Writing a Research Paper How to Avoid Plagiarism and Get a Good Grade

Why is Citation Important? Ensures complete documentation. Your reader will be able to find your source easily. Sets standards of uniformity. This decreases confusion. Gives proper credit to sources. So you won’t appear to be taking credit for someone else’s words or idea.

What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism is the act of taking credit for someone else's work. –Plagiarism is a form of cheating, and doing it can have very bad consequences. –In college, plagiarism usually involves writing. –Here are some examples of plagiarism and some ways to avoid it.

Stealing a whole article or paper is plagiarism Whether it came from one of the many college essay plagiarism websites that buy and sell research papers or from an encyclopedia, or from a friend, it is still plagiarism.college essay plagiarism websites Most people already realize this.

Stay away from sites like “eCheat.com” This would be a very bad reference source even if it were cited correctly.

Stealing even part of someone else’s paper is plagiarism Sometimes students throw in just a few paragraph or sentences from a book or website. If the original author is not credited for the writing, it's plagiarism, and someone who does it will probably lose credit for the whole paper.

Rephrasing can be plagiarism (but isn’t always) Copying material and then altering it slightly in cosmetic ways—for example, by rearranging the order of the words or sentences, or by using synonyms for some of the words—is usually plagiarism. An example of this kind of plagiarism might look like this:

Paraphrase Plagiarism (note the text in red): Original: The basic idea is that a system has parts that fit together to make a whole; but where it gets complicated -- and interesting -- is how those parts are connected or related to each other. Plagiarized: A system has parts that fit together to make a whole, but the important aspect of systems is how those parts are connected or related to each other (Frick, 1991).

Why was that a problem? The example on the previous slide was a problem because I used some of the same phrases as the original without putting them in quotation marks. It doesn’t matter that I gave the writer’s name: it’s still plagiarism because I used the original text without changing the words.

When should you cite a source? When you use another person's idea, opinion, or theory. When you use any facts, statistics, graphs, pictures, etc. or any other piece of information which you found from any source. When you use quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words. When you paraphrase another person's words.

What needs to be included when you cite a source? Who wrote it. What it is called. Where and by whom it was published or produced. When it was published or produced.

Another example: Here’s the ORIGINAL text, from page 1 of Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1890s by Joyce Williams et al. (published in 1981 by T.I.S. Editions in Bloomington, Indiana).: As new, larger, steam-powered factories became a feature of the American landscape in the East, they transformed farm hands into industrial laborers, and provided jobs for a rising tide of immigrants. With industry came urbanization the growth of large cities (like Fall River, Massachusetts, where the Bordens lived) which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade.

Unacceptable Plagiarism As bigger steam-driven companies became more visible in the eastern part of the country, they changed farm hands into factory workers and provided jobs for the large wave of immigrants. With industry came the growth of large cities like Fall River where the Bordens lived which turned into centers of commerce and trade as well as production.

Why was that a problem? The preceding passage is considered plagiarism for two reasons: –The writer has only changed around a few words and phrases, or changed the order of the original’s sentences. –The writer has failed to cite a source for any of the ideas or facts.

Here’s an ACCEPTABLE paraphrase: –Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. Steam-powered production had shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, and as immigrants arrived in the US, they found work in these new factories. As a result, populations grew, and large urban areas arose. Fall River was one of these manufacturing and commercial centers (Williams, p. 1) –On the Reference page: –Williams, Joyce. Lizzie Borden: a casebook of family and crime in the 1890s. Bloomington: T.I.S. Publications, 1981.

Why is this passage acceptable? This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer: –uses her own words. –lets her reader know the source of her information.

Citing images is also wise Copying visual information or graphics from a Website or from a printed source is very similar to quoting information: and the source of the visual information or graphic must be cited. DaVinci, Leonardo. Mona Lisa The Louvre, Paris. Works of Leonardo. 1 Aug Aug

How to make sure you’re okay Put in quotations everything that comes directly from the text. Paraphrase, but be sure you are not just rearranging or replacing a few words. Instead, read over what you want to paraphrase carefully; cover up the text with your hand, or close the text so you can’t see any of it (and so aren’t tempted to use the text as a “guide”). Write out the idea in your own words without peeking. Check your paraphrase against the original text to be sure you have not accidentally used the same phrases or words, and that the information is accurate.

What don’t I need to cite? Common knowledge: facts that can be found in numerous places and are likely to be known by a lot of people. Example: John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in This is generally known information. You do not need to document this fact. However, you must document facts that are not generally known and ideas that interpret facts. Example: According the American Family Leave Coalition’s new book, Family Issues and Congress, President Bush’s relationship with Congress has hindered family leave legislation (6). The idea that “Bush’s relationship with Congress has hindered family leave legislation” is not a fact but an interpretation; consequently, you need to cite your source.

Citation Machines Landmark Citation Machine ?reqstyleid= ?reqstyleid Easybib And lots of others

Remember to put quotes in quotations marks Sometimes, even when people cite their sources correctly, they forget to put quotes in quotation marks. Often this is just a sloppy error. But technically it is still plagiarism. Learning how to cite sources correctly is an important skill! if you do not know how to do this well, talk to an instructor or librarian. You can me at

Citation Rules: Not always Easy Lots of exceptions. Can’t cover every situation. Electronic citation standards still evolving.

APA: You need to do it twice: In-text citation for immediate reference. Complete citation in reference list at the end. Emphasis on form, detail, exactness. Consistency and neatness count.

In-Text Citations Author(s) and year only Full citation in Reference List Parentheses & punctuation –In a recent study of reaction times (Jones, 2000) compared… –Jones (2002) compared reaction times…

Reference List Series of identifying statements –Author (last name, initials) –Date (year, sometimes day) –Title (title, edition) –Overall source (periodical title) –Availability (city, publisher, URL)

Thanks for listening! Enjoy your research! And see or me if you have any kind of research questions.