10/5/2015 AvoidingPlagiarism:QuotingandParaphrasing

http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_plagiarism.html 1/2

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HowtoavoidplagiarismShouldIparaphraseorquote?HowtoparaphraseasourceSuccessfulvs.unsuccessfulparaphrasesHowtoquoteasourceAdditionalresources

Thesematerialswillhelpyouavoidplagiarismbyteachingyouhowtoproperlyintegrateinformationfrompublishedsourcesintoyourownwriting.

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How to avoid plagiarism

When using sources in your papers, you can avoidplagiarism by knowing what must be documented.

SpecificwordsandphrasesIfyouuseanauthor'sspecificwordorwords,youmustplacethosewordswithinquotationmarksandyoumustcreditthesource.

InformationandIdeasEvenifyouuseyourownwords,ifyouobtainedtheinformationorideasyouarepresentingfromasource,youmustdocumentthesource.

Information:Ifapieceofinformationisn'tcommonknowledge(seebelow),youneedtoprovideasource.

Ideas:Anauthor'sideasmayincludenotonlypointsmadeandconclusionsdrawn,but,forinstance,aspecificmethodortheory,thearrangementofmaterial,oralistofstepsinaprocessorcharacteristicsofamedicalcondition.Ifasourceprovidedanyofthese,youneedtoacknowledgethesource.

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CommonKnowledge?Youdonotneedtociteasourceformaterialconsideredcommonknowledge:

Generalcommonknowledgeisfactualinformationconsideredtobeinthepublicdomain,suchasbirthanddeathdatesofwellknownfigures,andgenerallyaccepteddatesofmilitary,political,literary,andotherhistoricalevents.Ingeneral,factualinformationcontainedinmultiplestandardreferenceworkscanusuallybeconsideredtobeinthepublicdomain.

Fieldspecificcommonknowledgeis"common"onlywithinaparticularfieldorspecialty.Itmayincludefacts,theories,ormethodsthatarefamiliartoreaderswithinthatdiscipline.Forinstance,youmaynotneedtociteareferencetoPiaget'sdevelopmentalstagesinapaperforaneducationclassorgiveasourceforyourdescriptionofacommonlyusedmethodinabiologyreportbutyoumustbesurethatthisinformationissowidelyknownwithinthatfieldthatitwillbesharedbyyourreaders.

Ifindoubt,becautiousandcitethesource.Andinthecaseofbothgeneralandfieldspecificcommonknowledge,ifyouusetheexactwordsofthereferencesource,youmustusequotationmarksandcreditthesource.

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10/5/2015 AvoidingPlagiarism:QuotingandParaphrasing

http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_plagiarism.html 2/2

Lastupdated:August29,2014

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