RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY
LECTURE 5
PLAGIARISM
1

Amina Jameel
Dept of CE

Bahria University, Islamabad

amina@bahria.edu.pk

It means that you are falsely claiming that the

work is your own
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PLAGIARISM

According to the Merriam-Webster

Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means
To

steal and pass off (the ideas or

words of another) as one's own

To

use (another's production) without

crediting the source

To

commit literary theft

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PLAGIARISM

Intentional
Copying

whole papers, paragraphs,

sentences or phrases without
acknowledgement

Unintentional
Splicing

phrases from other writers into

your work without acknowledgement

IF.

You have included the

words and ideas of others
in your work that you
neglected to cite

You have
probably
plagiarized!

You have had help you

wouldnt want others to
know about

PLAGIARISM IN ACADEMICS EXCUSES

Its okay if
I dont get caught!

This assignment

was BORING!
My teachers
expect
too much!

Everyone does it!

I was too busy to

write that paper!
(Job, big game, too much homework!)

My parents
expect As!
6

a
e
g
an Im
h
c
If I words, t?
h
few y, rig
oka

Wrong! P
araphras
i ng
original i
deas wit
hout
documen
ting
your sou
rce,
is plagiar
ism too!

PLAGIARISM LIMITS

Copying a paragraph verbatim from a source without

any acknowledgement
Copying a paragraph & making small changes - e.g.
replacing a few verbs, replacing an adjective with a
synonym

Copying and pasting a paragraph by using sentences

of the original but omitting one or two and putting
one or two in a different order, no quotation marks

Composing a paragraph by taking short phrases

from a number of sources & putting them together
using words of your own to make a coherent whole

You can borrow from the

works of others in your
own work!

USE THREE STRATEGIES

Quoting

Paraphrasing
Summarizing

To blend source materials in with your own,

making sure your own voice is heard.

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QUOTING
Quotations are the exact words of an author,
copied directly from a source, word for word.
Quotations must be cited!

Use quotations when:

You

want to add the power of an authors words to

support your argument
You want to disagree with an authors argument
You want to preserve special or elegant language
You are comparing and contrasting specific points of view
Giving definitions etc.

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QUOTING
Dont string quotes together or put them back to
back.
Example (dont do this)

John Smith said, children can be very obstinate if you dont give
them what they want, but then stated that adults can be
equally obstinate and act like children. Rosy Campo refutes
this, Both children and adults have a tendency to be obstinate
regardless of the situation.

Better
John Smith and Rosy Campo are on differing sides of the
argument that children and adults can be stubborn whether
you appease them or not.

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PARAPHRASING
Paraphrasing means rephrasing the words of
an author, putting his/her thoughts in your own
words. When you paraphrase, you rework the
sources ideas, words, phrases, and sentence
structures with your own.

Like quotations, paraphrased material must be

followed with in-text citation and cited on your
Works-Cited page.
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PARAPHRASING

Paraphrase when:
You

plan to use information on your document and wish to

avoid plagiarizing
You want to avoid overusing quotations
You want to use your own voice to present information

Change both the vocabulary and the sentence structure

to free yourself from the authors voice.
Paraphrased material looks very convincing in a
research paper; it shows that the writer understands
her sources well enough to express them in her own
voice.

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SUMMARIZING
Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) of
one or several writers into your own words,
including only the main point(s). Summaries are
significantly shorter than the original and take a
broad overview of the source material.
Again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to
their original sources.
Summarize when:

You

want to establish background or offer an overview of a topic

You want to describe knowledge (from several sources) about a
topic
You want to determine the main ideas of a single source

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SUMMARIZING
Should be comprehensive but concise.
For example, a 15-page article may be summarized
in a paragraph or two.
The purpose of the summary/abstract is to give
scholars a preview of the material covered in the
article and let them decide whether they will take
the time to read it.

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SUMMARIZING VS. PARAPHRASING

Unlike a summary, a paraphrase does not

condense material; it includes both main points
and supporting details.
Thus, your paraphrase will be about the same
length as the original passage.
Therefore you would not paraphrase an entire 15
page article, but you could paraphrase an
important sentence or paragraph.
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AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

Quotation Marks If you need to use what someone else

has written or write their exact words and put them in
quotation marks
Paraphrase

Never use someone else's words and sentence structure

substituting synonyms would not do either
Write everything in your own words as you understand it
Go through the required reading material and then put it
all away when you start writing

Summarize Main idea of several authors in your own

words
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CITE RIGHT

Clearly indicate what comes from where

'According to Professor so-and-so....' or
'Professor so-and-so states that....'

