A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018

Guard against inadvertent plagiarism
Drafting your paper
Research and writing

It will be as you draft that you risk making one of the worst mistakes a researcher can make: leading readers to think that you’re trying to pass off the work of another writer as your own. Do that and you risk being accused of plagiarism, a charge that, if sustained, could mean for a professional writer an irreparably damaged reputation, or for a student writer a failing grade or even expulsion.

Students know they cheat when, say, they submit as their own work papers bought online. Most also know they cheat when they pass off as their own long passages copied directly from their sources. For those cases, there’s nothing to say beyond Don’t.

But many inexperienced researchers fail to realize that they risk being charged with plagiarism even if they were not intentionally dishonest but only misinformed or careless. You run that risk when you do any of the following:

✵ ▪ You quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source but fail to cite it.

✵ ▪ You use ideas or methods from a source but fail to cite it.

✵ ▪ You use the exact words of a source and you do cite it, but you fail to put those words in quotation marks or in a block quotation.

✵ ▪ You paraphrase a source and cite it, but paraphrase too closely (see 7.9.2).

7.9.1 Signal Every Quotation, Even When You Cite Its Source

Even if you cite the source, readers must know exactly which words are yours and which you quote. If, however, you borrow only a few words, you enter a gray area. Read this:

Because technology begets more technology, the importance of an invention’s diffusion potentially exceeds the importance of the original invention. Technology’s history exemplifies what is termed an autocatalytic process: that is, one that speeds up at a rate that increases with time, because the process catalyzes itself (Diamond 1998, 301).

If you were writing about Jared Diamond’s ideas, you would probably have to use some of his words, such as the importance of an invention. But you might not put that phrase in quotation marks, because it shows no originality of thought or expression.

Two of his phrases, however, are so striking that they do require quotation marks: technology begets more technology and autocatalytic process. For example:

The power of technology goes beyond individual inventions because “technology begets more technology.” It is, as Diamond puts it, an “autocatalytic process” (301).

Once you cite those words, you can use them again without quotation marks or citation:

As one invention begets another one and that one still another, the process becomes a self-sustaining catalysis that spreads across national boundaries.

This is a gray area: words that seem striking to some are not to others. If you put quotation marks around too many ordinary phrases, readers might think you’re naive, but if you fail to use them when readers think you should, they may suspect you of plagiarism. Since it’s better to seem naive than dishonest, especially early in your career, use quotation marks freely. (You must, however, follow the standard practices of your field. Lawyers, for example, often use the exact language of a statute or judicial opinion with no quotation marks.)

7.9.2 Don’t Paraphrase Too Closely

You paraphrase appropriately when you represent an idea in your own words more clearly or pointedly than the source does. But readers will think that you plagiarize if they can match your words and phrasing with those of your source.

For example, here is a passage from page 38 of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success:

Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.

This too-close paraphrase is plagiarism:

Success seems to depend on a combination of talent and preparation. However, when psychologists closely examine the gifted and their careers, they discover that innate talent plays a much smaller role than preparation (Gladwell 2008, 38).

This paraphrase does not plagiarize:

As Gladwell (2008, 38) observes, summarizing studies on the highly successful, we tend to overestimate the role of talent and underestimate that of preparation.

This phrasing is not a close match to the original. And notice that we chose not to put talent or preparation in quotes. We decided that those words are common enough to use as our own.

To avoid seeming to plagiarize, read the passage, look away, think about it for a moment; then, still looking away, paraphrase it in your own words. Then check whether you can run your finger along your sentence and find synonyms for the same ideas in the same order in your source. If you can, try again.

7.9.3 Usually Cite a Source for Ideas Not Your Own

This rule is more complicated than it seems, because few ideas are entirely new. Readers don’t expect you to cite a source for the idea that the earth is round. But they do expect you to cite a source for an idea when (1) it is associated with a specific person and (2) it is new enough not to be part of a field’s common knowledge. For example, psychologists claim that we think and feel in different parts of our brains. No knowledgeable reader would expect you to cite a source for that idea, because it’s so familiar that no one would think you are implying it is yours. On the other hand, some psychologists argue that emotions are crucial to rational decision-making. That idea is so new and tied to particular researchers that you’d have to cite them.

7.9.4 Don’t Plead Ignorance, Misunderstanding, or Innocent Intentions

To be sure, what looks like plagiarism is often just honest ignorance of how to use and cite sources. Some students sincerely believe that they don’t have to cite material downloaded from the Web because it’s free and publicly available. They are wrong. Others defend themselves by claiming they didn’t intend to mislead. The problem is that we read words, not minds. So think of plagiarism not as an intended act but as a perceived one. Here is the best way to think about this: If the author of the source you borrowed from were to read your paper, would she recognize any of it as hers, including paraphrases and summaries, or even general ideas or methods from her original work? If so, you must cite those borrowings.