Plagiarism

what is it and how to avoid ?

By
Dr.Amany Mokhtar
Professor of Public Health and Preventive
Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams
University

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as
follows:
The action or practice of taking someone else's
work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own;
literary theft.
(Oxford English Dictionary:
http://dictionary.oed.com)

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Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
The heart of the problem of plagiarism is

MISREPRESENTATION
which breaks all the rules for using other
peoples work

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
Stealing a persons words is similar to
stealing somebodys car and impressing
your friends by pretending its yours.
Its theft, but more seriously, its
misrepresentation.

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
Any time I leave the impression that the
words or ideas Ive written are mine, when
actually they came from someone else, I
am plagiarizing.

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
Because passing off someone elses
words or ideas as your own is
misrepresentation, it is viewed as
academic fraud as well as academic
theft.

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
So what are the boundaries?
How do I know when Ive become a
plagiarist?

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
Some boundaries are obvious:
If I copy material from a book or article, dont
use quotation marks and dont provide a
citation to the source, I am stealing someone
elses words and pretending they are mine.
If I get someone else to write my paper or buy a
paper from a commercial source or simply copy
a whole paper off the Internet, I am clearly
plagiarizing.

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
I plagiarize if I take something off the Internet?
But isnt the Internet free for all? People post
things there so other people can use them.
Here youre confusing access and plagiarism.
Even if people give you permission to use their
material, using it without indicating the source
makes it look like its your material. Thats
plagiarism.

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
Other boundaries are not so clear:
What if I use a chart or some other graphic off
the Internet, something that isnt really words?
Is that plagiarism?

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
You still need a citation to acknowledge who
produced the graphic.
There is an additional problem in that many
graphics require permission of the copyright
holder before you can actually use them in your
own work. Be sure you know what rights are
given to use the graphic.

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?

Its the idea of Intellectual Property. What

comes out of my mind and is communicated to
others remains my property. If you use my
intellectual property as if it were your own, you
are plagiarizing.

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?

What can I legitimately use as an

information source without having to make
a citation for it?

Plagiarism what is it and how to

avoid ?
What dont I need to cite?
Your own ideas
Your own analysis/evaluation of other peoples
ideas (once you have provided citations for the
ideas themselves)
Common knowledge knowledge that you find
in several sources that are not themselves
depending on a single earlier source.

Plagiarism what is it and how

to avoid ?
What is considered common
knowledge?
Common knowledge is normally considered information that most of
your audience would be familiar with and/or information that can be
found in a variety of sources. Common knowledge information does
not need to be cited.
Examples of common knowledge:
Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.
George Washington was the first president of the U.S.
However, facts that would not be generally known by the public are
not considered common knowledge.

What do I need to cite?

You

should always provide references for

Direct quotations
Summaries, paraphrases
Statistics
Charts, graphs, diagrams
Controversial interpretations
Results of others research

Types of Plagiarism

Types of Plagiarism:
Copying
The most well-known and,
sadly, the most common
type of plagiarism is the
simplest: copying. If you
copy someone else's work
and put your name on it,
you have plagiarized.

Copying: An Example
"Children are totally insensitive to their parents'
shyness; it is the rare child who labels a parent shy [...]
This is understandable, since parents are in positions of
control and authority in their homes and may not reveal
their shy side to their children. Also, since shyness is
viewed as undesirable by many children, it may be
threatening to think of parents in these terms. At this
young age, the parent is still idealized as all-knowing
and all-powerful - - not dumb, ugly, or weak."
Zimbardo, Philip G. (1977). Shyness: What it is, what to
do about it. Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Books.

Copying: An Example
This one is pretty straightforward. If a writer
copies, word for word, the text from Dr. Zimbardo's
book and does not acknowledge in any way that it
was Dr. Zimbardo's work, the writer has committed
plagiarism.

Types: Patchwork Plagiarism

The second kind of plagiarism is
similar to copying and is perhaps
the second most common type of
plagiarism: patchwork
plagiarism. This occurs when the
plagiarizer borrows the "phrases
and clauses from the original
source and weaves them into his
own writing" without putting the
phrases in quotation marks or
citing the author.

Patchwork: An Example
With regard to children, they are totally insensitive to
their parents' shyness. Rare is the child who labels a
parent shy. It is easy to understand this, since the
parents are in positions of control and authority in their
own homes and may not necessarily show their shy side
to their children. Moreover, since shyness is viewed as
unfavorable by most children, it may be threatening for
them to think of their parents in that light. During the
formative years, the parent is idealized as all-knowing
and all-powerful -- not dumb, ugly, or weak.

