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Writing Guide
6. Plagiarism
If you follow the advice in section 5 , you will not have to worry about plagiarism. It is good to refer to and to quote other people's ideas. Plagiarism, however, is when you take other people's words and ideas and then pretend they are your own. It is basically a form of stealing, only you are stealing other people's words (rather than stealing their things): you are not acknowledging the source of your ideas or your words. The following definition of plagiarism is taken from the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations , MLA , New York, 1977, pages 4–5:
Plagiarism may take the form of repeating another's sentences as your own, adopting a particularly apt phrase as your own, paraphrasing someone else's argument as your own, or even presenting someone else's line of thinking in the development of a thesis as though it were your own. In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from another person. Although a writer may often use another person's words and thoughts, they must be acknowledged as such.
The following example is intended to show clearly what plagiarism is and what it is not. It refers to the passage of criticism already quoted in section 5 :
THIS IS NOT PLAGIARISM:
Shakespeare's use of the soliloquy has always seemed crucial to the effect of Macbeth . As Gearin-Tosh says, 'Soliloquy can create intimacy with those we do not like' (p. 9). Macbeth is certainly someone we come to dislike in an obvious sense: he enters more and more into a world of evil, into moral depravity. But soliloquy gives us access to his inner thoughts, and in this way keeps us near to him. Gearin-Tosh contrasts Macbeth with Shakespeare's earlier evil protagonist Richard III: Richard starts off as evil, but 'Macbeth becomes evil, and his soliloquies chart the stages of this degeneration' (p. 9).
THIS IS PLAGIARISM:
Shakespeare's use of soliloquy has always seemed crucial to the effect of Macbeth . Soliloquy can help to create a feeling of intimacy with characters we do not like. Macbeth is certainly someone we come to dislike in an obvious sense: he enters more and more into a world of evil, into moral depravity. But soliloquy gives us access to his inner thoughts, and in this way keeps us near to him. Macbeth can be contrasted in an interesting way with Shakespeare's earlier evil protagonist Richard III, but unlike Richard, Macbeth becomes evil, and his soliloquies chart the stages of this degeneration.
In this second passage, there is no indication whatever that some of the thoughts and phrases come from the critic Gearin-Tosh. Two of the sentences derive directly from Gearin-Tosh's essay, but his name is not mentioned, there are no quotation marks, and there is no attempt to reference these sentences. Even though the phrasing of these sentences is slightly altered from the original, this still counts as plagiarism. When in doubt, always mention your source or the critic's name, using phrases like 'as Gearin-Tosh has argued …', 'Gearin-Tosh says that …', 'one critic has said that … (Gearin-Tosh, p. 9)'.
Plagiarism in a serious failure of integrity and honesty. Here, as at other universities, an essay which is judged to contain plagiarism may be graded at 0%. Don't worry about plagiarising by accident. Simply be honest about where your ideas come from, and use quotation marks around material directly quoted from critics, Internet sources, or any other material. Plagiarism from Internet sources is very easy to trace, and Internet sources must be quoted and referenced like any other source.
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