sure you cite all your sources properly. Not only do you prevent unintentional plagiarism, you establish your own credibility as a responsible and ethical writer and researcher.
In English, instructors usually require students to use the Modern Language Association style guide, often simply referred to as MLA. (This is the style we will be using in this course.) However, different disciplines use other style guides such as APA or Chicago. Therefore, it’s not particularly helpful or necessary to memorize how to cite different sources using a specific style guide. What is useful, is knowing how to access and use a variety of different style guides.
The Most Common Style Guides
Modern Languages Association (MLA) commonly used in English literature and art: Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
American Psychological Association (APA) commonly used in psychology and education: The American Psychological Association
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) most commonly used in history and science: The Chicago Manual of Style
Paraphrases, summaries, and quotations are used to support—not replace—your own ideas.
Paraphrase: restatement of a portion text in your own words using approximately the same number of words for the purpose of helping the reader understand the meaning.
Summary: a shortened version of the text in your own words for the purpose of providing the reader with the essential understanding of a source.
Quotation: a repetition of someone’s exact words for the purpose of using someone else’s words to support or illustrate your ideas, analyzing another’s writing, or to point out an element in the writing.
The following examples all come from Williams College: Citing and Documenting online student resource.
You should use a quotation when specific words, or a phrase are essential to support the point you are making.
Direct Quotation Example
ORIGINAL
Buffy, a small, delicate-looking blonde of superhuman strength, relies on Giles not only for adult support and coaching, but also for the research necessary to do that for which the Vampire Slayer has been chosen.
QUOTE IN PAPER (MLA)
According to DeCandido, Buffy “relies on Giles not only for adult support and coaching, but also for the research necessary to do that for which the Vampire Slayer has been chosen” (44).
The full citation that would appear in the Works Cited page would be:
DeCandido, Graceanne A. “Bibliographic Good vs. Evil in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” American Libraries Sept. 1999: 44-47. Print.
The student chose a direct quotation because the student felt the author’s exact words were important to convey the main idea. Notice how the student seamlessly weaves the quotation into his own text. He begins the sentence and uses the quotation to end it. Notice too how the student does not include the author’s last name in the parenthetical citation because he used it when introducing the quotation.
Summaries are helpful when you want to condense a large amount of information. You still need to put it in your own words. Focus on the details that help support your point and omit the ones that don’t.
Summary Example
ORIGINAL
Buffy, a small, delicate-looking blonde of superhuman strength, relies on Giles not only for adult support and coaching, but also for the research necessary to do that for which the Vampire Slayer has been chosen. In the third season, Giles was officially relieved from his Watcher duties, but he ignores that and continues as Buffy’s trainer, confidant, and father-figure.
SUMMARY IN PAPER (MLA)
To help her fulfill her Slayer duties, Buffy can always turn to Giles (DeCandido 44).
The full citation that would appear in the Works Cited page would be:
DeCandido, Graceanne A. “Bibliographic Good vs. Evil in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” American Libraries Sept. 1999: 44-47. Print.
In this case, the facts were important in terms of supporting the point the student was making, but the exact words were not, and he just wanted to include the most important facts. Notice how the student includes some of the details in his summary but ignores others. He is focusing on the details that help support his point.
Paraphrasing is a good idea when all of the ideas are important, but you don’t want to use a quotation and you want the language to sound like the rest of your essay. Paraphrasing can be tricky because you want to ensure that you capture all the key ideas, while still sounding like yourself. A good tip is to read the passage, cover it up, and then try to write the paraphrase in your own words without looking at it. Don’t just use a thesaurus to look up synonyms. It’s also important that you don’t change the meaning from what the author originally wrote. When you paraphrase, sometimes you need to use more words than the author because you need to explain complex concepts and ideas in a more understandable way.
Paraphrase Example
ORIGINAL
In the third season, Giles was officially relieved from his Watcher duties, but he ignores that and continues as Buffy’s trainer, confidant, and father-figure.
PARAPHRASE IN PAPER (MLA)
Despite his termination by the Watcher’s Council in season three, Giles persists to teach and counsel Buffy while playing a “father-figure” role (DeCandido 44)
The full citation that would appear in the Works Cited page would be:
DeCandido, Graceanne A. “Bibliographic Good vs. Evil in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” American Libraries Sept. 1999: 44-47. Print.
Notice how the words, phrases, and even sentence structure are different from the original while still maintaining the original meaning. The student has put the words “father-figure” in quotation marks because it is a specific term used in the original, but even if he hadn’t used that quotation, he still would have needed the citation because the ideas are not his own.
When you cite a source, you are giving credit to the person who created that source. Ideally, you want to make sure that the person reading your work can find the exact same source you used. In fact, sometimes the reader may want to know more, and actually find the source to read more about the area of research. This requires you to provide quite a bit of detailed information in a standardized format so that whenever anyone reads your work, or when you read theirs, there is a clear way of recognizing when others’ work is cited. Now, you don’t want that information to distract your reader from the points you’re trying to make so you usually cite your source in two ways:
1. In the body of your paper, immediately after the quotation or idea you borrowed, using a shorter form of a citation. In English, you will usually use a parenthetical citation.
2. At the end of your paper on a new page, using a longer, more detailed citation. In English, this is usually in a Works Cited page.
Any time you are using a quotation, fact, idea, or phrase that you didn’t come up with yourself, and that isn’t common knowledge, cite it.
There are a number of tools available online to help you cite your sources correctly; however, you will still need to refer to a style guide to confirm that the tool cited your source using the proper style.
EasyBib is free for MLA formatting but you have to pay to use other style guides.
When you’re writing an essay, the process for giving credit to another source is pretty straightforward. We have lots of rules about citing sources although the method varies slightly depending on what style guide you’re using. However, acknowledging that you’ve borrowed materials and ideas from other sources can get tricky when you’re working with new media like blogs or podcasts. Much of today’s media is based on the concept of remixing—taking elements from existing sources and recombining them to make something new. If you want to use scenes from a variety of movies and cut them together to make your own music video for a song you like, is that plagiarism? Is it copyright infringement? Are you allowed to do it at all? How much must you alter an original piece before it becomes something original?
Many of these questions are addressed by the following video series.
ATTRIBUTION & PERMISSION
How do we ensure we have permission to use material when working in a digital environment? How do we give credit when we do have permission? And how do we let people know whether they have permission to use what we’ve created? There are both legal and ethical issues involved.
COPYRIGHT
On the legal side, we have copyright laws that protect creators from having their material used without permission. Different countries have different rules governing copyright. In Canada, you have certain rights to use copyrighted material without permission from the owner of the source. This is known as “fair dealing.” You may use copyrighted material for research, private study, criticism or review, news reporting, parody and satire or education. You are also allowed to “remix” copyrighted works for educational or other non-commercial purposes. For more information about copyright and fair dealing in Canada, please see Fair Dealing in Media Education.
ETHICS
Although you may be able to legally use material without copyright infringement, you should also consider the ethical implications of using someone else’s work to create something original. When you credit your sources, you show that you’re not trying to take credit for someone else’s work. You are demonstrating how you’ve used existing material to create something new.
