AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

When you present the words or ideas of another as if they were your own you are plagiarising.
Plagiarism is cheating. When you quote directly or summarise in your own words the ideas of
someone else, you must acknowledge your debts. You do so by making proper citations to source
materials (see 'Citations Within The Text). So, how can you make sure no one ever accuses you of it?

You can guard against unintentional plagiarism by providing unambiguous citations for the
following:

Direct Quotations

For example, assume that in the process of doing reading for an essay on societal responses to deviant
behaviour, you come across the following conclusion from John Kitsuse:

“In modern society, the differentiation of deviants from the non-deviant populations is
increasingly contingent upon circumstances of situation, place, social and personal biography,
and the bureaucratically organised activities and agencies of control” (Kitsuse, 1962, 256).

One way of incorporating this conclusion into your paper is to quote it in its entirety, acknowledging
the source as has been done above, and incorporating the reference in your Bibliography

Embedded Quotations

Another approach is to retain some of Kitsuse's words, embedded in the context of your own sentence.
For example:

As a proponent of labelling theory, Kitsuse (1962,256) argues that who and what is defined as
deviant has more to do with "circumstances of situation, place, social and personal biography,
and the bureaucratically organised activities and agencies of control" than with the behaviour
itself.

Paraphrasing

A third way to use Kitsuse's observation is to paraphrase it using your own words. There are good uses
of paraphrasing and bad examples of paraphrasing:

A good paraphrase does not attempt to follow the same sentence structure or word choice as that of
the source material. Instead, it conveys the gist of the original material while presenting the ideas in
another voice. An acceptable paraphrase of Kitsuse's material might read something like this (note
that because it is not a direct quotation, the reference to the page number has been omitted).

Labelling theorists have concluded that who and what are defined as deviant is determined by
a host of factors that have little to do with behaviour itself - where and when the act is
committed, who is committing it, and who is responding to it (Kitsuse, 1962).

Compare this with a bad paraphrase of the same material:

In contemporary society, distinguishing deviants from non-deviants is more and more

determined by characteristics of context, location, societal and individual biography, and the
bureaucratic organisation and agencies of social control (Kitsuse, 1962, 256).

Here the writer has merely provided synonyms - "contemporary society" for Kitsuse's "modern
society", for example. There is no point to this paraphrase. Verbatim quotation of the original
sentence is much to be preferred over this mechanical, word-for-word substitution.
 TIP: do not give credit where it is not dueIn attempting to avoid plagiarism, students sometimes
give credit where it is not necessarily due. Some
material can be labelled 'common knowledge'. What
qualifies as 'common knowledge'? Anything that is
repeatedly mentioned in published materials but never cited e.g. that Urdhu is the first language of
some British residents. Definitions from standard dictionaries do not require acknowledgement, but
neither are they likely to add much to your writing. Statements of historical fact (e.g. "The Onedia
community was founded in 1848" or "Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister in 1979") need
not be acknowledged, barring some controversy over the date or location of a particular occurrence.

On the other hand, interpretations of historical events must be properly acknowledged (e.g. "When the
Onedia community was formed in 1848, a new era in utopian experiments began" or "The election of
Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister in 1979 signalled a dramatic shift in political opinion"). The
more you read about a particular subject, the greater the chance you will be able to judge what passes
as 'common knowledge'. If in doubt, the obvious solution is to err on the side of caution by
acknowledging the source.

The Golden Rule Of Avoiding Plagiarism

• If in doubt, err on the side of caution by acknowledging the source.

see also: CITATIONS WITHIN TEXT & BIBLIOGRAPHIES. (source, adapted from Lee J.
Cuba, Writing about Social Science, London, Scott, Foresman & Co., 1988, pp133-136).