Plagiarism is a concern for teachers and students, but it can be avoided by understanding
the issues involved. In the English-speaking academic world, it is essential to use a wide
range of sources for your writing and to acknowledge these sources clearly. This unit
introduces the techniques students need to do this. Further practice is provided in Units
1.7 Paraphrasing and Summarising and 1.8 References and Quotations.
1 What is plagiarism?
Basically, plagiarism means taking ideas or words from a source (e.g. a book or journal) without
giving credit (acknowledgement) to the author. It is seen as a kind of theft, and is considered
to be an academic crime. In academic work, ideas and words are seen as private property belonging to the person who first thought or wrote them. Therefore, it is important for all students,
including international ones, to understand the meaning of plagiarism and learn how to prevent
it in their work.
The main difficulty that students face is that they are expected:
(a) to show that they have read the principal authorities on a subject – by giving citations.
BUT
(b) to explain these ideas in their own words and come to their own original conclusions.
There are several reasons why students must avoid plagiarism:
• To show that they understand the rules of the academic community
• Copying the work of others will not help them develop their own understanding
• Plagiarism is easily detected by teachers and computer software
• Plagiarism may lead to failing a course or even having to leave college
2 Acknowledging sources
If you borrow from or refer to the work of another person, you must show that you have
done this by providing the correct acknowledgement. There are two ways to do this:
Summary and citation
Smith (2009) claims that the modern state wields power in new ways.
Quotation and citation
According to Smith: ‘The point is not that the state is in retreat but that it is developing new
forms of power . . .’ (Smith, 2009: 103).
These in-text citations are linked to a list of references at the end of the main text, which
includes the following details:
26 Part 1: The Writing Process

The citation makes it clear to the reader that you have read Smith and borrowed this idea
from him. This reference gives the reader the necessary information to find the source if the
reader needs more detail.

3 Degrees of plagiarism
Although plagiarism essentially means copying somebody else’s work, it is not always easy to
define.
Working with a partner, consider the following academic situations and decide if they
are plagiarism.

This exercise shows that plagiarism can be accidental. For example, situation 10 above, when
the author’s name is misspelt, is technically plagiarism, but really carelessness. In situation 9,
your teacher may have told you to discuss the topic in groups, and then write an essay on
your own, in which case it would not be plagiarism. Self-plagiarism is also possible, as in situation
7. It can be difficult to decide what is general or common knowledge (situation 6), but you
can always try asking colleagues.
However, it is not a good excuse to say that you did not know the rules of plagiarism, or that
you did not have time to write in your own words. Nor is it adequate to say that the rules are
different in your own country. In general, anything that is not common knowledge or your
own ideas and research (published or not) must be cited and referenced.
4 Avoiding plagiarism by summarising and paraphrasing
Quotations should not be overused, so you must learn to paraphrase and summarise in order
to include other writers’ ideas in your work. This will demonstrate your understanding of a
text to your teachers.
• Paraphrasing involves rewriting a text so that the language is significantly different while
the content stays the same.
• Summarising means reducing the length of a text but retaining the main points.
 See Unit 1.7 Paraphrasing and Summarising
Normally, both skills are used at the same time, as can be seen in the examples below.
5 Avoiding plagiarism by developing good study habits
Few students deliberately try to cheat by plagiarising, but some develop poor study habits that
result in the risk of plagiarism.
Working with a partner, add to the list of positive habits.
• Plan your work carefully so you do not have to write the essay at the last minute.
• Take care to make notes in your own words, not copying from the source.
• Keep a record of all the sources you use (e.g. author, date, title, page numbers, publisher).
• Make sure all your in-text citations are included in the list of references.