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AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

Check for Plagiarism:

Online

Tools
Detect text similarity NOT plagiarism

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Source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ways-to-avoid-plagiarism.html

TURN IT IN ORIGINALITY REPORT

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TURN IT IN ORIGINALITY REPORT

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23

Do I have
to cite
everything?

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DO I NEED TO CITE EVERYTHING?

NO
Facts that are widely known, or
Information or judgments considered common
knowledge
Do NOT have to be cited.

Common
Knowledge

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EXAMPLES OF COMMON
KNOWLEDGE
John Adams was the second president of the US
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941

If you see a fact in three or more sources,

and you are fairly certain your readers
already know this information, it is likely to
be common knowledge.
But when in doubt, cite!
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EXAMPLES OF COMMON
KNOWLEDGE
Common
When the Civil War was
When Texas became part
of U.S.

Needs citation
Opinion about Civil War
Disputable fact or not
commonly known- i.e.
when humans first came
to the Americas

Even if you had to look up the information, but most people

wouldnt have had to, then it is considered common
knowledge, but it is still highly encourage you to cite
EVERYTHING- even encyclopedias
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WHAT TO CITE?

Did you
think of
it?

Yes.

No.

Is it
common
knowledge?

Yes.

No.

Cite it.

Do not cite it.

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PLAGIARISM - EXAMPLE

Lets take a brief look at some common types of

plagiarism.
Lets assume that two students are writing research
papers for a history course. On a visit to the library
they both come across the following excerpt from a
compilation, Napoleon: The Final Verdict,
copyrighted in 1996 by Arms & Armour Press.
The passage refers to the closing stages of the
Battle of Waterloo and was written by Andrew
Uffindell.

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THE ORIGINAL TEXT

At this stage many a general would have broken off the battle and
retreated. But Napoleon could not afford a single setback for it
would destroy his reputation and embolden the political opposition
in Paris. He had no choice but to stake everything on an attack by
his Guard against Wellington. To boost his armys flagging morale,
Napoleon sent messengers around the battlefield falsely to
announce that Marshal Grouchy was arriving. This ruse was risky
for if Napoleons troops discovered the truth, the sudden
disillusionment would shatter the army. But Napoleon was a
gambler, and the cheers of Vive lEmpereur! Soldats, voila
Grouchy! certainly galvanized his army into a renewed effort in
support of the Guard attack.
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Learning in the Academy: An Introduction to the Culture of Scholarship, Creighton
University, College of Arts & Sciences, 2nd printing, 2005

COPYING WORDS DIRECTLY

Example A- Unacceptable

All seemed lost for Napoleon, and many a general would have broken
off the battle and retreated. Yet, he could not afford to do so as a single
setback would destroy his reputation and harden the political
opposition in Paris.

The words in italics are directly taken from the

original text, therefore it is copied and not
acceptable. Nothing gives credit to the author.
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COPYING WORDS DIRECTLY

Example B- Acceptable
According to Uffindell, all seemed lost for Napoleon, and many a
general would have broken off the battle and retreated. But Napoleon
could not afford a single setback for it would destroy his reputation
and embolden the political opposition in Paris (186).

This is acceptable because the writer put the authors

words in quotations and also bookended the sentence.

Bookending is putting the authors name at the front of the

sentence or paragraph and putting the citation or page number
at the end. Bookending is used to indicate that the entire
sentence or paragraph is credited to that author.
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BLENDING

Example A- Unacceptable
Napoleon had a choice to make. He could either retreat and face
almost certain political collapse back in Paris or stake everything by
confronting the British troops with his Imperial Guard. Never one to
break off an engagement willingly, Napoleon chose the latter option.
Then, to boost his troops morale, the Emperor dispatched messengers
around the camp with the false announcement that Marshal Grouchy
would soon arrive to relieve them.

In Example A, the writer picks numerous words and phrases from Uffindells
paragraph, sometimes changing their form slightly (for example,
substituting false announcement for falsely to announce).
Does nothing to disguise his wholesale adoption of Uffindells analysis of the
situation. The resulting text is plagiarized because the author could fairly
claim very little as his own work beyond some superficial editing.

Learning in the Academy: An Introduction to the Culture of Scholarship, Creighton

University, College of Arts & Sciences, 2nd printing, 2005

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BLENDING

Example B- Acceptable

According to Andrew Uffindell, Napoleon had a challenging decision to

make at this point: either fall back and face almost certain rejection at
home or stake everything on an attack by his Guard against Wellington.
Never one to accept defeat, Napoleon chose the latter and, [to] boost his
armys flagging morale, ... sent messengers around the battlefield falsely
to announce that Marshal Grouchy was arriving (Uffindell 186).

