WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?Each time in a paper you refer to someone else's research findings or quote someone else's words, you are copying their Intellectual Property (IP). You are obligated to give the author of that IP credit for his or her work. Plagiarism is when you neglect to give credit for thoughts and/or words that are not your own (whether or not your neglect was intentional).
Let's consider the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Many people believe this Proclamation freed the slaves in the United States, but it was the 13th amendment to the Constitution that freed the slaves. Contrary to popular belief, the Emancipation Proclamation announced a state of war by those states that had seceded from the Union and freed the slaves in only those states (Virtualology, 2000).
When I use information that is general knowledge (e.g., the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863), I do not need to give credit for this information.
When I voice an opinion (e.g., the Emancipation Proclamation can be considered as the document that started the Civil War), I do not need to give credit for this information; although, I had better defend that opinion in the paper.
However, when I state information that is not general knowledge and not my opinion (e.g., the Proclamation did not free the slaves in the United States but addressed slaves and the rebellion in those states that seceded from the Union), I am obligated to give credit for this information. To not give credit to my source of this information is plagiarism. There are four ways to state information and give credit:
In all four cases above, the thoughts and/or words were not original with me. As such, I must give credit to the source from which I copied the thoughts and/or words. APA format specifies how I give credit (depending upon which of the four ways I used the information); but unless I give that credit, I am guilty of plagiarizing -- I am passing off the information as my own thoughts, words, and opinions.
- I can simply refer to the information without quoting actual text from the source: Virtualogy (2000) has an excellent Web site discussing the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery, and the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
- I can paraphrase the source: On the Virtualogy (2000) Web site, we learn that the Emancipation Proclamation was directed only to the states that left the Union.
- I can directly quote the source with less than 40 words: "President Lincoln signed this document January 1, 1863, which was directed only to the states that seceded from the Union. Slave states that remained with the Union were not affected." (Virtualogy, 2000).
- I can directly quote the source with 40 or more words:
President Lincoln signed this document January 1, 1863, which was directed only to the states that seceded from the Union. Slave states that remained with the Union were not affected.
It was the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that freed all slaves with this language: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. (Virtualogy, 2000, ¶2-3)
While we are on the topic of using thoughts and/or words from external sources, research papers and essays should primarily be your own thoughts and opinions. Your thoughts can be supported by quotes from other sources and your opinions should be defended with quotes from other sources, but the majority of the words in your papers should be your own. I require papers of from 1000 to 1500 words. As such, if you have references, paraphrasing, and/or direct quotes which consume more than 500 to 750 of those words (50%), you have too many citations. I encourage you to eliminate some of the citations -- that doesn't mean to use the quotes but not give credit for them, it means to expand on your thoughts, opinions, and conclusions. A paper with quality content will demonstrate thought and a personal knowledge or understanding of the subject matter.
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Virtualogy (2000). Emancipation proclamation. Retrieved July 2, 2001 from
http://www.emancipationproclamation.net/