This paper examines the nature of plagiarism and self-plagiarism in academic writing, offering practical guidance for recognizing and correcting both. It defines plagiarism, walks through a concrete example of a plagiarized passage, and demonstrates how proper paraphrasing and APA citation can transform that passage into ethically sound writing. The paper also addresses self-plagiarism — the reuse of one's own previously published or submitted work without disclosure — and explains why it constitutes academic dishonesty. Together, these discussions equip student writers with the tools needed to maintain integrity in their academic work.
Plagiarism can be defined as "copying another's work or borrowing someone else's original ideas" without properly citing or crediting the source from which the information was drawn (What is Plagiarism?, n.d.). There are, however, concrete steps a writer can take to prevent plagiarism and ensure that he or she is not accused of academic or intellectual dishonesty.
In order to prevent plagiarism, one must first be able to recognize and detect plagiarized material. The passage below is demonstrative of plagiarized work and does not properly cite the source material it references.
Consumers must trust that the research that has gone into the manufacture of new drugs is safe. But it is hard to know if a conflict of interest between doctors, researchers, and drug company stockholders has tainted the results. Biomedical researchers incorporate strict rules of science into their work, which is examined by peers. Yet the resulting information can be warped for five reasons: ending a study too soon, not publishing negative results, publishing results too early, skimming over or ignoring drawbacks, and "buffing" the results by showing them in the best light (Crossen, 1994, p. 167).
With the exception of the last sentence — the only one that cites the original source — the entire passage has been plagiarized. The first two sentences should be combined into a single sentence, as should the third and fourth. Plagiarism in this section is detectable through the sentence structure and word choice of the writer. The writer did not paraphrase or introduce new ideas, but merely reworded the original source without giving it proper credit. In other cases, plagiarism can be detected when a writer neglects to cite the work from which they sourced their claims or information.
In order to reduce or eliminate plagiarism, the sentences above could be rewritten and cited as follows:
In Tainted: The Manipulation of Fact in America, Crossen (1994) posits that it is difficult to determine whether a conflict of interest between doctors, researchers, and drug company stockholders contributes to tainted results and raises concerns about the validity of research used to assess the safety of newly manufactured drugs (p. 167). Crossen (1994) continues, "No study is perfect, and problems arise in the labs of even the most conscientious and honest researchers," and that despite "rigorous scientific rules" and peer reviews, information and data can "nevertheless be warped" (p. 167). The resulting information can be warped for five reasons: ending a study too soon, not publishing negative results, publishing results too early, skimming over or ignoring drawbacks, and "buffing" the results by showing them in the best light (Crossen, 1994, p. 167).
In order to eliminate plagiarism in original essays and documents, the writer must make sure to cite the original source by giving credit to the author whose ideas are being referenced whenever paraphrasing. If a writer restates an original source verbatim, they must use quotation marks — or proper block formatting — followed by the source information.
In APA style, sources are cited by author name (if none is given, the source is referenced by title), followed by the year of publication (if none is given, n.d. is used), and finally the page number, if one is available. The formatting should appear as follows: (Author, year, p. #).
"Reusing your own work as academic dishonesty"
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