Plagiarism and how to avoid it

The Touro College Student Handbook 2006-2009 defines plagiarism as follows:

“To commit plagiarism means to present as ones’ own the ideas, writings and or computer generated material of others without proper acknowledgment of those sources by means of quotation marks and/or specific references (footnotes) to the original source from which the material was taken. Plagiarism also includes the submission of the work of a commercial writing service or of a “ghost writer” as one’s own work. Section 213-6 of the New York State Education Law prohibits the sale of term paper, essays, and research reports to students enrolled in a College."

In other words, plagiarism means copying material from somewhere else without indicating its source. It means copying without quotation marks even if you do indicate the source.To avoid plagiarism, all material copied exactly should be placed in quotation marks and documented. Likewise, characteristic phrases borrowed from another writer should be placed within quotation marks and documented.  Repeating another's words with slight changes (by leaving out some words, changing a few words, skipping a sentence or two) does not make it your own.  This is known as paraphrasing. The basic material has been taken from someone else's work and it should be acknowledged.

Guidelines for avoiding plagiarism

When do I cite?

You have to cite when you directly quote from a source or when you paraphrase, summarize or use data and statistics to support your argument. This includes the use of another student's work or the use of your own previous work.

What do I cite?

According to OWL from Purdue University, you cite:

• Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium
• Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing
• The exact words or a unique phrase you copy
• Any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials that you reprint
• Any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or other media that you repost

What do I not cite?

• Your own ideas, opinions or conclusions as a result of research
• If it is common knowledge, you don’t need to cite. By common knowledge we mean information that can be easily located in an encyclopedia or a search engine, the majority of people know it, or facts that are beyond dispute.

Examples of common knowledge: Declaration of Independence in the United States July 4, 1776; there are four seasons in the year; Paris is the capital of France.  There is no need to document that Paris is the capital of France.  However, if you tell your reader that the population of France is 61, 3583, 223 this fact should be documented. This means that you need to add to your paper the source, i.e. http://wikitravel.org/en from where you got the information on the population of France.  

Golden Rule: When in doubt, cite your source.

Where do I cite?

You have to cite in two places:

• In your text. If you use the APA style, these references are called in-text citations and you need to follow the author-date method, e.g. (Smith, 2009).  If you use the MLA style, you need to follow the author-page method for your in-text parenthetical citations, e.g. (Smith 63).
• At the end of your paper where you assemble the list of all sources you have used for your assignment. This list is called either References in the APA style, Works Cited in MLA and Bibliography in the Chicago/Turabian style.

You can use NoodleTools to create your bibliography: NoodleTools (MLA, APA & Chicago/Turabian)

Diana Hacker's website provides tremendous help with creating in-text citations and list of references