Academics
Plagiarism, Quoting,
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
Plagiarism is cheating!
If a student is
suspected of plagiarism, then the faculty has discretion to take the following
steps:
a. Treat it as a “teachable
moment” and allow the student to correct and resubmit the work with or
without point penalty.
b. Assign a grade of zero and
give the student a warning. Provide the student with information on
plagiarism. If the student plagiarizes a second time, proper protocol dictates
that it be reported to the University. Penalties include but are not limited to
a failing grade for the class and/or dismissal.
The
issue then becomes what is plagiarism?
In instructional settings,
plagiarism is a multifaceted and ethically complex problem. However, if any
definition of plagiarism is to be helpful to administrators, faculty, and
students, it needs to be as simple and direct as possible within the context
for which it is intended.
Definition: In
an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses
someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge)
material without acknowledging its source.
This definition applies to texts
published in print or on-line, to manuscripts, and to the work of other student
writers.
Most
current discussions of plagiarism fail to distinguish between:
1. submitting
someone else’s text as one’s own or attempting to blur the line between one’s
own ideas or words and those borrowed from another source, and
2. carelessly or inadequately citing ideas and
words borrowed from another source.
Such discussions conflate plagiarism
with the misuse of sources.
Ethical writers make every
effort to acknowledge sources fully and appropriately in accordance with the
contexts and genres of their writing. A student who attempts (even if clumsily)
to identify and credit his or her source, but who misuses a specific citation
format or incorrectly uses quotation marks or other forms of identifying
material taken from other sources, has not plagiarized.
Instead,
such a student should be considered to have failed to cite and document sources
appropriately (“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism,” n.d.).
Quotations, Paraphrasing and
Summarizing
A discussion on plagiarism would not be complete without
addressing quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.
These three ways of
incorporating other writers' work into your own writing differ according to the
closeness of your writing to the source writing.
Quotations must be identical to the
original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source
document word for word and must be attributed to the original author.
Paraphrasing involves putting a passage
from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed
to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the
original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing
it slightly.
Summarizing involves putting the main
idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it
is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries
are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the
source material.
Why use quotations, paraphrases, and
summaries?
Quotations, paraphrases,
and summaries serve many purposes. You might use them to . . .
·
Provide support for claims or add credibility to your writing
·
Refer to work that leads up to the work you are now doing
·
Give examples of several points of view on a subject
·
Call attention to a position that you wish to agree or disagree
with
·
Highlight a particularly striking phrase, sentence, or passage by
quoting the original
·
Distance yourself from the original by quoting it in order to cue
readers that the words are not your own
·
Expand the breadth or depth of your writing
Writers frequently
intertwine summaries, paraphrases, and quotations. As part of a summary of an
article, a chapter, or a book, a writer might include paraphrases of various
key points blended with quotations of striking or suggestive phrases as in the
following example:
In his famous and influential work the Interpretation of Dreams,
Sigmund Freud argues that dreams are the "royal road to the
unconscious" (page #), expressing in coded imagery the dreamer's
unfulfilled wishes through a process known as the "dream-work" (page
#). According to Freud, actual but unacceptable desires are censored internally
and subjected to coding through layers of condensation and displacement before
emerging in a kind of rebus puzzle in the dream itself (page #)(Driscoll and Brizee, 2011).
References
Council of
Writing Program Administrators (n.d.). Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism:
The WPA Statement on Best Practices. Retrieved fromhttps://doc-08-38-docsviewer.googleusercontent.com/viewer/securedownload/irp7m2cq525f82c1b4p30fj1t1ch8c12/pgkke2bam3474a9a2eub36ni3fsc9gjp/1359147600000/Ymw=/AGZ5hq_iameJ14t-QZBLiUazI3j5/QURHRUVTZ2FkYTdHT1prZHAwaGVNWUJxQUJDcTR6MDRwNlplU2xiVjdMYVNxalFOQ3Q1aUt4Z09mMTFDQ3JYWm5oc0ZIdmhCR2I0eUFJMDNTcTNnNnpIZTJkQVFKNEhQV0ZxS0Y2RWFmYVZISEExVnhVc0h2a3JMejAtXzdtczg0ZURkeDRrRVFiNlM=?docid=8f2dd0607d82755b420941103af2890d&chan=EQAAAEpxfBRAzx/Puj356a%2BYI%2Bi7CThUhkFvzhJx