Bedford/St. Martin's History Research Room Frame

A Student's Online Guide to History
HOW TO RESEARCH A PAPER: AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

Ways to Avoid Plagiarism
The only thing worse than misquoting from your sources is plagiarizing from them. Plagiarism is easy to fall into. Because of your inexperience with your subject, it will be tempting to use the more sophisticated language of the historians you are reading. In most cases, their expertise will enable them to make their point clearly, and it is easy to get into the habit of using their words instead of your own. Don,t fall into this trap. First of all, your instructor is also a historian and can tell the difference between the language of someone who has spent years researching a topic and that of the average history student. Second, and more important, is that thinking is learning. If you substitute the simple task of copying for the more difficult but rewarding one of thinking about something and then putting it into your own words, then you are doing yourself a disservice. Finally, plagiarism is dishonest and is considered a very serious violation of college rules. The penalty can be severe, sometimes leading to suspension.

When taking notes, never copy the author,s words unless you intend to quote them in your paper. In that case, be sure to put very clear quotation marks on your note card at the beginning and end of each word-for-word passage. In all other instances, summarize the author,s ideas and information in your own words.

Proper names, dates, statistics, and other very specific facts need to be recorded just as they appear in the material you are using. Even here, you must be careful. If the source says: "George Washington, a great patriot, a great general and our greatest president, was born in 1732," you can put the date of his birth in your paper without quotation, but you cannot say he was "a great patriot, a great general and our greatest president" or anything very close to this without plagiarizing.

There will always be some resemblance between the points that you make in your paper and those that were in your research sources. This is even necessary if you are to correctly interpret your sources. However, all the words in your paper (except for quoted material) must be your own.

The Art of Paraphrasing
To help you avoid plagiarism, here is a passage from J. Joseph Hutchmaker and Warren I. Sussman, eds., Wilson,s Diplomacy: An International Symposium (Cambridge, Mass.: Schenckman, 1973), p. 13, followed by two paraphrasings. Paraphrase A constitutes plagiarism, but B does not. The subject is the diplomacy of Woodrow Wilson. Here is the original text:

Wilson took personal responsibility for the conduct of the important diplomacy of the United States chiefly because he believed that it was wise, right, and necessary for him to do so. Believing as he did that the people had temporarily vested their sovereignty in foreign affairs in him, he could not delegate responsibility in this field to any individual. His scholarly training and self-disciplined habits of work made him so much more efficient than his advisors that he must have thought that the most economical way of doing important diplomatic business was for him to do it himself. Experience in dealing with subordinates who sometimes tried to defeat his purposes also led him to conclude that it was the safest method, for he, and not his subordinates, bore the responsibility to the American people and to history for the consequences of his policies.

Paraphrase a: Wilson took personal responsibility for conducting diplomacy because he believed it was right for him to do so. Believing that the people had vested their sovereignty in foreign affairs in him, he couldn,t delegate this responsibility. His scholarly training and self-discipline made him more efficient than his advisers. He thought that the most economical way of doing important business was to do it himself. Experience in dealing with subordinates who sometimes tried to defeat his purposes led him to conclude that it was the safest method because he bore responsibility to the American people for the consequences.

Paraphrase b: Wilson felt personally responsible for major diplomacy because he believed that the voters had entrusted him with such matters. He was more capable than his advisers in this area. He, and not his advisors, was responsible to the people.

Paraphrase A is too close to the original. Rather than recording the main points of the passage, it repeats many phrases word for word. Not only is it time consuming to take such lengthy notes, but the identical and almost identical phrases, if used as your own, would constitute plagiarism. Paraphrase B records only the principal point of the passage~that Wilson decided major foreign policy issues on his own because he felt personally responsible to the people in such matters. It does not copy the phraseology of the original. In this way, you save time, protect yourself from the danger of plagiarism, and still are able to use the central idea of the passage. Paraphrasing that reduces your readings to their essential points and uses your own words is not easy at first. But mastering this technique will prevent plagiarism and produce a finished paper that is truly yours.