With information constantly at our fingertips with the invention of the World Wide Web, students entering college often have misperceptions about what constitutes plagiarism. Along with the Internet, things like social media and file sharing confuses the is
sue also. Generation Y has grown up sharing everything that they can grab off of a website or someone’s profile.
I’m not saying that the Internet is evil, because I couldn’t do what I do for a living without it. But, it has confused an already disliked part of research in the academic arena. Now, I’m not talking about intentional plagiarism here. We all know that there are tons of sites where research papers on any topic can be purchased or even downloaded for free. If you go out and buy a paper, you know you are doing something wrong. What I’m talking about is accidental plagiarism. And that’s what I am here to clarify so that you don’t get off on the wrong foot on the path to a college degree.
This list is not meant to be exclusive, so it is absolutely necessary to review your university’s definition of plagiarism and their code of conduct for academic honesty, as well as each individual course’s syllabus for the prof’s plagiarism policies. But the information here does come from years of teaching college English courses where semester after semester I receive papers that are plagiarize “accidently.”
Document graphics
It’s common to see all kinds of “shared” pictures, memes, images and graphics on social site and personal websites nowadays, and students often don’t realize that even though no words might be included along with the graphic, these are still someone’s creative or intellectual property. Because of that, when you use graphs or other images in college papers or projects, those too need to be correctly documented to give credit to the individuals or company that created the work.
Avoid Cyber-Plagiarism
Because the Internet is such a common form of research, students are often confused about what they can legally do with material they find from an online source. Students tend to see online source material as free and public information that they do not need to document. But copying and pasting material from an online source without correctly documenting it is cyber-plagiarism.
Remember that the definition of plagiarism is to “borrow” words, ideas or creative material that someone else created without giving credit to that person/entity. So make sure to always site the online sources where you find information you use…just like you would for material from a hardcopy source, such as a book or scholarly journal.
Cite paraphrasing and summaries
This is often an overlooked necessity. Students think that if they change the words in the borrowed material then they no longer have to give credit to the author. But the ideas still belong to the person who created them or dreamed them up. So even if you paraphrase or summarize information from a source, you still must document it the same way as you would a direct quotation (without the quotation marks).
Use the documentation style required
It may seem obvious, but it is common for professors to get submissions from students who ignore the style required for that class. Just because you may be accustomed to using APA, doesn’t mean you get to choose to always use it. All disciplines use different styles. If you are a chemistry major who takes a history class for an elective, guess what? You aren’t going to use the same documentation style as the one you are familiar with. If you need help finding a quality source to guide you through this new style, talk to your professor.
Document both in-text and on the bibliography page
Sometimes in high school, students are made only to include citations either in-text or on a bibliography page. This makes life easier for teachers and students, but sends the wrong message in the long run. Unless otherwise stated by your professor, all material must be documented both in-text and on a bibliography page. The way these two types of documentation are formatted and the exact information required might change, but including both is standard no matter what documentation style is required for the class.
Understand “common knowledge”
Today’s typical college student has grown up using the Internet, and so they often believe that all of this “free” information that is flying around through cyberspace is considered “common knowledge.” But that isn’t the case. Just because it is freely given doesn’t make it common knowledge. Common knowledge is usually defined as well-known information and facts widely available in a variety of standard reference books.Common knowledge can be confusing, especially if you aren’t terribly familiar with the material in the disciple you are studying. If you are unsure if information you want to use in your paper is considered common knowledge or not, ask your professor or do what comes next on the list.
Final Thoughts
Cite it—
Even if you aren’t sure you need to. Seriously, how long is it going to take to build the correct citations for a source? Now consider how long you have spent researching and writing this paper. Do you really want to risk failing the paper or the entire class (depending on your university’s policy) because you didn’t want to cite something you thought was probably common knowledge? I can guarantee that you won’t lose points for adding in an extra citation when it really wasn’t necessary, but you will if you needed a citation and you didn’t include one!
Jacqueline Myers has been guiding college students through the murky waters of writing and research for many years. And she can be your personal English instructor if you visit her on her blog Nitty-Gritty English: The complete site for tips, tricks and techniques for the UN-enthusiastic English student. Jacqueline is a proud member of the AEGC writing staff.