Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism: A Self-Directed Tutorial

All writers use words and ideas borrowed from other sources. Journalists use facts and data they discover in their research. A novelist might use a plot idea she or he read in another book. Poets regularly borrow words, images, and metaphors.

Academic writing is no different. Whether the author is a chemist writing about a new discovery in the lab, a sociologist describing a new theory, or an English lit professor writing about Shakespeare, academic writers usually make heavy use of previous writing on the same topic.

However, one important difference between academic writing and other genres of writing is the importance of indicating the sources where words and ideas were borrowed from. No one expects a poet to footnote a poem to indicate where she or he found the words and metaphors. In fact, part of the enjoyment of ‘decoding’ a poem is figuring out what the poet is alluding to.

But in academic writing, it is vital that the writer clearly identifies the source of words and ideas. In the culture of academic writing, originality is paramount – in other words: is that your own idea, or is it an idea you found somewhere else? Identifying your sources is so important in the culture of academic writing that to not identify your sources is considered a ‘crime’: the crime of plagiarism.

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is using the words or ideas of another person as if they were your own, and without giving proper credit to the sources you have used.

So have you ever committed plagiarism? After completing this tutorial, you may be surprised to learn that the answer is yes. Plagiarism is often unintentional, because students are not aware of all they ways they can accidentally plagiarize.

Learning Objectives

After completing this tutorial, you should be able to

• Recognize plagiarism in its various forms
• Understand why avoiding plagiarism is important
• Develop skills for avoiding plagiarism. These skills include

Citing Sources Note-Taking Quoting Paraphrasing

Scroll down and hit the Next button to get started on a self-test to see if you can recognize examples of plagiarism.