Welcome to another Quick Tip from the IU Southeast Writing Center.

Today’s topic is plagiarism.

In college, we are constantly asked to engage with other people’s ideas. We read them in texts, hear them in lectures, discuss them in class, and incorporate them into our own writing.

As a result, it is extremely important that we give credit where credit is due. As simple as it sounds, this is a very difficult thing to get right for many of us, which is why we are doing this podcast.

First, let’s be clear on the definition of plagiarism. This may take care of the big questions you have as to whether to cite something or not.

You need to realize that plagiarism is using others’ words and/or ideas without clearly acknowledging the source of that information. Please note here that this refers to using others words, which we are all familiar with as far as the need to cite, but the problem usually lies within the use of others’ original thoughts or ideas.

So to be clear, you must give credit whenever you use any of the following:

  • You use another person’s idea, opinion, or theory
  • You use any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings (anything that is not common knowledge). Before that term common knowledge throws you, I promise we will come back to that in a moment.
  • You use quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words (even if you don’t use more than three words in a row). If you change a word of two, this doesn’t mean that you own the idea.
  • You paraphrase another person’s spoken or written words. Same applies to the reference above; if you change it, you cannot claim it. Remember the part about giving credit to someone’s ideas, even if the words are not the exact ones the writer used?

So, for example, consider the following famous quote byPresident John F. Kennedy in his 1961 Inaugural Speech:

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Let’s see if we can determine plagiarism in the following situations:

  1. Do not ask what your nation can do for you; ask what you can do for your nation (Kennedy). [Plagiarism: student basically used Kennedy’s words and voice, but did not use quotation marks.]
  2. We should be helping one another rather than depending on government aid. [Plagiarism: student used Kennedy’s ideas, but did not mention the source of the ideas.]
  3. We should be helping one another rather than depending on government aid (Kennedy). [Perfect: student used Kennedy’s ideas expressed in student’s words and voice, but student still mentioned the source of the ideas.]

The last thing we need to mention is this little issue of common knowledge. The reference books say that common knowledge consists of facts that can be found in numerous places and are likely to be known by a lot of people; for example, John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in 1960.

Because this fact is found in numerous places (experts say usually more than three credible sources), you do not need to tell where you found this information.

Please take the issue of plagiarism seriously; we know your professor does.

You can be failed for an assignment, a class, and in some cases expelled from the university.

So if you are not sure whether something should be cited, you can do a few things:

  • Ask you professor for his or her opinion. After all, your professor is the one grading the assignment.
  • When in doubt, cite. Why take a chance in some cases?
  • Visit The Writing Center and ask for our feedback. We will be glad to discuss the situation with you and give you our professional opinion.

This has been another Quick Tip from The IU Southeast Writing Center.

Remember to come and visit us early and often to get help with any issue you have with writing for any class or any paper.

Thanks for listening!