Plagiarism: What it is and how to avoid it.

prepared by W. J. Wilson, Albion College, May 2002
(reproduced here with the permission of the author)

Written work must be the work of the author; an author who submits the work of another under her name has committed plagiarism.  Because scientific writing is not creative writing, a scientific paper will be based on the ideas and findings of other scientists.  Knowing how to use the ideas of others, and how to acknowledge the contributions of others, is essential in order to avoid plagiarism or its appearance.

If you observe the following practices you will almost certainly never be accused of plagiarism:

• Never present someone else's words as if they are your own.
• Never present someone else's ideas as if they are your own.
• Never use someone else's sentence structure.
• Never use the organization of someone else's paper.
• Understand fully the topic that you cover in your paper.
• Write from memory, or from notes that you have taken in your own words from someone else's writing.

Direct Quotes

There is rarely a need to quote directly from a source.  A quote should be used only if the source has said something in the best possible, most pithy, original, or earth-shattering way, and there is no better way to convey the thought.  If you quote directly, however, you must indicate that you are doing so, either by placing the quoted text in quotation marks or, for a large block of text, by narrowing the margins such that the quote is distinct from the surrounding text.  In both cases a complete reference for the source (in APA style: name, year of publication, and page number) must be provided with the quote.  Any other use of someone else's exact words constitutes plagiarism.

The Ideas of Others

The reader's assumption is that ideas conveyed in the paper represent the ideas of the author unless otherwise indicated.  If you draw a conclusion about your topic based on your literature review then you should certainly express it as your own.  However, if you come across a conclusion reached by someone else and include it in your paper, you must give credit to the originator of the idea (in APA style: name and year of publication).  Any other use of someone else's idea constitutes plagiarism.

Sentence Structure

Your writing should be your writing, not someone else's writing with the words changed.  Substituting synonyms for the subjects, verbs, and objects of another author's sentences is not the same as writing the sentence yourself.  Such substitution constitutes plagiarism.

Organization of the Paper

The thesis of a paper typically develops as the paper progresses from start to finish.  The order in which information is presented helps to build that thesis.  If you use the structure of another author's paper in order to develop your idea then it is not your development of the idea, and you should not be credited with it.  To do this is in essence the substitution of synonyms within a sentence, taken to a slightly larger scale, and constitutes plagiarism.

Understand your Topic

If you fully understand the topic of your paper it will be an easy matter to discuss the topic and develop the thesis in your own words.  In a case where you find yourself writing about something that you do not understand you have two choices.  You can become more familiar with the topic such that you understand it fully, or you can back away from the issues that you do not understand and write about those aspects of the topic that are clear to you.  The former is the better choice, typically resulting in a higher-quality paper, but even the latter will help to curb the practice of writing from the original sources (discussed below).

Write from Memory or from your Notes

If you write from memory or from notes that you took in your own words it is very difficult to use another author's words, sentence structure, or organization inadvertently.  If a source is before you as you write you might find it difficult to convey an idea in a way distinct from that used by the other author.