This writer has put everything in quotation marks

that he borrowed and has bookended the paragraph
and properly cited the original author.
He has also integrated the quotes well, using her
own words and words that she felt were crucial to
the understanding of this historical moment.

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PARAPHRASING

Example A - Unacceptable

Out of fear that his debilitated army would be unable or willing to make a
final charge, Napoleon started the rumor that Marshal Grouchy was
nearby and would be arriving to assist them at any moment. This could
have been a dangerous move for the Corsican; if his soldiers had found
out it was no more than a rumor, they would most definitely have lost
heart and with it the desire to fight. But Napoleon was always one to take
chances. His ruse worked, and a newly invigorated army prepared to
attack the British line.

Even though the writer has relied entirely on their

own words here, it is still plagiarism because they did
not properly cite the original author.
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PARAPHRASING

Example B - Acceptable

According to historian Andrew Uffindell, out of fear that his debilitated

army would be unable or willing to make a final charge, Napoleon started
the rumor the Marshal Grouchy was nearby and would be arriving to
assist them at any moment. This could have been a dangerous move for
the Corsican; if his soldiers had found out it was no more than a rumor
they would most definitely have lost heart and with it the desire to fight.
But Napoleon was always one to take chances. His ruse worked and a
newly invigorated army prepared to attack the British line (Uffindell 186).

This is acceptable because the writer cited the author.

Note that these are the exact same words as the previous
example, but bookending it makes is acceptable!

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IS IT PLAGIARISM

You find:

Yes! You need to credit the

source of images and
other media as well as
text.

Your title page:

Gray wolf (Canis lupus).

Jeff Lepore/Photo Researchers
Wolf. Encyclopdia Britannica. Retrieved March 31,
2004, from Encyclopdia Britannica Online.
<http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=79400>

Should we or
shouldnt we
protect the gray
wolf?
By Ima Lamb
Eng 110
Apr. 1, 2004

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REAL LIFE CONSEQUENCES

New York Times senior reporter Jayson Blair forced

to resign after being accused of plagiarism and
fraud.
The newspaper said at least 36 of the 73 articles he
had written had problems calling the deception a
"low point" in the newspaper's history.

New York Times Exposes Fraud of Own Reporter. ABC News Online. 12
May, 2003.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html

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REAL LIFE CONSEQUENCES

Senator Joseph Biden dropped his 1987 campaign for

the Democratic presidential nomination. (Sabato)
Copied

in law school and borrowed from campaign speeches

of Robert Kennedy

Boston Globe journalist Mike Barnicle forced to resign

for plagiarism in his columns
Damaged the reputation of two prominent historians,
Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin,
Kearns

left television position and stepped down as Pulitzer

Prize judge for lifting 50 passages for her 1987 book The 39
Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys (Lewis)

PLAGIARISM CASES - PAKISTAN

HEC Plagiarism Policy
The handbook of plagiarism

Available

on HEC website

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When in dobut
Cite it !!!

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Motivated by several rulings in United States courts concerning

expert testimony in general, and handwriting testimony in
particular, we undertook a study to objectively validate the
hypothesis that handwriting is individual. Handwriting samples of
1,500 individuals, representative of the U.S. population with
respect to gender, age, ethnic groups, etc., were obtained. Analyzing
differences in handwriting was done by using computer algorithms
for extracting features from scanned images of handwriting.
Attributes characteristic of the handwriting were obtained, e.g.,
line separation, slant, character shapes, etc. These attributes,
which are a subset of attributes used by forensic document
examiners (FDEs), were used to quantitatively establish
individuality by using machine learning approaches. Using global
attributes of handwriting and very few characters in the writing,
the ability to determine the writer with a high degree of confidence
was established. The work is a step towards providing scientific
support for admitting handwriting evidence in court. The
mathematical approach and the resulting software also have42 the
promise of aiding the FDE

PARAPHRASE AND GIVE A TITLE

SUMMARY

Plagiarism

Accidental

Intentional

How to avoid:
Quotation

Paraphrasing
Summarizing

Text Matching Tools

Common knowledge

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The material in these slides is based on the following resources.

REFERENCES
The handbook of Plagiarism, Robert A. Haris
What is Plagiarism, Jiaheng Lu, Renmin
University of China
Plagiarism, Michael Lorenzen, LIB 197
www.plagiarism.org

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