Avoiding Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism

Jeff Dickens

Instruction and Electronic Resources Librarian

“Plagiarism: This is a serious offense involving premeditated cheating in written assignments. It involves claiming credit for certain aspects of work and thoughts not strictly one’s own.”

- Mitchell College Student Handbook, p. 11.

Types of plagiarism

• Copying word-for-word, or “cut-and-paste.”• Excessive quotations, also called “stringing

quotes.”• Loose paraphrasing (even with proper

attribution).• No attribution, or leaving out the citation to the

source of your information.

Quotations

I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.

After three years of civil war, Abraham Lincoln

seemed to refute Thomas Carlyle's Great Man

Theory when he said in a letter to Albert Hodges

in April of 1864, “I claim not to have controlled

events, but confess plainly that events have

controlled me” (586).

Quotations

Paraphrasing

In reality the United States did much more than fall [sic] to send troops. It led a successful effort to remove most of the UN peacekeepers who were already in Rwanda. It aggressively worked to block the subsequent authorization of UN reinforcements.

Samantha Power on the failure of U.S. foreign policy to prevent the Rwanda Genocide: Samantha Power, "Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy Happen." The Atlantic Monthly 288.2 (Sept. 2001): 86.

ParaphrasingOriginal text: In reality the United States did much more than fall [sic] to send troops. It led a

successful effort to remove most of the UN peacekeepers who were already in Rwanda. It

aggressively worked to block the subsequent authorization of UN reinforcements.

Student paper: Samantha Power points out that during the crisis in Rwanda,

the most powerful nation on earth was active in its negligence to confront what

was clearly genocide. The United States even prevented the United Nations

from confronting the tragedy (86).

Works Cited

Power, Samantha."Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy

Happen." The Atlantic Monthly 288.2 (Sept. 2001): 84-108.

Paraphrasing

European crops and other desirable plants flourished in the Indies even when disgracefully neglected by farmers gone crazy for gold and conquest; so we can be sure that the imported weeds, which thrive on neglect, did very well indeed.

Alfred Crosby on the often overlooked subject of how Old World ecology followed Old World settlers into the New Worlds: Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (New York: Cambridge U.P., 1986).

ParaphrasingOriginal text: European crops and other desirable plants flourished in the Indies even when

disgracefully neglected by farmers gone crazy for gold and conquest; so we can be sure that the

imported weeds, which thrive on neglect, did very well indeed..

Student paper: Alfred Crosby explains that opportunistic European weeds did

well on New World soil as European farmers neglected their crops in favor of

other distractions (150) .

Works Cited

Crosby, Alfred W. Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. New

York: Cambridge U.P., 1986.

Paraphrasing

In its tactics and makeup, it [the

NAACP] represented not simply the

experience and outlook of blacks but

those of a larger American liberalism.

Alonzo Hamby on the NAACP in the context of modern American liberalism: Alonzo Hamby, Liberalism and Its Challengers: From F.D.R. to Bush. 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992 [1985].

ParaphrasingOriginal text: In its tactics and makeup, it [the NAACP] represented not simply the experience

and outlook of blacks but those of a larger American liberalism.

Student paper: Alonzo Hamby points out that in its methods, the NAACP

represented not only the experience and respective outlook of African

Americans, but it also represented those from the broader scope of American

liberalism (140).

Works Cited

Hamby, Alonzo. Liberalism and Its Challengers: From F.D.R. to Bush. 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1992 [1985].

ParaphrasingOriginal source Student’s paper

In its tactics and makeup, it Alonzo Hamby points out that in its methods, the NAACP

represented not simply the experience and outlook of blacks

represented not only the experience and respective outlook of African Americans,

but those of a larger American liberalism.

but it also represented those from the broader scope of American liberalism.

CitationsWorks Cited

Crosby, Alfred W. Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. New

York: Cambridge U.P., 1986. Book

Power, Samantha."Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy

Happen." The Atlantic Monthly 288.2 (Sept. 2001): 84-108. Article

United States. U.S. Census Bureau. Poverty in the United States: 1998. Sept. 1999. 12 Nov. 1999

< http://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/p60-207.pdf >. Website

Citations

MLA parenthetical (in-text) citations:

1. The author is mentioned in the text.2. The author is not mentioned in the text.3. More than one work is used by the

same author.

Citations

Samantha Power points out that during the crisis in Rwanda, the most

powerful nation on earth was active in its negligence to confront what was

clearly genocide. The United States even prevented the United Nations from

confronting the tragedy (86).

Works Cited

Power, Samantha. "Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy

Happen." The Atlantic Monthly 288.2 (Sept. 2001): 84-108.

1. The author is mentioned in the text.

Citations

During the crisis in Rwanda, the most powerful nation on earth was active in

its negligence to confront what was clearly genocide. The United States even

prevented the United Nations from confronting the tragedy (Power 86).

Works Cited

Power, Samantha. "Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy

Happen." The Atlantic Monthly 288.2 (Sept. 2001): 84-108.

2. The author is not mentioned in the text.

Citations

During the crisis in Rwanda, the most powerful nation on earth was active in

its negligence to confront what was clearly genocide. The United States even

prevented the United Nations from confronting the tragedy (Power,

“Bystanders” 86).

Works Cited

Power, Samantha."Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy

Happen." The Atlantic Monthly 288.2 (Sept. 2001): 84-108.

--. Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World. Penguin Press:

New York, 2008.

3. More than one work is used by the same author.