Much plagiarism is unintentional.
The most common form of unintentional plagiarism occurs when students
try to paraphrase. Many students and GSIs are confused about what constitutes
an acceptable or unacceptable paraphrase. For instance, if you explain
an author's ideas, omitting some details but retaining characteristic
phrases and some of the original order of presentation, are you giving
a paraphrase or a summary? If you juggle the order in which the ideas
are presented, change the wording, and throw in a few of your own ideas
here and there are you using the original author's ideas as a creative
springboard or stealing them? When is an idea "common knowledge"?
Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing
Quotations reproduce
a passage word for word.
Paraphrases rephrase
a passage in one's own words but retain all, or almost all, of the original
ideas, structure, etc.
Summaries also rephrase
a passage in one's own words but retain only the main ideas of the original.
Why Use Quotations, Paraphrases,
and Summaries?
Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries
can all provide useful support for claims that you are making, and can be
used to give examples of other points of view, or to provide background
information that is relevant to your own ideas. A paraphrase is more appropriate
than a quote in cases where the original author's ideas are more important
than the manner in which they are expressed, and where the authority of
the author is not an issue. Paraphrases and summaries can also serve a useful
pedagogical function. It is only possible to give an accurate paraphrase
or summary of an author's ideas if you have a clear understanding of those
ideas and the language that the author is using to express them.
The Problem with Paraphrasing
Many students aren't sure when
a paraphrase must be credited to the original author and when the ideas
constitute common knowledge that need not be credited. The line between
our own ideas and ideas that we have absorbed from other people is also
often unclear. An essential part of the learning process is the absorption
and assimilation of ideas. The ideas are broken down, reformulated, and
integrated with ideas and beliefs that we already possess. In this way,
they become our own. It is, therefore, often unclear when we have integrated
and reordered an idea sufficiently to make it our own and when it must
be credited to the original source. The line between paraphrasing and
plagiarism can be a fine one.
Much unintentional plagiarism
can be prevented by explaining the difference between quotations, paraphrases,
and summaries, and giving students a set of guidelines and/or exercises
to help them learn when they need/need not give credit to the original
source.
Guidelines
Paraphrases must be credited
to the original source if:
they retain all or most
of the original author's ideas or they use an idea from the original
author that is not common knowledge.
they retain the sequence
of the original author's ideas or arrangement of the material or they
modify the sequence of the ideas but central ideas and key phrases from
the original.
An idea is common knowledge
if:
the same idea can be found
in the same form in several different sources.
it is information that your
readers most likely already possess.
it is factual information
that is in the public domain, for example, widely known dates of historical
events, facts that are cited in standard reference works, etc.
Of course, many students are
still developing their sense of audience, or are still learning those
things that others might consider common knowledge. Providing students
with examples of common knowledge, correct citations, and the like will
help them to get a firmer grasp on these issues.
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