Patchwork: An Example
Now, had the "author" of this passage put the
colored phrases in quotation marks and added a
citation after the quotation, like (Zimbardo 62), the
"author" would have been safe. Without the
quotation marks and the proper citation, the "author"
has committed plagiarism.

Types: Paraphrasing
Plagiarism
The third type of plagiarism is called paraphrasing
plagiarism. This occurs when the plagiarizer
paraphrases or summarizes another's work without citing
the source. Even changing the words a little or using
synonyms but retaining the author's essential thoughts,
sentence structure, and/or style without citing the source
is still considered plagiarism.

Paraphrasing: An Example
Children are completely insensitive to their
parents' shyness and rarely label their
parents as shy. Because the parents are
the authority and controlling figures in the
home, they may not feel shy and therefore
not show their shy side. Moreover, during
the formative years, parents are seen as
omnipotent and omniscient and not stupid,
unattractive, or pathetic; it may be
frightening for children to view their
parents in terms of shyness.

Paraphrasing: An
Example
Now, had the "author" of this paragraph used
footnotes or parenthetical citations to acknowledge
Dr. Zimbardo's work, he or she would have been in
the clear. However, since the "author" acts like
these ideas are his or her own, and does not
acknowledge Dr. Zimbardo, it's plagiarism.

Types: Unintentional
The fourth type of
plagiarism is called
unintentional plagiarism
-- it occurs when the writer
incorrectly quotes and/or
incorrectly cites a source
they are using. How is this
plagiarism, if the author
didn't mean to do it?

Types :Unintentional Plagiarism

Paraphrasing poorly: changing a few words without

changing the sentence structure of the original, or changing
the sentence structure but not the words.
Quoting poorly: putting quotation marks around part of a
quotation but not around all of it, or putting quotation
marks around a passage that is partly paraphrased and
partly quoted.
Citing poorly: omitting an occasional citation or citing
inaccurately.

MLA handbook for writers of research papers. (7th ed.). The Modern Language
Association of America. New York: 2009. Print

Types: Unintentional
If a writer has incorrectly quoted or incorrectly cited a
source, it could be misconstrued as dishonesty on the
Also: WE DONT READ MINDS.
writer's part. The dishonest usage of another's work is
most often considered plagiarism. Therefore, the
We dont know what you *MEANT*
incorrect usage of another's work, whether it's
to do!
intentional or not, could be taken for "real" plagiarism.

Types: self-plagiarism?
The practice of an author using portions of their previous
writings on the same topic in another of their publications,
without specifically citing it formally in quotes.
This practice is widespread and at times unintentional
Violates the copyright that has been assigned to the
publisher
No consensus whether this is scientific misconduct

Plagiarism is
plagiarism

irrespective of
Intent, Source,
Quantity and
Copyright

Gitanjali 32
Writecon 2007

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

Use these three

strategies,
Quoting
Summarizing
Paraphrasing
To blend source materials in with your own, making
sure your own voice is heard.

QUOTE

When you quote you present another writers

actual words to support your own ideas.

As an academic writer, you will use quotations

for four major purposes:

1. to support your ideas;

2. to preserve special or elegant language;
3. to comment on the quotation; or
4. to distance yourself from the quotation
(Spatt).

From Lindsay Radcliffe, UTSA Tutor and NCB Instructor

Quoting Helpful Hints

Dont string quotes together or put them
back to back.
Example (dont do this)
John Smith said, children can be very obstinate if
you dont give them what they want, but then
stated that adults can be equally obstinate and
act like children. Rosy Campo refutes this, Both
children and adults have a tendency to be
obstinate regardless of the situation.

Quoting Helpful Hints

Save quotes for when you think it is crucial
to present the sources exact words. (i.e.
statements of law, rules, or policy or
specific coined terms or jargon from that
author.)
Learn how to add your own connections
and comments.
Be engaged in the research.

Proper Quotations
In order to properly quote your sources, you
should select the style that would be appropriate
for the research.

If you are directly quoting a source (i.e. quoting the

passage word for word) there are several types of
citation that need to take place. The following example
use MLA citation methods
John Smith makes the claim that, deep fried candy bars
are a delicious treat (62).

