Direct quotations: incorporating another person’s ideas exactly word for word into your paper.
“For a time, the United States Telegraph and the Washington Globe were almost equally favored as party organs, and there were fifty-seven journalists on the government payroll” (116).
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers. New York: The Modern Language
Association of America, 2003.
Citation is in MLA style.
Paraphrased facts or statistical information from other sources that most people wouldn’t know.
The average person must see a television commercial at least seven times before they actually remember viewing the commercial (“Interesting Facts,” 1999).
Interesting facts and statistics about advertising. (1999). BPS Outdoor Advertising. Retrieved February 3, 2005, from http://www.bpsoutdoor.com/interest.htm
Citation is in APA style.
Claims, arguments, theories, interpretations of others that you have paraphrased or summarized.
The Chaos Theory suggests that there is order in even the most random and disorganized information (Young, 1991).
Young, T.R. (1991). Chaos and social change: Metaphysics of the postmodern. The Social Science Journal, 28(3), 289-305.
Citation is in APA style.
Ideas from others via personal communication such as a professor, friend, acquaintance.
According to Prof. Blystone (personal communication, February 9, 2005), the notion of the deity determines all practices in the culture.
How do I avoid plagiarizing unintentionally?
Skillfully integrating sources into your writing is not easy. Achieving a balance between presenting the ideas of others and your own interpretations is what entering the academic community is all about.
As you write more papers in your major, you will become more knowledgeable in the subject matter and able to summarize and restate others’ ideas more easily.
In the meantime, follow some do’s and don’ts and you won’t be guilty of plagiarism.
