Letting You Show Through:

Paraphrasing, Summarizing,
Quoting, and Plagiarism

What Is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is using the words or ideas of
someone and passing them off as your own.
This includes:
Phrases and revisions from tutors (they can help and
give suggestions, but you must make the material your
own.
Copying word for word phrases, sentences, paragraphs,
whole pages or whole papers from someone elses work
without directly attributing where that information came
from.
Using IDEAS from others without directly attributing
sources.

Is That All?
No, technically, plagiarism is used to describe
various other ethics violations in papers.
For Example: Turning in the same paper for two
different classes without informing the teacher of the
second class of your intention is UNETHICAL, and
technically plagiarism no matter how much you revise it.
The best thing to do is to ask permission from the other
teacher to turn in the previous papers. IN MOST
CASES, the teacher will be ok with it with a few
provisions.
Depending on publishing contract, submitting your
previously published work for another magazine is also
UNETHICAL and is thus plagiarism.

How Do I Avoid This?

Its difficult, especially when researching
tons of information. Words, phrases, and
ideas from your research often gets mixed
up with your own thoughts and words.
BUT it is not only possible, but is
NECESSARY to avoid plagiarism by
keeping track and making notes about
what you read.

Is That All?
No! You can also help by learning how to
attribute sources correctly.
Paraphrasing
Summarizing
Quoting
Documenting.

What Is Paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing is when you take the ideas
of someone else and put them in your
own words. YES! You still have to
attribute who and where it came from.
MANY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
WERE MISSINFORMED. Paraphrasing is
more than just replacing a word or two
with a synonym or changing the word
order.

What Do You Mean?

McGraw Hills website gives this example of so called lazy writing. Observe this
paragraph. The first is the original the others are bad paraphrases.
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.
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.
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).

How Should It Look?

McGraw Hill suggests that it looks more like this.
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).

OR
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 how the wording, syntax and jargon has changed completely
from the original. This makes it paraphrasing instead of plagiarism.

Ok, So What Is Summarizing?

Unlike PARAPHRASING, which can be much
longer than the original quote, SUMMARIZING
HAS to be shorter than the original quote.
In summarizing, one is trying to condense
material down into the essential bits.
Usually this is done with longer material and the
goal is to reduce it to one third the size of the
original (3 pgs of material =1 page summarized)
YES you still need to CITE where it came
from.

Ok, So Quoting Is?

Quoting is exactly like it sounds, you use
word for word what the source says.
If you have to change pronouns or verb
tenses, make sure you do it according to
format (Look in your Universal Keys)
DONT MISQUOTE or use the quote out
of context. That, too, is unethical writing and
could be considered not only plagiarism, but
LIBEL.
It should go without sayingthis is cited too.

Anything Else?
Always! Consider this. Every person has a
fingerprint that is individual to him or her.
Even identical twins have different
fingerprints. Our thought processes are no
different.
Your writing style is unique to you. Just
throwing in a quote from another person with
different writing finger print than yours makes
the writing disconnected and as bumpy as a
person who doesnt know how to shift gears
well.

What?
I mean, incorporate your quotes within your
sentences, or at least introduce your quotes
You wouldnt bring a friend over to your house
for the first time and just let them go and ignore
them. You wouldnt take a child from its family
and dropkick it into your family and not do your
part to make him feel at home, would you?
Then dont treat the quotes that you rip from
their homes the same way. These quotes are
helping you by proving your arguments, treat
them with love.

Do You Have an Example?

Dont I usually? It comes with the analogies.
Look at this quote I have from one of my
papers:
Thus, fairy stories do not have to have any actual elves
or fairies in it, but must have a magic of some kind, not
the vulgar devices of the laborious, scientific, magician
(Tolkien 114), but another kind of magic, more
transforming.

I wrapped my words around Tolkien quote

carefully to make them feel at home.

What Do You Mean By Introduction?

Just as you introduce your friend to your
housemates or family, introduce your
audience to your source like this:
According to Gordon, not only did the Bronte sisters have free reign
in their fathers library which contained works of Sir Walter Scott,
Homer and Milton, but they also had access to the Mechanics
Institute Library at Keighley, so they could read whatever peaked
their interest.
Mr. Bronte encouraged curiosity, creativity, discussion of world
events, and independence of thought which was obviously a
successful stratagem for educating his children because, according
to Ellen Nussey, Charlottes best friend, [...] she far surpassed her
most advanced school fellow in knowledge of whatever was passing
in the world at large, and in the literature of her country she knew a
thousand things unknown to them, (Gordon 65 )

Whats With the Parentheses ?

When documenting inside your paper,
your should put the name of the author (if
you didnt introduce him or her before the
quote) and the page number its found on.
Check your MLA section of your Keys for
Writers for more information.

Anything Else I Need to Know?

You will need a Work Cited page
Not a Works Consulted page (everything on
your Work Cited page must be cited or
referred to directly.)
Check the MLA manual in your Keys for Writers
for format.