Plagiarism: Home

The reddest parts of turnitin's Plagiarism Spectrum are examples of intentional plagiarism, where you know as you're doing it that you're cheating. They are easy to avoid with the most basic of standards. The first four plagiarism examples are the ones that are most common with college students, and while they may be intentional, they can also happen by accident. Below we'll run through some examples of plagiarism using a passage from Gary Dorrien's book In a Post-Hegelian Spirit.

Fixing a plagiarized passage

Here is the correct way to cite and reference a quote from a book in APA 7th style:

"Every form of liberation theology begins in solidarity with oppressed people, privileges their experiences, views the world from their perspectives, and calls for liberation from domination and dependence. And every liberationist discourse grapples with the haunting verdict of black lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde that the master's house will never be sundered by using the master's tools. Lorde may have been right, but her own brilliant tool-wielding was evidence to the contrary, as was the pioneering liberationism of W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosemary Radford Ruether" (Dorrien, 2020, p. 339).

Reference: Dorrien, G. J. (2020). In a post-hegelian spirit: Philosophical theology as idealistic discontent. Baylor University Press.

Word-for-word plagiarism may look like this:

Every form of liberation theology begins the same. And every liberationist discourse grapples with the haunting verdict of Audre Lorde that the master's house will never be sundered by using the master's tools. Lorde may have been right, but her own brilliant tool-wielding was evidence to the contrary, as was the pioneering liberationism of W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosemary Radford Ruether.

Missing are quotation marks and citation giving credit to Dorrien. Without these things, we're passing off these words and ideas as our own. Let's try to improve it:

Gary Dorrien (2020) argues that every liberationist struggles with Audre Lorde's idiom that "the master's house will never be sundered by using the master's tools" (p. 339). I believe, though, that the success of Lorde and other liberationists disproves this.

That's better, but the orange-highlighted section is still Dorrien's idea and not our own (an example of paraphrasing plagiarism). Let's keep going:

Gary Dorrien (2020) argues that every liberationist struggles with Audre Lorde's idiom that "the master's house will never be sundered by using the master's tools," but that the successes of Lorde and other liberationists contradict this very idiom (p. 339).

We're finally there! We've given Dorrien credit for his ideas while also presenting his ideas in our own words (instead of copying and pasting the long passage). Remember: even as you cite other people in your own papers, you still want the paper to be in your voice.

So we've solved the plagiarism aspect, but how do we add our own ideas so that we're making some kind of argument and not simply summarizing other works? Here's a way we can put our own spin on it:

Gary Dorrien (2020) argues that every liberationist struggles with Audre Lorde's idiom that "the master's house will never be sundered by using the master's tools," but that the successes of Lorde and other liberationists contradict this very idiom (p. 339). I would argue, however, that Dorrien's liberationists were not radicals but reformers, whose actions renovated the master's house instead of tearing it down.

The green-highlighted passage is an example of a thesis statement (the summary of the main argument in a paper). The passage as a whole shows how to correctly give credit to people who have inspired our ideas, while also writing in our own voice and adding our unique ideas.

Tips to avoid accidental plagiarism

Plagiarism can also occur due to messy note-taking, when you forget which ideas belonged to you and which belonged to someone else, leading to inadvertent plagiarism (or summary plagiarism, when you summarize someone else's ideas without giving credit). Even if your plagiarism is unintentional, the end result is still the same and can lead to the same consequences. Here are some tips to avoid accidental plagiarism that can happen from messy note-taking:

• When writing someone else's words, add quotation marks and note the source and page number
• When summarizing someone else's words or ideas, note the source and page number
• When writing your own ideas and reactions, put your initials next to them
• Create your reference page as you go (this will save you time later not having to build it from scratch)
• There are excellent online sources to help you build your reference pages - use them (be sure to use the correct format, such as APA 7th Edition)
  • ZoteroBib: https://zbib.org/
    • Zotero is also an excellent free program for organizing your research and resources
  • CiteFast: https://www.citefast.com/?s=APA7#_Book
  • Citation Machine: https://www.citationmachine.net/
  • EasyBib: https://www.easybib.com/

Additional help

If you're still uneasy about plagiarism and want to get some practice, the two links below have activities and quizzes to help you better understand plagiarism. The Indiana University link is widely used among colleges as a required test to make sure students understand plagiarism before beginning academic programs. Remember: if it's not your idea, you need to give credit (unless it's general knowledge, e.g. Paris is in France).

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/teacher_and_tutor_resources/preventing_plagiarism/avoiding_plagiarism/index.html

https://plagiarism.iu.edu/certificationTests/