Quote
Original source: The effort required to provide
online information literacy instruction is intense.

Your paper: The effort required to provide online

information literacy instruction is intense. (Smith
2006, p.42)

Summarizing
Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) of one
or several writers into your own words, including only
the main point(s). Summaries are significantly shorter
than the original and take a broad overview of the
source material. Again, it is necessary to attribute
summarized ideas to their original sources.
Summarize when:

You want to establish background or offer an overview of a topic

You want to describe knowledge (from several sources) about a
topic
You want to determine the main ideas of a single source

Paraphrase
Unlike a summary, a paraphrase does not
condense material; it includes both main points
and supporting details.
Thus, your paraphrase will be about the same
length as the original passage.
Therefore you would not paraphrase an entire
15 page article, but you could paraphrase an
important sentence or paragraph.

From Lindsay Radcliffe, UTSA Tutor and NCB Instructor

How to Paraphrase
Select a single paragraph from your full-length
article.
Then, paraphrase it by translating it into your own
words.
When you paraphrase, you rework the sources
ideas, words, phrases, and sentence structures with
your own. Like quotations, paraphrased material
must be followed with in-text documentation and
cited on your Works-Cited page.
Change both the vocabulary and the sentence
structure to free yourself from the authors voice.
From Lindsay Radcliffe, UTSA Tutor and NCB Instructor

Paraphrasing
Paraphrase when:
You plan to use information on your note cards
and wish to avoid plagiarizing
You want to avoid overusing quotations
You want to use your own voice to present
information

Paraphrasing example

Study both for a few seconds.

Study both for a few seconds

Paraphrasing
The paraphrase you looked at is just a doctored
version of the original, changed a bit so it looks
like something different.
But the word order, paragraph structure, and even
some of the actual words are the same.
Thats plagiarism. Even with the changes, the whole
paraphrase is still 80% the intellectual property of
the original author.
The author has included citations, but has misled
the reader to believe that the original has been
paraphrased, while in fact much of the text is
copied word for word.

Paraphrasing

Another one:
Original source: The effort required to provide
online information literacy instruction is intense.

Your paper: The work needed to provide online

information literacy teaching is intense.

Paraphrasing
Plagiarism
Your version is a paraphrase of the original
with a lot of the original terminology still
there as well as the same sentence
structure.

Paraphrasing
How do you avoid the paraphrasing trap?
Simple. Dont paraphrase INTERPRET!!

Paraphrasing

Example:
Your friend says to you, "I havent eaten for a long
time, so why dont we stop at a restaurant ?"
Someone nearby says, "What does he want?"
Paraphrase: He hasnt had a meal for awhile and
wants to go to a restaurant . (Changes words but not basic
structure. No attempt to interpret)

Interpretation: Hes hungry and wants to get a

burger." (Gets at underlying meaning)

Paraphrasing
Good paraphrases
1) Change the order & structure of sentences
2) Use synonyms/different forms of words
3) May change the voice or perspective

Source: http://www.academicintegrity.uoguelph.ca/

Paraphrasing
Good paraphrases
1) change the order & structure of sentences
ORIGINAL
Instead of analyzing data with an exploratory factor analysis (where each
item is free to load on each factor) and potentially facing a solution
inconsistent with initial theory, a CFA can give the investigator valuable
information regarding the fit of the data to the specific, theory-derived
measurement model (where items load only on the factors they were
designed to measure), and point to the potential weakness of specific
items.

PARAPHRASE
If the focus of the investigation is the connection between data and the
theoretical model being used for measurement, a CFA is a better choice
than an exploratory factor analysis, as the CFA is more likely to provide
results that show the connection between data and theory (Mueller &
Hancock, 2001).
Source: Mueller RO and Hancock GR. (2001). Factor Analysis and Latent Structure:
Confirmatory Factor Analysis. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International
Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (pp. 5239-5244). Oxford, England:

Paraphrasing
Good paraphrases
2) use synonyms/different forms of words
ORIGINAL

Optimizing peak bone mass during the early years is

thought to be a key factor in preventing osteoporosis later
in life.

PARAPHRASE

To prevent osteoporosis, experts believe it is important

to build bone mass before adulthood (Johnson et al.,
2008).

Johnson, C.S., MeLeod, W., Kennedy, L., and McLeod, K. (2008).Osteoporosis Health
Beliefs Among Younger and Older Men and Women [Electronic version]. Health
Education & Behavior 35(5)721-733.

