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O'Neill Center for Academic Development
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Plagiarism is the act of passing off someone else's work as your own. It includes such dishonest practices as buying, borrowing or stealing a paper to turn in as your own or simply copying someone else's words without putting them in quotation marks and identifying the author and source. Most students are not so dishonest as to buy or steal a paper. Many students, however, inadvertently plagiarize because they do not realize that what they are doing is, in fact, plagiarism and thus dishonest. Avoiding plagiarism is much more complicated than simply not copying other people's work.

In an attempt to avoid plagiarizing, students often paraphrase the passages they want to use. Basically, paraphrasing is stating something in different words. As such, it is a useful device. The problem is that is can lead you to unintentional plagiarism if it is not done properly. Changing a few words in a passage and then using it in your paper without documentation is plagiarism. Changing a few words and then using it in your paper even with proper documentation is also plagiarism. When you paraphrase other people’s ideas, you have two choices: 1) you may quote the passage exactly, put it in quotation marks, and cite it; or 2) you may change the wording of the passage so that the ideas are explained substantially in your own words and cite it. Anything in between is plagiarism.

One reason some students inadvertently plagiarize is the pressure they feel to come up with new ideas, to be original, even with topics that they know little about. In academic settings such as college courses, it is difficult if not impossible to come up with totally original ideas, especially on topics with which you are unfamiliar. When an instructor asks for original thinking, she often means thinking through ideas to find your own perspective on them and then expressing those ideas in your own way. In doing so, you may and often should use other people and their ideas to add to or support your own. When you do so, however, you must give them credit.

Some examples might help at this point. Below are several paraphrases of some material. Two constitute plagiarism; the third shows one correct way of using other people's ideas.

The original material:

It is not generally recognized that at the same time when women are making their way into every corner of our work-world, only one percent of the professional engineers in the nation are female. A generation ago this statistic would have raised no eyebrows, but today it is hard to believe. The engineering schools, reacting to social and governmental pressures, have opened wide their gates and are recruiting women with zeal. The major corporations, reacting to even more intense pressures, are offering attractive opportunities to practically all women engineering graduates.
from Samual C. Florman, "Engineering and the Female
Mind," Harper's Magazine (1974)


Case 1: Overt Plagiarism

Because women seem to be taking jobs of all kinds, few people realize that only 1 percent of the professional engineers in the nation are female. A generation ago this would have raised no eyebrows, but today it is hard to believe. The engineering schools, reacting to social and governmental pressures, have opened wide their gates and are recruiting women with zeal. The major corporations, reacting to even more intense pressures, are offering attractive opportunities to practically all women engineering graduates.

After adding a bit to the first sentence, the writer here merely copies the original source word for word, an obvious case of plagiarism. And she doesn't even cite her source! She could avoid plagiarism here by putting quotation marks around the borrowed passage and citing her source. The problem is that there is no pressing reason to quote this passage, and if she does this often, she will produce a paper full of quotations, a paper that has more of other people than of her. Not a good thing.

Case II: Plagiarism caused by improper paraphrasing

Few people realize, now that women are making inroads into every corner of the work-world, only a small percentage (1 %) of professional engineers in the United States are female. A generation ago, this fact would not have surprised anyone, but today it is hard to believe. Engineering schools, reacting to pressure from the government and society, are recruiting women with zeal. And many major corporations, reacting to even more pressures, offer attractive employment opportunities to just about any women who is an engineering graduate.

Although this writer does not copy word for word, she only substitutes her own words in a few cases and does not substantially change the original. The ideas appear in the same order and are expressed in basically the same words. She also does not cite her source. Again, this is plagiarism. She could improve this by acknowledging and citing her source, something she must do to be academically honest. Even with that improvement, however, the charge of plagiarism would still stand because the expression is not substantially her own.

Case III: Proper paraphrasing

In the last twenty years, women certainly have made great gains in the world of employment. There are now more women working as doctors, lawyers, legislators, and janitors than probably ever before. In one area, however, they still lag far behind men, at least in terms of numbers in the field. That area is engineering. Samuel Florman (1974) points out that of all the professional engineers in the U.S., only one percent are women. He adds that engineering schools and major corporations alike have responded to social and governmental pressure to increase the number of female engineers from this surprisingly low rate. They are now actively recruiting women into both the schools and the corporations.

This writer weaves the information supplied by Florman into her own paragraph, paraphrases it and give proper credit to him through her citation. She summarizes Florman's ideas so that they fit in with hers and then acknowledges that she has done so.

If you have any questions about how to use your sources without plagiarizing, talk to your instructor or go to the Writing Center (basement of the Chapel). The Writing Center has tutors to help you and additional handouts about citing your sources.

Adapted from the 1996 Composition Handbook of the Penn State Composition Program. http://mickey.1a.psu.edu/english/