13.1 What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is when you use words, thoughts, or ideas that belong to someone else without giving them credit. In both the classroom and in the professional world of publishing, documenting your information sources is the only way you can convey to others how thorough and careful you have been in researching your topic. Moreover, if you do not tell readers where your information came from, they may think (and many do) that you either made up the information or “stole” it. Plagiarism can hurt you academically or have legal implications, so it is best to understand and avoid it.

When to Cite

Documenting your sources entails providing information on the author of the referenced materials and the publication in which they appear. This practice is also known as citing a source. The specific requirements for citing a source vary across different citation styles. In certain styles, such as American Psychological Association (APA), you must include the date of publication somewhere in the body of text.

As a rule, cite whenever you use something (text, data, idea, or image) in whole or in part from another source. Specifically, you must cite your source when you do the following:

• Copy a sentence or paragraph verbatim (literally, word-for-word) from a book, article, website, blog posting, or anywhere online or in print.
• Use an exact phrase or choice of words from a sentence or paragraph, even if you are not copying the whole sentence or paragraph.
• Use original information that you have obtained from an interview or conversation with someone.
• Paraphrase or reword a sentence or phrase from an outside source or use the ideas inherent in the exact sentence or phrase.
• Reprint images, maps, diagrams, charts, or tables.
• Embed video files or audio files into your work.

When Not to Cite

You do not need to provide citations for common turns of phrase or idioms, such as “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” In addition, you do not need to cite statements that are common knowledge such as the earth is round, or there are 365 days in a year. However, “common knowledge” can be contextual in nature, therefore, when in doubt, it is better to “over”- cite than “under”- cite. Unnecessary citations can be easily removed, and their presence has little overall impact; however, information that lacks proper documentation is much harder to correct and may reduce the credibility of the source.

This section is adapted from Plagiarism in Howdy or Hello? Technical and Professional Communication Copyright © 2022 by Matt McKinney, Kalani Pattison, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Anders, and Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.