A graduate student is in the midst of writing her dissertation. Throughout her graduate studies and while developing her dissertation proposal, she has read and consulted many texts and articles, and has taken copious notes. In preparing to use these notes in writing her dissertation, the student discovers that her note-taking over the years has been sloppy and disorganizedUsing information taken from the work of others that is recorded in a sloppy and disorganized fashion, especially when it has been compiled over a number of years, is dangerous in that it might lead to accidental plagiarism. Accidental plagiarism is the accidental use of someone else’s work without attribution, usually through a failure to cite the source completely and accurately.
. Her notes contain substantial paragraphs of text that contain important concepts and ideas placed in quotation marks but with no sources indicatedPlagiarism, whether intentional or accidental, is misrepresenting the work of others as your own. To guard against plagiarism, the student should find the sources of the quoted text that she has recorded in her notes before using any of the quoted text in her dissertation. If she uses the work of others (denoted by the quotation marks in her notes), either paraphrased or verbatim, without citing the source, then she is plagiarizing. When she was recording the work of others the student should have clearly identified in her notes that she was using someone else’s words verbatim by using quotation marks, or that she was paraphrasing, and she should have clearly recorded the source next to the quoted or paraphrased words in her notes to facilitate accurate citation at a later time.
. Throughout her notes she also finds short unique phrases conveying important concepts that she knows intuitively were not her own. Some of these phrases have a name written by them while others have what seems to be a book or article title, accompanied by what she assumes to be page numbersPlagiarism, whether intentional or accidental, is misrepresenting the work of others as your own. To guard against plagiarism, the student should find the sources of the unique phrases that she has recorded in her notes before using any of them in her dissertation. If she uses the work of others, either paraphrased or directly, without citing the source, then she is plagiarizing. When she was recording the work of others, the student should have clearly identified in her notes that she was using someone else’s words verbatim by using quotation marks, or that she was paraphrasing, and she should have clearly recorded the source next to the quoted or paraphrased words in her notes to facilitate accurate citation at a later time.
.As the student continues to consult her notes during the writing process, the student becomes more frustrated. Some of the information in her notes is extremely important for her dissertation but she is aware that she needs to cite the sources if she uses quotation marksIf the student uses the work of another person verbatim, she needs to enclose the cited material in quotation marks to denote that it is the work of another person and cite the source.
. Knowing that she used some of the material in her dissertation proposal two years earlier, she reviews the proposal and finds that she included some of the quoted material from her notes but paraphrased it and did not use quotation marks or cite the sourceThe student did not have to use quotation marks because she paraphrased the material (put into her own words someone else’s idea). However, as she used someone else’s idea, even though paraphrased, she was required to cite the source. By not doing so, the student could be accused of plagiarism; that is, she was representing the work of someone else as her own by failing to cite the source completely and accurately.
. With the knowledge that she has already used the material in her proposal and that none of her committee members raised any issues about it, the student reasons that there is no harm in doing the same in her dissertationUse of someone else’s work without appropriate credit in her proposal does not legitimize its use in her dissertation. The student is plagiarizing in both cases.
. She further reasons that if she paraphrases the quoted material, it will not be a direct quotation and therefore she does not need to use quotation marks or cite the sourceParaphrasing is putting into your own words someone else’s idea or words. If the student paraphrases the quoted material from her notes, she does not need to use quotation marks as she is paraphrasing. However, whether it is a direct quote or paraphrased, she must cite the source as the idea belongs to someone else and that person needs to be given credit. If the student does not cite the source when using someone else’s ideas or words, either verbatim or paraphrased, then she is plagiarizing.
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