Paraphrasing
Good paraphrases
3) change the voice (from passive to active)
Earth-friendly products are being purchased more often by
consumers.

Increasingly, shoppers are choosing to buy

environmentally safe products.

HOW WE CAN USE THE ANTIPLAGIARISM TOOLS

How does Plagiarism Detector

work?

Plagiarism Detector - Originality

Report
Plagiarism Detector Originality
Reports
Plagiarism Detectorproduces
Originality reports. These reports
show the Plagiarism Distribution (if
any) detected within the checked
document.
1. The first thing to know about
Originality Reports Color Markup:
Every color represents its own source

 Any Plagiarism Detector Originality Report has

the following structure:

Originality Report GenerationTime and Date

Checked Document Name (File Title)

Checked Document Location

Checked Document Words Coun

Search Engines Queries Sent Count

Document Author [if applicable]

A special Chart that shows the relations of different parts of the

checked document. It shows the relative amount of Plagiarized
part to the Original part of the document and Referenced part if
any. Original Part is marked inGreen, Plagiarized part inRed,
and Referenced Part is inBlue.

Wikipedia Detection flag - shows if Wikipedia was detected as

one of the sources
Google Books flag - shows if Google Books were detected as
one of the sources
Ghostwriting Services - shows if any of them detected
Counter Anti-Cheating - is any tricks detected that were made
in order to disguise plagiarism

Autoanalysis Section contains a short answer to

the question "How much Plagiarism is there in
the Document, if any?"

This is the list of 3 sources that contain most of plagiarism,

that is - sources that contain a substantial amounts of
shared text and have not been referenced in the original
document

This is a list of Top 3 references found. The complete list of all

reference is accessible via the link below.

This section contains the Original Document Text body alongside

with Color Markup and Sources detected, both Plagiarized and
Referenced.

Originality

reportdetails:
Generation
20.10.2010 16:09
Time and Date:
Document
Name:

1_Essay.doc

Document
Location:

C:\Users\admin\Desktop\test docs\1_Essay.doc

Document
Words Count:

547

Queries Sent
Count:

27

Document
Author [if
applicable]:

[not available]

Plagiarism Detection Chart:

Referenced0%/Linked0%
Original-1%/99%-Plagiarism

Referenced69%/Linked0%
Original-10%/22%-Plagiarism

Referenced99%/Linked0%
Original-1%/0%-Plagiarism

Auto analysis:
The degree of possible plagiarism is extremely high.
The text does not contain any references.
The textual material has no Linked Fragments.

======================

A small part of the analyzed text either lacks

reference or is plagiarized.
More than one half of the document is taken from
referenced sources.
The textual material has no Linked Fragments
===============================
The text under analysis is absolutely original. Google
reported no matches.
Nearly the whole document is taken from the
Internet with appropriate referencing.
The textual material has no Linked Fragments

Source url:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University
http://www.answers.com/topic/university
http://aduengg.com/
[ complete list]

Source url:

[ complete list ]

Source url:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_spelling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West/Central_Canadian_English
[ complete list ]

Detailed Document Analysis

Summing Up
Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are
all important skills to use when writing
research papers. Using other peoples
information provides support and credibility
to your research.
Use quotation marks if you are copying word for
word.
Use paraphrasing to put the thoughts of the
author into your own words.
Use a summary to describe the main points of an
information source.

Anti-plagiarism Tools

Plagiarism.org (www.plagiarism.org)

Turnitin.com (www.turnitin.com)

Plagiarism Checker (http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/)

Plagiarism Detector (http://www.plagiarism-detector.com)

http://plagiarisma.net/

https://www.paperrater.com/plagiarism_checker

http://plagiarisma.net/spinner.php
http://www.plagscan.com
http://www.duplichecker.com/
http://www.plagtracker.com/
http://www.articlechecker.com/
http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/
http://plagiarism-detect.com/

ICTK

Academic plagiarism detector with CrossCheck (eTBlast software).

Http://etest.vbi.vt.edu/etblast

Plagiarism finder software

And many more software.

Paraphrasing websites
http://antspinner.com
http://paraphrasing-tool.com/

http://www.paraphrasingtool.biz/check-our-best-paraphrase-/

http://www.csgenerator.com/

http://spinbot.com/

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