Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the action or practice of taking someone else’s work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one’s own; literacy theft  (Oxford English Dictionary)

There are two types of plagiarism:

1. Intentional plagiarism – Intentional plagiarism occurs when one claims to be the author of work that they know was originally written completely or in part by someone else.
2. Unintentional plagiarism – Unintentional plagiarism occurs when a writer fails to follow to properly cite their sources without an explicit intent to cheat.

Take the following quiz to understand what counts as plagiarism

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Avoiding Plagiarism

To avoid plagiarism you must always give proper credit when you use an idea, image, quotation, or any other information created by someone else.

How to avoid plagiarism

• Start your work early
  • Students often plagiarize when they do not have time to finish an assignment on their own
• Direct quotations
  • When you use someone else’s wording, make sure to put that text in quotation marks
  • Quote no more words than necessary, your work should still be primarily your own wording
  • Cite any sources you quote
• Paraphrase
  • Write information in your own wording instead of copying from your source
  • Restate the ideas in an existing work while retaining the original meaning and level of detail
• Citing
  • Always cite any information that you use from another source, including information you paraphrase or quote
  • Learn more about how to cite in section 4.3 When to Cite Information

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Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is not just expressing ideas “in your own words,” a writer must express the original idea in the context of their own writing.

• Paraphrasing is not just replacing words. It is still plagiarism to replace words in the original text with synonyms (this is called patch writing)
• A good paraphrase changes both the wording and the sentence structure
• Always cite your source

Paraphrase example

Original text:

This figure suggests that a single adult toothfish (5 kg) would provide sufficient nourishment for a 500 kg colossal squid for approximately 200 days.

Plagiarism – Patch Writing:

This research shows that a single mature toothfish (5kg) would provide enough food for a 500 kg colossal squid for about 200 days.

• Just copies-replaces words from the original. This is considered plagiarism
• Does not include a citation

Paraphrasing:

Research into colosal squid metabolism has shown that an adult colossal squid of 500 kg only needs to eat approximately 5kg of food (such as a toothfish) every 200 days (Rosa and Seibel 2010).

• Rewords the information by changing the words and the sentence structure. The result is a very different sentence.
• Cites the original source

Citation:

Rosa R, Seibel BA. 2010. Slow pace of life of the Antarctic colossal squid. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. 2010;90(7):1375–1378. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315409991494