Test your undertanding of plagiarism by taking a quick quiz! The link below will take you to a Google Form where you can enter your response and view explanations of the correct answers. 

Avoiding Plagiarism Quiz

Research guide: Getting Started with your Research at the Libraries

Research guide: Citation and Writing Guide

University Writing Center

Center for Tutoring and Academic Excellence

Citation Management Tools

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Research and Citation Resources

Online Paraphrase Self-Test

Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty that can have serious consequences. However, plagiarism is something that you can avoid if you understand what it is, why it matters, and how you can use a variety of strategies to prevent plagiarism from happening. 

Plagiarism defined

• Plagiarism involves representing any material that you obtained from another source as your own work. 
• Plagiarism can also occur when you fail to acknowledge the source of any material, including text, ideas, structure, visuals, and other expressions and media.
• Plagiarism can occur intentionally and unintentionally. 

In fact, many instances of plagiarism occur unintentionally. Intentional or not, any form of plagiarism is a serious offence. The following are some habits and practices that can lead to inadvertent plagiarism. 

Learn tips and tricks for staying organizing and taking good notes at the Organizing and Using Sources section of the Getting Started with Research at the Libraries guide. 

Habits that can lead to plagiarism

• Procrastination 
• Failing to keep track of citation information  
• Taking notes by copying directly from a text 

 If you are writing and researching at the last minute, you are more likely to make errors that can lead to plagiarism.  You are also more likely to have a citation error or fail to cite a source if you don't take good notes and keep your source information organized and available. 

Why does plagiarism matter? 

• Individual integrity - Committing plagiarism can negatively impact your future academic and professional career. 
• Institutional integrity - Plagiarism scandals can damage the reputation of your school and lessen the value of your degree. 

Self-plagiarism defined

• Self-plagiarism occurs when an author does not let their readers know that they are using a previously published work. 
• Self-plagiarism can occur when you submit multiple copies of the same paper, or portions of the same paper. 

Why does self-plagiarism matter?

Say you submit a paper for a class and receive a good grade. Next semester you submit that same paper again for a different class and receive another grade. You just received two grades, but you only did the work once. Self-plagiarism is essentially a form of dishonesty. 

Why use sources?

• Sources help you build your arguments. 
• Sources help you verify your claims. 
• Sources show that you are aware of the work of others in the field.

Research is a conversation among people in a given academic field. Sources are a way for your to participate in a research conversation since you are acknowledging and responding to the work of others in the field. 

Want to learn more about research and the research process? Check out the Getting Started with Research at the Libraries guide. 

Tips for paraphrasing 

• Take good notes - You won't be able to paraphrase effectively if you don't fully understand the material
• Keep track of your citation information - This will help you prevent unintentional plagiarism
• Use key words in your notes - Key words can help you recall how you want to use the text in your paper and what the key points are in the text. Since you'll often read material well before you start writing your paper, you'll want to leave a yourself a trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak, to help you recall main points and key ideas that you had. 
• Check your paraphrase against the original - Make sure your paraphrase doesn't copy the original text's structure or rely too heavily on synonyms.  You can use this online resource to check on how successful your paraphrase is: Paraphrase Self-Test