Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be a problem when one is composing an academic essay.
It is more often a matter of ignorance or negligence than intentional fraud,
but it is no less one of the gravest sins a student or other academic can
commit in the university community. Care must be taken of course to record in
proper form in your bibliography or citations list all the sources you have
utilized during your research. But following correct citation form is paramount
when within your essay you find it useful to quote directly from, or to use
ideas or information found in, your sources.
Proper form is not simply a matter of technical correctness; it is
the way writers communicate with their readers, signaling where words, phrases,
ideas and information have been borrowed and can be located, as well as
implying that where no citations are found the content is the writer's original
analytical work.
To use another's words or ideas without proper attribution is
lying — implying those words are your own; it is stealing — taking another's
words for your own use without attribution; it is cheating — substituting
someone else's work as your own to get a mark; it is unjust — taking advantage
of your classmates who attempt to abide by the rules when submitting their own
work for a mark.
Following are some sample passages
and explanations for your review.
Original
paragraph from source text:
The essential purpose of the World Bank is to stimulate
development in the
Source: Catherine Gwin and Richard E.
Feinberg (editors and contributors). The International Monetary Fund in a Multipolar World: Pulling Together. Transaction
Books,
Sample
Paragraph #1 as submitted by student:
The IMF's main function is to foster global macroeconomic
conditions conducive to the growth of both industrial and less developed
nations. In doing so, the Fund monitors world economic trends and national
macroeconomic policies; provides a forum for discussion of international
monetary issues and offers short-term credit to help Member countries to manage
exchange rates and adjust serious BOP problems.
This sample paragraph is not just a paraphrasing of the text; it
is a straightforward case of plagiarism. It is the direct use of another's ideas
and words without attribution.
Sample
Paragraph #2 as submitted by student:
The IMF's main function is to foster global macroeconomic
conditions conducive to the growth of both industrial and less developed
nations. In doing so, the Fund monitors world economic trends and national
macroeconomic policies; provides a forum for discussion of international
monetary issues and offers short-term credit to help Member countries to manage
exchange rates and adjust serious BOP problems.1
_________________ [then at bottom of
page = footnote, or at end of essay = endnote, the source of the quoted words
is provided]
1 Feinberg, R. and Gwin, C. (eds), The International Monetary Fund in a Multipolar World, Transaction Books, New Brunswick, 1989,
p.3.
This sample paragraph is still plagiarism. A footnote or endnote
alone indicates use of only another's ideas and implies words are your own or
merely paraphrases your source. So this is still use of another's words without
proper attribution. Neither is the footnote here put into a standard format.
Sample
Paragraph #3 as submitted by student:
The IMF's main "function is to foster global macroeconomic
conditions conducive to the growth of" both industrial and less developed
nations. In doing so, the Fund "monitors world economic trends and
national macroeconomic policies .... provides a forum for discussion of
international monetary issues ....[and] offer[s]
short-term credit to help member countries to manage exchange rates and
adjust" serious BOP problems.1
_________________ [then at bottom of
page = footnote, or at end of essay = endnote, the source of the quoted words
is provided]
1 C. Gwin and R. Feinberg (eds),
The International Monetary Fund in a Multipolar
World: Pulling Together (New Brunswick and Oxford: Transaction Books, 1989),
p.3.
This paragraph is correctly marked. Note use of quotation marks,
ellipses, and brackets to tell reader which words are yours and which words are
taken from the text. Note, too, one proper footnote style.
_______________________________________________________
Another form
of citation which is acceptable is the embedded citation. Rather than provide a
full footnote or endnote, one can use a parenthetical notation linked to a list
of references or bibliography at the end of the essay. For example, again
using the passage above:
. . . to manage exchange rates and adjust" serious BOP
problems (Gwin & Feinberg, 1989: 3).
The
parenthetical indicates the author(s), the date of the text, and the page from
which the quoted material is taken. The reference list would then include the
item in alphabetical order per the first author's surname in some standard
bibliographic format:
Gwin, C. and Feinberg, R. (Eds). (1989) The International Monetary Fund
in a Multipolar World: Pulling Together.
If you are using only the basic ideas or background information
from a source text, you do not use quotation marks. But you would still provide
a footnote, endnote, or imbedded citation immediately after that use or no
later than the end of that sentence/paragraph to indicate where the
information, specific data (such as GNP figures or statistical information), or
ideas have come from. For example, and keeping with the passage with
which we began, a student might write:
The World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund serve quite different functions. While
the Bank is supposed to aid long term development in
This would be an acceptable paraphrase of the original material,
and so does not require any quotation marks, but it does require some citation
form like the embedded parenthetical to note where the basic ideas came from.
Not to provide a citation says to the reader that these are your own
thoughts/analyses, originating in your personal review of various primary
materials relating to the World Bank and the IMF.
There are a variety of standard styles that can be adopted, such
as the Harvard Bluebook format for legal work, the Chicago Manual of Style or
American Psychological Association style for social science essays, and the
Modern Language Association guide for the humanities. Many disciplines define
their own preferred formats. The point of all of them is to provide the reader
with whatever information is required in order to locate the sources you have
used and to find the quotations identified in your essay. The use of quotation
marks, or indenting longer quotations, is to set off those words taken from
your source from your own words in the text. That way the reader always knows
which words and ideas are your own, and which are being borrowed from your
sources to make a point. It is never wrong to use another's words or ideas, as
long as you provide some means for distinguishing between them and your own.
Too, if you are using internet source materials, check the MLA and
APA style guides to determine what to include with your citation. In any case,
you should try to provide the same sort of information about an internet source
that you would for a hardcopy source, such as author or organizational/institutional
publisher, date, where and when you accessed the web site (including full http
address), and approximately from where on the site you are drawing the material
(approximate line or screen of text).
Check with your course instructor if you are unsure what style to
use for any major assignment, or are unsure how to cite any particular,
especially unusual, source.