plagiarism • formal prose • active voice • quotations • citation

Plagiarism

In writing history, just about the worst possible thing you can do is plagiarize from another source. The Drexel student handbook explains how you will be hung up by your toes, plastered with foul-smelling leftover hotdish from the cafeteria, and scorched by the dragon if you are guilty of plagiarism. And then you get kicked out of school. You want to understand what plagiarism is in order to avoid it. If you aren't sure, ask your professor to help you understand. The Drexel handbook does indeed give you an official explanation of plagiarism (and, okay, the more official sanctions), but, in a nutshell, plagiarism means using another person's ideas or words without properly acknowledging the source. What does that mean in a history paper?

• If you use a source and don't include it in a note and your paper's bibliography, that is plagiarism. Even if you paraphrase (that is, use your own words to describe ideas or information from another source), you need to provide a note and a listing in your bibliography. In a research paper, a good rule of thumb is one note per paragraph, but you may need more in a paragraph if you draw information for different sentences in your paragraph from different sources. As a beginner, err on the side of caution—it's better to have too many notes than not enough. Your professor will tell you which form of note and bibliographic citation to use; if not, a good default is the Chicago Manual of Style (see citation).

• If you use words verbatim ("verbatim" means "word for word") without the quotation marks that indicate you're using someone else's words, that is plagiarism. Don't do this. Be careful about sloppy paraphrases, too, in which you change some words but not enough of them.

Do's and Don'ts

Here are some examples of do's and don'ts with a simple style of citation.

If this is the original text:

"The larger rivers, especially the Mississippi and Ohio, became increasingly important as steamboats replaced the slow barges that had previously dominated water traffic. The new riverboats carried the corn and wheat of northwestern farmers and the cotton and tobacco of southwestern planters to New Orleans. From New Orleans, oceangoing ships took the cargoes on to eastern ports." Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation, 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 270.

Then,

1. Direct Quotations.

If you want to use a direct quotation, don't get carried away. Keep it short, use quotation marks, and give a citation. "From New Orleans, oceangoing ships took the cargoes on to eastern ports" (Brinkley, 270).

2. Paraphrase.

If you paraphrase, be careful not to use words and sentence structures similar to the original.

BAD: Larger rivers like the Mississippi and Ohio grew in significance as slow barges were replaced by the steamboats (Brinkley, 270).

BETTER: Americans used steamboats, a new form of transportation, to ship goods on the western rivers (Brinkley, 270).

Have a system. Plagiarism is not always intentional, and you have to develop your own note-taking system while conducting research to safeguard against plagiarizing unintentionally. For example, when you're taking notes, make sure you know later on whether those words are your words or the words of the source from which you made the notes. Don't rely on your memory. You might want to make xeroxes or scans of your research materials, or quote your source verbatim inside quotation marks in your notes, or write your notes in a plagiarism-free way that you could insert directly into your paper. Whatever works for you. This is a very easy mistake to make, and otherwise reliable and famous historians have been guilty of it.