Students are often confused about how to use materials from
sources (e. g., journals and books) that they read. Too often
material is used inappropriately, in most cases because a student
may not know how to properly use such material. The information on
this page will help you to avoid two serious flaws in writing
plagiarism and lazy writing.
What is Plagiarism?Plagiarism occurs when you use someone else's words or ideas
from a copyrighted source. Whenever something is fixed in some
medium (for example, a book, journal, electronic storage medium,
or even a term paper written by a fellow student) the work is
automatically copyrighted. Using copyrighted material as your own
is at best unethical, and at worst illegal. You can expect to
receive a very low grade, perhaps even a zero, on an assignment
with plagiarized material. You should consult your instructor for
her or his policies on plagiarized work. When most students think of plagiarism they think of using
someone else's words or ideas without properly citing the source.
Although this is one form of plagiarism, others exist. For
example if you use someone else's words or ideas, but change only
a couple of words you have also plagiarized. Let's take a look at
a couple of examples of outright plagiarism. We'll use a sample
paragraph from Horowitz, Willging, and Bordens (1998, p. 175) for
illustration purposes. Horowitz, et al. write the following about
the "misinformation effect" in eyewitness memory: The dynamic nature of human memory suggests that information
in memory can be influenced by a variety of factors. For
example, what we decide to put or encode into memory is
affected by information already in memory. If you were to reproduce this passage without placing the
material in quotation marks and citing the source, you would be
guilty of plagiarism. But, plagiarism also occurs if you simply
change a couple of words and use the rest: The dynamic character of human memory suggests that
information stored in memory can be acted upon by a many
factors. For example, what we decide to place or encode into
memory is affected by information already in memory. Notice that we have merely changed a couple of words (shown in
italics). However, the basic structure, tone and organization of
the original source remains the same.
How can I avoid plagiarism?The best way to avoid outright plagiarism is to
paraphrase
information from sources you read and properly cite the source.
Here is an example of how to paraphrase our sample passage: According to Horowitz, Willging and Bordens (1998), human
memory is a dynamic, active process and not a static one.
Consequently, memories can be affected by many things. As an
example, consider the fact that what we decide to store in
memory may be influenced by information already there
(Horowitz, Willging & Bordens, 1998). Notice what we have done here. No longer have we used the
words of Horowitz, et al.. We have taken what they wrote and
translated it into our own words. The essence of what
Horowitz, et al. wrote is still there,
but it is now expressed in our own terminology. Notice also
that we cited the source in the opening sentence of the
paragraph. Proper citation is essential to avoiding plagiarism.
We could have cited the source differently, as the following
example shows: Human memory is a dynamic, active process and not a static
one. Consequently, memories can be affected by many things.
As an example, consider the fact that what we decide to store
in memory may be influenced by information already there
(Horowitz, Willging & Bordens, 1998). But what if you think the original wording is necessary to
convey precise meaning. It is perfectlyacceptable to use a
direct quote from a source. The catch is you have to surround
it in quotation marks, or if the quotation is long set it off
in a block paragraph style,
and
correctly cite the source. So you could have done the
following: "The dynamic nature of human memory suggests that
information in memory can be influenced by a variety of
factors. For example, what we decide to put or encode into
memory is affected by information already in memory"
(Horowitz, Willging, & Bordens, 1998, p. 175). Notice we have enclosed the passage in quotation marks and
provided the appropriate reference citation which
includes the page number
on which the quoted material may be found.
What is Lazy Writing?Rosnow and Rosnow (1997) define
lazy writing
as a writing flaw closely related to plagiarism. In the case
of lazy writing, however, material that is copied from a
source word for word, or nearly so, is cited. When a student
uses too much directly quoted material (even if it is
correctly cited) in his or her writing the result is a paper
that is largely the work of someone else. Let's take a look
at an example of lazy writing by continuing the passage on
the misinformation effect. The dynamic nature of human memory suggests that
information in memory can be influenced by a variety of
factors. For example, what we decide to put or encode into
memory is affected by information already in memory
(Horowitz, Willging, & Bordens, 1998).
Information encountered after encoding something into memory
can influence the stored information.
This effect of biasing the memory of postevent information
is known as the misinformation effect (Loftus, Schooler,
& Wagenaar, 1985). It is interesting that misleading
information need not be encountered after one has witnessed
an event for the misinformation effect to occur (Horowitz,
Willging, & Bordens, 1998). In the passage above there is only one sentence that is
original to the author (the one not in bold face). The rest
of the paragraph is taken word for word from Horowitz,
Willging and Bordens (1998). A paper comprising paragraph
after paragraph of another person's work, with very little of
your own work is lazy writing and is inappropriate. At best
you can expect a low grade on your written assignment. Remember, even if you change a couple of words here and
there you are still engaging in lazy writing. It doesn't make
things any better if you simply change a few words, but
retain most of what the original authors wrote, as is the
case in the following example: The active nature of human memory suggests that
information in memory can be modified by many factors. For
example, what we decide to put or encode into memory is
affected by information already in memory
(Horowitz, Willging, & Bordens, 1998). Information
encountered after encoding something into memory can
influence the stored information.
This effect of changing the memory of postevent
information is known as the misinformation effect (Loftus,
Schooler, & Wagenaar, 1985). It is interesting that
biasing information need not be experienced after one has
witnessed an event for the misinformation effect to
occur(Horowitz, Willging, & Bordens, 1998). In this example we have changed a few words (shown in
italics). Simply changing a few words does not constitute an
appropriate paraphrase of what the original authors wrote.
You must take steps to properly paraphrase and cite sources,
as we showed previously. Next, we give some tips on how to avoid the traps of
plagiarism and lazy writing.
Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism and Lazy WritingWe have already told you that the best way to avoid
plagiarism is to correctly paraphrase and cite sources.
This goes for lazy writing as well. Keep the following
rules of thumb in mind when writing a paper: 1. Always properly cite the source of words and ideas
that are not your own. 2. Always paraphrase information from another source and
provide a proper citation. 3. Enclose directly quoted material in quotation marks
or set longer passages off in a block paragraph style and
provide the proper citation, which includes the page
number(s) where the material can be found in the original
source.. 4. Use quoted material sparingly and
only
to support something you have written
in your own words. 5. Make sure that any written assignment you turn in is
written in your own words.
Never
turn in a paper that consists of large amounts of material
taken from other sources with little of your own writing.
This true even if you made some minor, cosmetic changes to
the original material and properly cited the original
source.
Web Sites to Help You Avoid Plagiarism and Lazy
WritingTo get some more information on plagiarism and how to
avoid it try visiting the following sites: There is a useful site that gives good clear
definitions of plagiarism. Pay special attention to
point #10
that reinforces the definition of lazy writing.
Northwestern University has useful
tips on writing
that can help you define and avoid plagiarism. If you need help paraphrasing, try out the following
links:
Writer's handbook: Academic Writing, Quoting and
Paraphrasing
Purdue University's OWL web site on quoting and
paraphrasing
University of Houston-Victoria Academic Center on
paraphrasing
Arizona State University Online Handouts
(paraphrasing) |