Using the Work of Others:
Getting Ideas into Your Papers while Avoiding
Plagiarism
Agenda
Using the Work of Others:
Summarizing
Paraphrasing
Direct quotations
Combination of above
Recognizing plagiarism
Types of plagiarism
Checklist for avoiding plagiarism
Summarizing
Summarizing is distilling a passage or text to its main
points, in your own words.
A summary should state the main ideas in a passage
using as few words as possible.
Use summary to digest the core of what a writer is
saying, without examples or evidence.
Summarizing
Gladwell, Malcolm, “Big and Bad: How the S.U.V. Ran over
Automotive Safety,” The New Yorker 12 January 2004: 31.
The S.U.V. boom represents, then, a shift in how we conceive of
safety— from active to passive. It’s what happens when a larger
number of drivers conclude, consciously or otherwise, that the
extra thirty feet that the TrailBlazer takes to come to a stop don’t
really matter, that the tractor-trailer will hit them anyway, and that
they are better off treating accidents as inevitable rather than
avoidable.
The popularity of SUVs indicates a change in how we approach
keeping ourselves safe. Being safe is no longer a proactive
activity, but instead a defensive response to the unavoidable.
Paraphrasing
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Paraphrasing is a close restatement of the author’s
“original presentation,” in your own words.
Paraphrase is most useful when you want to follow an
author’s thinking or reasoning without directly quoting.
Read passage several times to understand it.
Restate in your own words and sentence structure.
Select what is pertinent and restate.
Don’t distort original meaning of text!
Paraphrasing
In Europe and Japan, people think of a safe car as a nimble
car.
Paraphrase
In other parts of the world, safety and maneuverability are
synonymous.
In the history of the automotive industry, few things have been
quite as unexpected as the rise of the S.U.V.
Paraphrase
The S.U.V.’s ascent is one of the more surprising events in
the car industry's nearly 130 years.
Direct Quotation
Use direct quotation only when the exact
words of the original are important.
In papers analyzing primary sources such as
literary works, you will use it extensively.
Tests (when original satisfies one of following)
Language is unusually vivid, bold or inventive
Quotation cannot be paraphrased without distortion of
meaning or loss of meaning.
Words themselves are at issue in your interpretation
Quotation is a graph, diagram, or table.
Combination
Learned helplessness is now thought to play a role in such phenomena as
depression and the failure of battered women to leave their husbands, but one
could easily apply it more widely. We live in an age, after all, that is strangely
fixated on the idea of helplessness: we’re fascinated by hurricanes and terrorist
acts and epidemics like SARS—situations in which we feel powerless to affect
our own destiny.
Combination
Gladwell reminds us that the concept of learned helplessness is used to help
answer difficult questions, such as why people don't leave abusive
relationships. However, he also suggests it can be used in a broader context:
"We live in an age, after all, that is strangely fixated on the idea of
helplessness: we’re fascinated by hurricanes and terrorist acts and epidemics
like SARS—situations in which we feel powerless to affect our own destiny."
Recognizing Plagiarism
Exercise
Compare each attempt to quote or paraphrase the
passage.
Which, if any are plagiarized, inaccurate, or both, and
which are acceptable?
Why?
Types of Plagiarism:
Deliberate Plagiarism
Copying a phrase, sentence, or longer passage from a
source and passing it off as your own
Summarizing or paraphrasing someone else's ideas
without acknowledging your debt
Handing in a paper you bought, had a friend write, or
copied from another student
Types of Plagiarism:
Accidental Plagiarism
Forgetting to place quotation marks around another's
words
Omitting a source citation for another's idea because
you are unaware
Carelessly copying a source which you mean to
paraphrase
Avoiding Plagiarism Checklist
What type of source are you using: your own independent
material, common knowledge, or someone else’s independent
material? You must acknowledge someone else’s material.
If you are quoting someone else’s material, is the quotation exact?
Are graphs, statistics, and other borrowed material identical to
source? Omissions with ellipsis and additions with brackets?
Have you used your own words and sentence structure when
paraphrasing or summarizing? Have you represented the author’s
meaning without distortion?
Is each use of someone else’s material acknowledged in your text?
Are your citations complete and accurate?
Does your works cited list include all sources listed in your paper?