New Page 1

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM: HANDOUT FOR HST 212

The official policy of the University and of the College of Arts and Sciences is as follows:

"Syracuse University students shall exhibit honesty in all academic endeavors. Cheating in any form is not tolerated, nor is assisting another person to cheat. The submission of any work by a student is taken as a guarantee that the thoughts and expressions in it are the student’s own except when properly credited to another. Violations of this principle include: giving or receiving aid in an exam or where otherwise prohibited, fraud, plagiarism, the falsification or forgery of any record, or any other deceptive act in connection with academic work. Plagiarism is the representation of another’s words, ideas, programs, formulae, opinions or other products of work as one’s own, either overtly, or by failing to attribute them to their true source." (Section 1.0, University Rules and Regulations.)

Since some students are confused about what constitutes plagiarism (what needs to be cited, what does not), and since standards may vary from one college or department to another, I have decided to provide a more detailed explanation specifically relevant to the types of assignments a student is likely to encounter in History courses. The following definitions of plagiarism will apply to any student enrolled in this course, regardless of his/her home college.

What "academic honesty" means, in plain English, is that the writing in your papers must be yours – not copied from a book, or from another student, or from the internet – and anything borrowed from elsewhere (whether direct quotations or paraphrases) must be properly marked as such and footnoted. The following list gives more specific instructions; on the next page you will find some concrete examples of different varieties of plagiarism.

If you are unsure as to whether or how something should be cited, ask the instructor!

Quotations must be clearly marked as such, either with quotation marks or by indenting the margin. Each quotation must have a reference (whether footnote, endnote or parenthetical citation) indicating its source.

Paraphrasing/summarizing: if you change some words here and there, or rearrange the sentences, it still has to be cited. If you paraphrase somebody else’s writing, and don’t cite it, it’s still plagiarism.

Ideas and facts: if you got the idea from somewhere else, cite your source – even if you restate it in your own words.

Footnotes: these should indicate the extent of your dependence on your sources. That is, you can’t copy an entire paragraph and then stick a vague footnote on the end of it, if you haven’t specifically marked the copied text as a direct quotation. Likewise, it’s not sufficient merely to list a source in your bibliography at the end of the paper – you need to use footnotes within the paper to mark exactly where and to what extent you used the source. Different instructors may have different standards for specific styles of footnoting; they should make these clear to the class. As a general rule, however, footnotes should be specific (exact page number, not just title), so that the reader can go back to the same source and find the passage you’re using. If you use an internet source, be sure to give the full URL in addition to the author and title of the document.

Examples of Plagiarism

I realize that some students may be confused about the rights and wrongs of using sources, particularly in "gray areas" where one is summarizing or paraphrasing rather than quoting directly. These examples, taken from Princeton University’s Honor Code, should give you a clearer idea.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following examples provide a range of plagiarism from verbatim copying to thorough paraphrasing. The examples and comments offer clear guidance about how a source may be used and when a source must be cited.

Original source:

From: Alvin Kernan, The Playwright as Magician. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979, pp.102-103.

From time to time this submerged or latent theater in Hamlet becomes almost overt. It is close to the surface in Hamlet's pretense of madness, the "antic disposition" he puts on to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from plucking out the heart of his mystery. It is even closer to the surface when Hamlet enters his mother's room and holds up, side by side, the pictures of the two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made, presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he leaps into the open grave at Ophelia's funeral, ranting in high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief.

1. Example of verbatim plagiarism, or unacknowledged direct quotation (lifted passages are underlined):

Almost all of Shakespeare's Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theatre. For example, there is Hamlet's pretense of madness, the "antic disposition" that he puts on to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from plucking out the heart of his mystery. When Hamlet enters his mother's room, he holds up, side by side, the pictures of the two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made, presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he leaps into the open grave at Ophelia's funeral, ranting in high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief.

Comment: Aside from an opening sentence loosely adapted from the original and reworded more simply, this entire passage is taken almost word-for-word from the source. The few small alterations of the source do not relieve the writer of the responsibility to attribute these words to their original author. A passage from a source may be worth quoting at length if it makes a point precisely or elegantly. In such cases, copy the passage exactly, place it in quotation marks, and cite the author.

2. Example of lifting selected passages and phrases without proper acknowledgement (lifted passages are underlined):

Almost all of Shakespeare's Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theatre. For example, in Act 1, Hamlet adopts a pretense of madness that he uses to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from discovering his mission to revenge his father's murder. He also presents truth by means of a show when he compares the portraits of Gertrude's two husbands in order to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made. And when he leaps in Ophelia's open grave ranting in high heroic terms, Hamlet is acting out the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief.

Comment: This passage, in content and structure, is taken wholesale from the source. Although the writer has rewritten much of the paragraph, and fewer phrases are lifted verbatim from the source, this is a clear example of plagiarism. Inserting even short phrases from the source into a new sentence still requires placing quotations around the borrowed words and citing the author. If even one phrase is good enough to borrow, it must be properly set off by quotation marks. In the case above, if the writer had rewritten the entire paragraph and only used Alvin Kernan's phrase "high heroic terms" without properly quoting and acknowledging its source, the writer would have plagiarized.

3. Example of paraphrasing the text while maintaining the basic paragraph and sentence structure:

Almost all of Shakespeare's Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theatre. For example, in Act 1, Hamlet pretends to be insane in order to make sure his enemies do not discover his mission to revenge his father's murder. The theme is even more obvious when Hamlet compares the pictures of his mother's two husbands to show her what a bad choice she has made, using their images to reveal the truth. Also, when he jumps into Ophelia's grave, hurling his challenge to Laertes, Hamlet demonstrates the foolishness of exaggerated expressions of emotion.

Comment: Almost nothing of Alvin Kernan's original language remains in this rewritten paragraph. However the key idea, the choice and order of the examples, and even the basic structure of the original sentences are all taken from the source. Although it would no longer be necessary to use quotation marks, it would absolutely be necessary to place a citation at the end of this paragraph to acknowledge that the content is not original. Better still would be to acknowledge the author in the text by adding a second sentence such as "Alvin Kernan provides several examples from the play where these themes become more obvious"and then citing the source at the end of the paragraph. In the case where the writer did not try to paraphrase the source's sentences quite so closely, but borrowed the main idea and examples from Kernan's book, an acknowledgment would still be necessary.

(Source: Princeton University, Student Rights and Responsibilities 2000.)