Plagiarism


Plagiarism is the use of someone else's words, ideas, or information without giving him/her proper credit. Plagiarism takes several forms. Below are a few examples of commonly-encountered cases of plagiarism and examples of correct ways of citing words, ideas, and information.


Let's assume that you are using the following passages from Richard Dorson's introduction to Folktales of Mexico (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970) in a research paper about the Virgin of Guadalupe legend:

"The apparition of the Virgin was first seen on the dawn of 9 December 1531 by Juan Diego, an Aztec recently converted to Christianity, on Mount Tepeyac, as he was walking to mass at the Franciscan monastery of Tlatelolco from his native pueblo of Quahutitlan, four leagues from Mexico City" (Dorson, 1970, p. xvii).
"Such is the essence of the event, covering four days, but its impact has endured through more than four centuries of Mexican history" (Dorson, 1970, p. xviii).
                            Please note:  you may be required to use superscripts (footnote numbers) and full citation of the source when you first
                            use it; second and subsequent uses of the same source do not require all of this information.  


USING A SOURCE'S WORDS

You are plagiarizing if you use your source's words without placing them in quotation marks and without providing a parenthetical citation, EVEN IF you include Dorson's book in your bibliography. For example:

Juan Diego was an Aztec recently converted to Christianity who saw the Virgin Mary on his way to church.

You are plagiarizing if you use your source's words without placing them in quotation marks EVEN IF you provide a parenthetical citation and include Dorson's book in your bibliography. For example:

Juan Diego was an Aztec recently converted to Christianity who saw the Virgin Mary on his way to church (Dorson, 1970, p. xvii).   This is for social science citation.  If your teacher asks you to use humanities or history citation, then this sentence would be followed with a superscript (footnote number), and you would cite the source fully:
    R. M. Dorson, Folktales of Mexico (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), xvii.

Here is the correct way to use a source's words and to provide credit:

Juan Diego was "an Aztec recently converted to Christianity" who saw the Virgin Mary on his way to church (Dorson, 1970, p. xvii).  [or, use the full footnoting as indicated above]

Bibliography :
Dorson, R. M.  Folktales of Mexico. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.


USING A SOURCE'S IDEAS

You are plagiarizing if you use your source's ideas without providing a parenthetical citation, EVEN IF you paraphrase and even if you include Dorson's book in your bibliography. For example:

The Virgin of Guadalupe story has been important through four hundred years of Mexico's history.

Here is the correct way to use a source's ideas and to provide credit:

The Virgin of Guadalupe story has been important through four hundred years of Mexico's history (Dorson, 1970, p. xviii).  [see different citation form above, if you are asked to use humanities or history form of citation, with footnote numbers and full citation of the source the first time.]


USING A SOURCE'S INFORMATION

You are plagiarizing if you use your source's information (including information present in text, charts, diagrams, maps, footnotes, and so forth) without providing a parenthetical citation, EVEN IF you paraphrase and even if you include Dorson's book in your bibliography. For example:

The Virgin appeared to an Aztec named Juan Diego on December 9, 1531.

Here is the correct way to use a source's information and to provide credit, after you have used the source at least once already:

The Virgin appeared to an Aztec named Juan Diego on December 9, 1531 (Dorson, 1970, p. xvii).

If you have not used the source, and given full bibliographic information already, then you must do that with the first use of the source.  In this case it is:

Dorson, R. M.  Folktales of Mexico. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.   (This if for the formal bibliography).
or:   R. M. Dorson, Folktales of Mexico (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), xvii.  (This is for the first footnote for this source).


RULES OF THUMB

The lower threshold for plagiarism is three words in the same order as they are found in the source.

Even when you are paraphrasing from one source throughout a paragraph or more, you must given parenthetical citations to the page number(s) for each idea or bit of data. As a rule of thumb, expect to include at least one parenthetical citation per paragraph unless the ideas are obviously your own.

Avoid paraphrasing from one or two sources at length. This results in a research paper in which the ideas are ORGANIZED as they appear in your source, a subtle form of plagiarism. This problem is common in student papers.