Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s ideas, results, equipment design, visuals, wording, or even sentence structure as if they were your own.

Plagiarism can be intentional:

Or it can be accidental:

In the United States, plagiarism is considered academic misconduct, and you are expected to avoid plagiarism, either intentional or accidental.

Plagiarized work can result in a failing course grade, expulsion, rejection of a paper submitted for publication, denial of an advanced degree, or loss of job. It is increasingly serious now that the Internet has made plagiarism easier than ever before.

For each source you read, use a Template for Taking Notes such as the one on the Cain Project web site: http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~cainproj. As you enter the information, proofread for completeness and accuracy. As you take notes, put quotation marks around any wording that you copy directly from the source so that later you can put it into your own words and won’t accidentally plagiarize.

If you copy something word for word, put quotation marks around it and cite it: (Jones 2005). If you paraphrase by putting ideas into your own words, cite the source of the ideas: (Jones 2005). If you copy a Figure or Table, cite it at the end of the caption and inside the period: (Jones 2005). If you adapt a Figure or Table or use only part of it, cite it at the end of the caption: (Adapted from Jones 2005). Put the complete bibliographic reference for all citations in the Bibliography (or Works Cited).

Practice paraphrasing (putting someone else’s ideas into your own words) because it’s often difficult to do. Avoid the temptation of paraphrasing too many details. Focus on the main idea or evidence that you need to cite. Once you have determined what you need to paraphrase, reread the source and then cover it up. Write the main idea from memory and then check to verify that you haven’t used exact wording or sentence structure. Simply changing the verb tense or substituting one adverb for another, but leaving the sentence structure essentially the same, is still considered to be plagiarism.

If you simply cannot figure out a different way of saying it, use quotation marks to indicate that you are quoting exactly. [Because few writers in science or engineering use quotations, generally preferring paraphrases, paraphrasing is a skill you must learn in those fields. In contrast, writers in the humanities often use quotations to illustrate key points, but they also paraphrase when exact wording is not essential.]

Always cite your source, whether for text, visuals, or ideas. If you cannot remember the source, you can’t use the information. Put citations in as you write your first draft so that you don’t have to go back later when identifying the source may be difficult.

In your text, make clear what the source is. Generally, it is a good idea to identify an author by name rather than by referring to a number in your bibliography, though this practice varies somewhat by field or by journal. In any case, try not use a reference number as a part of speech. Do not, for example, write that “[10] gives more compelling evidence than [98] provides.” Think of how time consuming it is for a reader to have to keep flipping to the bibliography to see who has said what. It would be preferable to write “Johnson (10) gives more compelling evidence than Dickerson (98) provides.” And then move to the evidence, clearly identifying the references as you discuss the evidence each author gives. [Whether you use square brackets or parentheses depends on the field or journal.]

CONFUSING: [10] and [15] were the next to apply this algorithm to new genetic sequences.

CONFUSING: The first big improvement came in the work of [10].

CLEAR: Koninsky et al. and Rebert et al. were the next to apply this algorithm to new genetic sequences (10, 15).

CLEAR: Koninsky et al. (10) and Rebert et al. (15) were the next to apply this algorithm to new genetic sequences.

CLEAR: Smith and Wesson (2001) were the next to apply this algorithm to new genetic sequences.

CLEAR: Research teams then began to apply this algorithm to new genetic sequences (Smith and Wesson 2001).

CLEAR: Research teams then began to apply this algorithm to new genetic sequences. (See, for example, Smith and Wesson 2001 and Rebert et al. 2004.)

RIGHT, but LESS CLEAR: Research teams then began to apply this algorithm to new genetic sequences. (See, e.g., 10, 15, and 22.)

For suggestions on how to avoid plagiarism and cite information, see Diana Hacker’s The Bedford Handbook, 7th ed. (2006), pp. 572-579; 698-790. She includes extensive examples of APA and Chicago style guides. I suggest, too, that you check the Web site for the book: www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook for further information. Or go to other Web Site sources: Check Google for the APA Citation Style Guide or the Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide.

The original text:

“The new Internet economy has brought about the development of competing search engine companies, each with its own proprietary software. Sites are collected and updated differently. After a search is conducted, one search engine provides exactly what’s required within the first ten hits whereas another is useless. Frequently there is tremendous overlap, although no two search engines are exactly alike. Since the outcome varies from search engine to search engine, researchers often find it necessary to use several engines for the same question for either the best or more comprehensive results.”

Read the following examples and decide if each is an example of acceptable paraphrasing or of plagiarism.

Author: Janice L. Hewitt, Ph.D., Rice University. jhewitt@rice.edu