{"id":260,"date":"2016-08-10T16:01:24","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T16:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/styleguide\/?post_type=chapter&p=260"},"modified":"2023-08-02T18:27:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T18:27:17","slug":"avoiding-plagiarism","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/chapter\/avoiding-plagiarism\/","title":{"raw":"Avoiding Plagiarism","rendered":"Avoiding Plagiarism"},"content":{"raw":"

How to Avoid Plagiarizing<\/h2>\r\n

Tip\u00a0#1:\u00a0Make Sure You Are Very Certain about What Is and Is Not Plagiarism<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/t5dRz6ZEkj8\r\n

Tip\u00a0#2:\u00a0Give Yourself Plenty of Time to Complete an Assignment<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nRunning out of time on an assignment is a main cause of\u00a0plagiarism. Rushing to meet a deadline can result in carelessness (leading to unintentional plagiarism\u2014see the next tip) and the desire\u00a0to find a\u00a0quick,\u00a0easy solution such as copying someone else\u2019s work. Don\u2019t give in to that temptation! Plagiarism is a serious academic offense, and the chance of being caught, which is high, is not worth the risk. Software helps identify plagiarism, but your professors have also read thousands of essays and they are both very familiar first-hand with many research sources and very competent at picking up when the voice of an essay changes from \"undergraduate\" to \"published expert.\"\r\n\r\nAvoid this situation entirely by starting your assignment ahead of the last-minute panic schedule and planning out when you will complete each phase of the writing process. Even if your instructor does not require you to turn in materials for each stage of the writing process (i.e., brainstorming, creating a thesis statement, outlining, drafting, revising, etc.), set your own personal deadlines for each step along the way and make sure to give yourself more than enough time to finish everything. Pulling an all-nighter might be an iconic undergraduate experience, but it does nothing for the quality of your work.\r\n

Tip\u00a0#3:\u00a0Document Everything\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nPlagiarism isn\u2019t always a conscious choice. \u00a0Sometimes it can be unintentional, typically resulting from poor documentation of your sources during the research phase. For example, sometimes students will write down an idea from a source using words identical to or very close to those in the original, but then when they go to write their paper forget that the material was not already in their own words. \u00a0Adopting good research habits can prevent this type of plagiarism.\r\n\r\nPrint, photocopy, take a photo of, or scan the relevant pages of every source you are using, including the title and copyright pages, since they have the information you need for a bibliographic citation. Your phone can be a helpful tool if you aren't near a copying machine. When taking notes by hand (or typed into a file),\u00a0list the bibliographic information for each source you use.\u00a0\u00a0Make sure to put quotation marks around any wordings\u00a0taken directly from the source, and note the page where you found it, and remember to put everything else into your own words right away, so there is no danger of forgetting that something is a quotation. \u00a0Documenting where all of your ideas, information, quotations, and so on come from is an important step in avoiding plagiarism.\r\n<\/strong>\r\n

Tip\u00a0#4:\u00a0Don\u2019t Include Too Much Material Taken from Other Sources<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2919\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"]\"Never Tips for integrating sources into your research.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWriting assignments are about your ideas, your interpretations, and your ability to synthesize information. You should use relevant sources to support your ideas using evidence such as quotations, paraphrases, and summaries, as well as statistics and other data, but don\u2019t lose sight of the fact that your<\/em> argument is central!\u00a0Including too much material from other sources can result in a paper that feels like it has been pasted together from a variety of authors, rather than a cohesive essay. \u00a0Such papers also run a much higher\u00a0risk of setting off plagiarism warnings in TurnItIn or other plagiarism-detecting software. \u00a0Try to find a balance: use enough evidence from credible sources to enter the conversation and prove your points, but don\u2019t\u00a0let the ideas of others crowd or take the place of your own thoughts.\r\n

Tip\u00a0#5:\u00a0When in Doubt, Give a Citation<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThere are certain types of information\u2014typically referred to as common knowledge<\/em>\u2014that don\u2019t require a citation when you include them in your writing. \u00a0These are facts that are widely known and can be easily found in a number of sources. They are not ideas that originated with one particular source. \u00a0Examples include scientific facts (for example, that solid, liquid, and gas are three states of matter), general historical information (for example, that George Washington was the first US president), or even information commonly known to certain groups of people but not others, if the certain group is your audience (for example, most musicians know that a C major triad includes the notes C, E, and G, even though many non-musicians would have no idea what a C major triad is).\r\n\r\nFor everything else, you need to include a citation, regardless of whether you are quoting directly from the source, paraphrasing it, or giving a summary. \u00a0If you are at all unsure whether something qualifies as common knowledge or not, give a citation. You can also consult a more experienced figure in your field, such as your instructor, to find out if something counts as\u00a0common knowledge or not.\r\n
\r\n

In academic writing, the \"Quotation Sandwich\" approach<\/b>\u00a0is useful for incorporating other writers' voices into your essays. \u00a0It gives meaning and context to a quotation, and helps you avoid plagiarism. \u00a0This 3-step approach offers your readers a deeper understanding of how the quotation\u00a0relates to your essay's goals.\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

    \r\n \t
  1. Step 1<\/b>:<\/i> Provide context for the source, letting your reader know how it connects to your argument or what to look for within the quotation. If you haven't used it yet in the essay, also tell the reader the source's title and author (if known), and any other information that's relevant, like the purpose of the organization that published it, for instance.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Step 2:<\/i><\/b> Provide the quotation itself. Be sure to format correctly and use quotation marks around exact language.<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Step 3:<\/i><\/b> Provide a more specific analysis of what the quotation demonstrates and how it relates to the subject matter of your essay and your thesis.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"

    How to Avoid Plagiarizing<\/h2>\n

    Tip\u00a0#1:\u00a0Make Sure You Are Very Certain about What Is and Is Not Plagiarism<\/strong><\/h3>\n