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Avoiding Plagiarism: How To

Avoiding Plagiarism

You do not need to cite a source for material considered common knowledge:

  • General common knowledge is factual information considered to be in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of military, political, literary, and other historical events.
  • Field-specific common knowledge is “common” only within a particular field or specialty. It may include facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to readers within that discipline. You must be sure that this information is so widely known within that field that it will be shared by your readers.
  • If in doubt, be cautious and cite the source. And in the case of both general and field-specific common knowledge, if you use the exact words of the reference source, you must use quotation marks and credit the source.

From: Writing Center at UW-Madison

How to Write Paraphrased Statements:

  • Use a statement that makes it clear you are referencing another source. 
    • Use statements such as "According to X" or "As X indicates." This is known as signal phrasing and there are many more examples online. 
  • Try to understand the material as a whole, and be able to describe it in your own words. You should be able to do this without referring back to the original text. 
    • Be selective. Choose and summarize only material that will help make a point in your paper.
  • Put quotation marks around any unique words or phrases that you cannot or do not want to change.
    • The exception to this is shared language. Some phrases are so specialized or conventional that you can’t paraphrase them. For example, in the nursing profession terms such as critical care, staff nurses, nurse clinician, etc. are shared language and do not need to be paraphrased or placed in quotes. They can be used as is without being considered plagiarism.

From: Writing Center at UW-Madison

Using Quotations:

  • Quote no more material than necessary; if a short phrase from a source will suffice, don’t quote an entire paragraph.
  • When you need to give context to a quote or add wording to it, place added words in brackets ([  ]).
    • Do not use these additions to change the original meaning of the quote.
  • To shorten quotes by removing extra information, use ellipses (…) to indicate omitted text.
  • Follow your recommended citation format for quotations. Quotes are formatted differently in different citation styles. Refer to the guide for the citation style required by your professor.

From: Purdue OWL

Immaculata University Academic Integrity Policy

Why is avoiding plagiarism important?

Taken from Immaculata University's Academic Catalogs:

Plagiarism is failing to acknowledge adequately the source of words or ideas which are not one’s own. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to: 

  1. The quotation or other use of another person’s or A.I.-generated words, ideas, logic, opinions, thoughts, or theories without use of quotation marks and acknowledgment of the source;  
  2. The paraphrasing of another person’s or A.I.-generated words, ideas, logic, opinions, thoughts, or theories without acknowledgment of the source; 
  3. The quotation or other use of facts, statistics, or other data or materials that are not clearly common knowledge without acknowledgment of the source;
  4. Copying or purchasing all or any portion of another’s academic, research, or creative work - even with the creator’s knowledge and permission - and submitting it, in part or in its entirety, as one’s own. This includes material available through the Internet or other electronic sources , including A.I. generated content, and any material that has copyright protection. Students are hereby advised that, when such material has been copyrighted, its unauthorized use constitutes not only a breach of academic integrity but also a violation of law that could lead to civil or criminal penalties. 

The University considers plagiarism by a student to be a serious violation of professional and academic ethics and standards; ignorance of the rules governing plagiarism is not an excuse. When in doubt, students should seek clarification from the instructor who issued the assignment.

A finding of plagiarism may result in the imposition of a serious academic penalty such as, but not limited to, suspension, receipt of a failing grade, non-continuation or expulsion.

Additional Resources