Top Six Plagiarism Tips

• Pay attention to the mechanics for quoting and citation. Quotes belong in quotation marks (" ") or indented, and both quotes and paraphrases require citations. Consult APA, MLA or another style guide for correct formats for textual citations and works cited/bibliographies.



• A paraphrase may include a quote, but that quote must be in quotation marks.
  For more on paraphrasing, click here.



• Slow down. Reading slowly and carefully is the ideal approach for all of your texts, but it is especially important for the sections of text you are going to quote from; you should already know at least your general feelings and ideas about the text you are quoting before you transcribe it. To do this, you need to read and consider the quote carefully.



• All sources are to be given credit. The reputation, history, affiliation, format or location of your source is usually immaterial when it comes to the obligation to cite. Webpages, books, journal articles, government records, pamphlets, movie scripts, artwork - they all need citation, even if the original is going to be hard for other people to find. The only chance your readers have of finding the sources you use is if you provide the most complete citations you can.



• When in doubt, cite!
  
  
  • If something you have written sounds familiar, go back to your sources and hunt for anything that might have been the source of your inspiration. Similarly, if you make a claim that is not common knowledge, a review of your sources is in order.
  
  
  
  • You may not be able to find anything that you paraphrased unintentionally; however, if you still feel like the general thrust of your argument is similar to arguments made by another author, you can indicate this casually, i.e. "In keeping with analyses made by such authors as ______, … " and so forth. Attribution and references of this sort, while not ideal, are close cousins to citation and are preferable to no acknowledgement at all.
  
  
  
• Re-consult your sources during the writing process. Similar to the preceding tip, this advice is meant to keep you from accidentally reproducing someone else's argument that you've recently read. Address your sources consciously rather than unconsciously.