The Academic Resource Center
presents a tutorial on…
AVOIDING
PLAGIARISM
Using MLA Style
What is
plagiarism?
Deliberate Plagiarism
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Copying or buying a paper
Recycling a paper from another class
Using information from a source
without citing
Unintentional Plagiarism

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Paraphrasing too close to the original
(patchwriting)
Copying and pasting online sources
Forgetting to name the source
What kind of
information isn’t
necessary to
acknowledge?
COMMON
KNOWLEDGE
Found in 4-5 other sources without being cited
Common Knowledge
 General knowledge
Failure of sub prime mortgages played a
large role in the economic downturn of
2008.
 Specific to a Field
George Balanchine is regarded as one of the
foremost contemporary ballet
choreographers of the twentieth century.
What kind of
information requires
acknowledging
the source?
Direct Quotations


Roberta Seid argues, “We have elevated the
pursuit of a lean, fat-free body into a new
religion” (368).
Stanley Milgram’s 1964 experiment on
obedience found, “Ordinary people, simply
doing their jobs, and without any particular
hostility on their part, can become agents in a
terrible destructive process” (191).
Paraphrased facts or statistics
that most people wouldn’t know
or easily locate.
Fort Pillow, Tennessee, which sat on a bluff
overlooking the Mississippi River, had been held by
the Union for two years. It was garrisoned by 580
men, 292 of them from United States Colored Heavy
and Light Artillery regiments, 285 from the white
Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry. Nathan Bedford
Forrest commanded about 1,500 troops (Cimprich
and Mainfort 293-94).
Paraphrased claims, theories,
interpretations of others.

Balanchine went through an artistic
transformation that only intensified his
desire to develop the essence of the old
system and extend and modify tradition
(McDonagh 49).
Ideas from others via personal
communication such as a professor,
friend, acquaintance.

According to Prof. Blystone from a
lecture on February 9, 2008, the notion
of the deity determines all practices in
the culture.
How do I avoid
plagiarizing?
Research DO’s
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Take notes in your own words.
Indicate in your note-taking when adding
your comments.
Copy direct quotations word for word. Use
quotation marks.
Note page number!
Keep track of all bibliographic information
and the date you retrieved the information if
from the Web.
DON’T

Cut and paste material directly into your
paper.
Patchwrite. Copying a passage and
changing only an occasional word here and
there.

Forget to cite!

Example of Patchwriting

The original passage:
– Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking
notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final
[research] paper.
Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. 1976. 46.

Plagiarized paraphrase (patchwriting)
- Students oftentimes rely on direct quotes when
note taking; consequently, they use too many
quotations in the final paper (Lester 46).
Example of a Paraphrase
Taken from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/61
9/01/

The original passage:
– Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes,
and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research]
paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should
appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to
limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while
taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. 1976. 46-47.

A legitimate paraphrase:
– In research papers students often quote excessively,
failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable
level. Since the problem usually originates during
note taking, it is essential to minimize the material
recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).