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Wholesale Copying |
Cut & Paste |
Inappropriate Paraphrase |
Citation Guidelines | Practice Exercises |
Penn
State Plagiarism Page |
Penn State University is committed to a policy of Academic Integrity, and this includes a commitment against plagiarism.
Plagiarism is the act of stating or implying that another person's work is your own. Plagiarism can range from submitting a paper you didn't write to omitting key citations. Any action in which you misleadingly claim an idea as your own when it is not could constitute plagiarism. Here are some examples of what not to do.
When plagiarism is discussed, most people picture someone handing in a paper they copied from a Web site, a friend, or some other resource. This is clearly plagiarism because:
To give a specific example, suppose you have an assignment to explain how bilingual speakers learn how to fluently speak more than one language, and you find a nice explanation on the Linguistic Society of America's Bilingualism FAQ Web Page.
If you were to copy this text, paste it into your document and hand it in as your assignment, you would be committing plagiarism.
Another type of plagiarism involves copying large chunks of text from one or more original sources and inserting it into the assignment.
For instance, suppose you are doing the assignment on how bilingual children learn language, and you include a paragraph from the Bad Linguistics Page Web site (Pyatt, 2000). Unless you present the paragraph as a quote with full citation, you are committing plagiarism.
Bad ([bold, green text] = "inserted text')
Contrary to what many people may expect, it is very easy for young children to learn more than one language at a time. [The minds of children are "wired" to acquire language automatically (undergoing exactly the same stages, no matter what the language is). From ages 1-5, kids can acquire any possible language (from English to Chinese to Hawaiian), and acquiring multiple languages is no problem, provided children have enough exposure. From 5-10, kids still have an easy time, but once adolescence hits, most people lose the ability to pick up languages easily.]
Good (with quoted text indented and the author cite afterwards)
Despite the anxieties of many immigrant parents in the United States, it is actually very easy for young children to become multilingual.
The minds of children are "wired" to acquire language automatically (undergoing exactly the same stages, no matter what the language is). From ages 1-5, kids can acquire any possible language (from English to Chinese to Hawaiian), and acquiring multiple languages is no problem, provided children have enough exposure. From 5-10, kids still have an easy time, but once adolescence hits, most people lose the ability to pick up languages easily.
Notice that in the "good" example, the quoted paragraph is set off from the rest of the text with indentation and different formatting, and the author and year are specified. The fact that the paragraph came from another text is clearly marked.
It should be noted however if you turn in a paper which contains all quotes or mostly quotes, you will probably still be cheating even if you properly cite them all. First, any academic assignment should include some original work, such as an original evaluation of sources or an original comparison of texts. Second, if you quote too much of any one text, you could also be violating copyright laws in addition to committing plagiarism.
A more subtle type of plagiarism is the "inappropriate paraphrase" in which quoted text is altered only slightly from the original and no acknowledgment of the original author is given. Here is an example of an inappropriate paraphrase.
Original Text
The minds of children are "wired" to acquire language automatically (undergoing exactly the same stages, no matter what the language is). From ages 1-5, kids can acquire any possible language (from English to Chinese to Hawaiian), and acquiring multiple languages is no problem, provided children have enough exposure. From 5-10, kids still have an easy time, but once adolescence hits, most people lose the ability to pick up languages easily.
Inappropriate Paraphrase ([bold, green text] = altered text)
The minds of [infants] are ["configured"] to acquire language automatically (undergoing exactly the same [processes], [regardless of language]). From ages 1-5, kids can acquire any possible language (from English to [Tibetan] to [Navaho]), and acquiring multiple languages is [not difficult], provided children [are exposed to them enough]. From 5-10, kids still [can learn languages easily], but once adolescence [begins], most people lose the ability to [acquire] languages easily.
Even though the second paragraph is not a direct quote, it is still a form or plagiarism because the reedited paragraph preserves the same ideas in exactly the same sequence. The second paragraph is merely inserting some synonyms without expressing a new idea.
The key to avoiding an inappropriate paraphrase is to acknowledge the source of your material as in:
Acceptable Paraphrase
As pointed out by (Pyatt 2000), the minds of infants are "wired to acquire language automatically," undergoing the same processes in the same order, regardless of language. Children ages 1-5, can acquire any possible language, and acquiring multiple languages is not difficult, provided children have enough exposure". Children ages 5-10 can still learn languages easily, but once adolescence begins, "most people lose the ability to pick up languages."
Two things make this paraphrase acceptable - (1) the paragraph specifically identifies the author with the "(Pyatt 2000)" citation and (2) passages that are copied from the original are put in quotation marks.
On a final note - you cannot turn in a paper which merely paraphrases one or two sources even if you acknowledge them. You do have to provide some original input in order to receive a good grade.
When do you need to cite your sources? The short answer is that you should cite a source anytime you incorporate an idea, quote (written or spoken), data, image or other content that is not yours unless it is common knowledge.
The term common knowledge refers to any knowledge that you can reasonably expect other people to know. For instance, the fact that there are bilingual speakers in the United State is common knowledge. You would not have to cite any sources.
The specific percentages or numbers of bilingual speakers would not be common knowledge. If you were using any graphs or numbers about how many bilingual speakers are in the United States, you would need to cite where you obtained the information. If someone, like a professor, told you in person or via e-mail, you can cite is as a "personal communication."
There are many sources of research information available, and several citation standards such as MLA, APA, Chicago Style Manual and more. However, you should always follow whichever citation or bibliography format your instructor gives you.
The following Web sites provide additional examples of the different types of plagiarism and how to avoid it: